ABC Posts Strong Year-Over-Year Gains on Friday Night

Driven by Shark Tank, A Special Edition of 20/20 and 20/20 in its regular 10pm hour, ABC ran in a virtual tie for first place on Friday in Adults 18-49 (pacing within 1-tenth of a rating point of the lead and tied in audience share).

· The Network surged over the year-ago Friday by 1.5 million viewers and by 36% in Adults 18-49.

At 8pm, ABC's Shark Tank dominated its hour in Adults 18-49, beating out NBC's Mockingbird Lane by 20% and Fox's season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares by 100%, to lead the pack for the 7th consecutive week.

· Coming off of last week's series highs, ABC's Shark Tank turned in its 2nd biggest audience ever and tied its 2nd highest Adult 18-49 number for a regular telecast.

From 9-10pm, A Special Edition of 20/20: All Access Nashville with Katie Couric finished #2 among the major nets in Adults 18-49, tying CBS' CSI:NY and beating Fox's Fringe by 55%.

· The ABC newsmagazine special improved its hour year to year by wide margins, up over the same night last year by 1.3 million viewers, by 27% in Adults 18-49 and by 27% in Adults 25-54.

Building on its lead-in at 10pm, ABC's 20/20 outdrew NBC's Dateline by 1.3 million viewers during the hour. Anchored by Elizabeth Vargas, 20/20 featured stories about people and animals with the "sixth sense."

· 20/20 generated its biggest audience in 6 weeks, while equaling 6-week highs with Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 - since 9/14/12.

· Continuing to pace well ahead of the same point last year, ABC's 20/20 grew over its year-ago telecast by double-digit percentages in Total Viewers (+12%), Adults 18-49 (+17%) and Adults 25-54 (+18%).