L+7 Ratings: ABC's Forever Spikes 82% and HTGAWM Soars 79% to Score their Biggest-Ever Percentage Gains in TV Playback

Live + 7 Day ratings for the week of 10/13/14 (Week #4):

During the fourth week of the season, ABC once again ranked #1 in Nielsen's non-sports Adult 18-49 averages (2.7 rating), beating NBC by 13% (2.4), CBS by 13% (2.4) and Fox by 50% (1.8). Gaining +0.9 rating points over its Live + Same Day Adult 18-49 rating (1.8 rating in L+SD to a 2.7 in L+7) in the non-sports averages, ABC has qualified as the #1 biggest actual gainer in TV playback in Adults 18-49 in all 4 weeks of the new season. Growing to a 2.7 L+7 rating among Adults 18-49 in the non-sports numbers, ABC held steady with the year-ago week (2.7 on w/o 10/14/13), while CBS (-11%), NBC (-17%) and Fox (-10%) all posted declines.

Based on all programming, ABC moved out of a tie with CBS in the L+SD ratings to lead by 7% in the L+7 numbers (2.9 rating vs. 2.7 rating) and narrowed the gap with NBC (3.1) to just 0.2 rating points in Adults 18-49. In the first reported L+SD ratings, ABC trailed NBC by 5-tenths of a rating point.

ABC claimed 2 of the week's Top 3 biggest gainers in TV playback on the broadcast networks in Adults 18-49, with How to Get Away with Murder (+2.2 rating points) - #1 and Modern Family (+1.9) - #3. With HTGAWM and Modern Family, the Net had 6 of the Top 10 broadcast gainers among young adults (the most for the 4th week in a row): Scandal (+1.6), Grey's Anatomy (+1.6), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+1.3) and Once Upon a Time (+1.2). On a percentage basis, Forever (+82%), HTGAWM (+79%) and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+76%) all ranked in the Top 5 with Adults 18-49 among the broadcast networks.

Both Forever (+82%) and HTGAWM (+79%) delivered their biggest-ever playback gains, while Castle (+58%), Grey's Anatomy (+67%) and Resurrection (+50%) all matched their largest percentage lifts this season among Adults 18-49.

In the final Live + 7 Day ratings for the week, ABC's Modern Family (5.3 rating) - #4 (from #9), HTGAWM (5.0) - #6 (from #12) and Scandal (4.5) - #9 (from #11) shot up to the week's Top 10 highest-rated broadcast shows in Adults 18-49, with HTGAWM emerging as the #1 broadcast drama outright, beating runner-up NBC's The Blacklist by 9% (4.6).

· ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. grew to a 3.0 rating among Adults 18-49 in L+7 to tie CBS' NCIS: New Orleans as the #1 show in the Tuesday 9pm hour. In the L+SD ratings, S.H.I.E.L.D. trailed the new CBS drama by 5-tenths of a rating point among young adults, finishing #3 in the hour.

Season-to-Date TV Playback (9/22/14-10/19/14):

Based on TV playback data for the first 4 weeks of the 2014-15 season, ABC claims 2 of the Top 3 biggest broadcast gainers among Adults 18-49: How to Get Away with Murder (+2.3 rating points) and Modern Family (+2.1).

ABC's HTGAWM is the season's biggest gainer for any freshman series among Adults 18-49 (+2.3 rating points), topping the L+7 gain of Fox's Gotham (+2.0). The ABC show is the season's #1 broadcast drama and #1 new TV show in the young adult demo (5.5 rating), leading runner-up NBC's The Blacklist by 12% (4.9). HTGAWM runs neck-and-neck with CBS' NFL Football as Thursday's #1 TV show this season with Adults 18-49 (pacing within 2-tenths of a rating point - 5.5 vs. 5.7). In fact, the new ABC drama is Thursday's most-watched TV show overall, outdrawing CBS' football game by 1.3 million viewers (17.6 million vs. 16.3 million).

Among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 ratings, ABC has the #1 show on Wednesday with Modern Family (5.7 rating), the Top 3 series on Thursday with HTGAWM (5.5), Scandal (4.9) and Grey's Anatomy (4.2) and the #1 show on Friday with Shark Tank (2.5).

Nearly all of ABC's returning series are seeing bigger percentage gains among Adults 18-49 from L+SD to L+7 this year than last: DWTS (+21% vs. +19%), Grey's Anatomy (+62% vs. +58%), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+82% vs. +62%), The Middle (+35% vs. +22%), Modern Family (+58% vs. +46%), Revenge (+62% vs. +53%) and Scandal (+48% vs. 45%).

Source: The Nielsen Company, as dated. Based on regular, original telecasts only. Season-to-Date DVR playback ranker includes programs with 2 or more telecasts.