Live + 7 Ratings: ABC's "S.H.I.E.L.D." Emerges as Tuesday's #1 Broadcast Series in Adults 18-49, Beating NBC's "The Voice"

Live + 7 Day ratings for the week of 12/8/14 (Week #12):

ABC claimed 4 of the week's Top 10 biggest broadcast gainers in TV playback among Adults 18-49: Modern Family (+2.3 rating points) - #2, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+1.3) - #5, black-ish (+1.2) and Once Upon a Time (+1.2) tied for #6. Among Adults 18-49, ABC had the #1 biggest gainer on Wednesday (Modern Family) and Sunday (Once Upon a Time) and the #1 broadcast gainer on Tuesday (S.H.I.E.L.D.).

The Winter finale of ABC's Once Upon a Time (+71%) and Cristela (+38%) both delivered their largest-ever playback lifts among Adults 18-49, while Shark Tank (+47%) matched a series high in TV playback. In addition, The Goldbergs (+1.0 rating points) tied its biggest lift of the season in the young adult demo.

In the final Live + 7 Day ratings, ABC's Modern Family (5.4 rating) and black-ish (3.5) each moved up two spots to rank as the #3 and #7 highest-rated broadcast programs of the week among Adults 18-49, while The Goldbergs (3.2 - #9) shot up to the Top 10.

· Growing to a 3.0 rating in L+7, ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. emerged as Tuesday's #1 broadcast series among Adults 18-49, topping NBC's The Voice by 2-tenths of a rating point. In the L+SD ratings, S.H.I.E.L.D. trailed the NBC unscripted show by 6-tenths of a rating point among young adults.

· In Monday's 10pm hour, ABC's Castle moved ahead NBC's State of Affairs for the 2nd straight week in the L+7 Adult 18-49 ratings to lead by 4% (2.4 rating vs. 2.3 rating). In the L+SD numbers, Castle was 1-tenth of a rating point behind the new NBC drama.

Season-to-Date TV Playback (9/22/14-12/14/14):

Based on L+7 ratings through 12 weeks of the 2014-15 season, ABC is #1 in Nielsen's non-sports Adult 18-49 averages (2.6 rating), leading CBS (+8% - 2.4), NBC (+13% - 2.3) and Fox (+37% - 1.9). ABC grows by +0.8 rating points over its Live + Same Day Adult 18-49 rating (1.8 rating in L+SD to a 2.6 in L+7) in the non-sports averages, making the Net the #1 biggest actual gainer in TV playback this season. Growing to a 2.6 L+7 rating among Adults 18-49 in the non-sports numbers, ABC is even year to year (2.6 for 9/23/13-12/15/13), while CBS (-11%), NBC (-15%) and Fox (-17%) are each declining by double digits.

Based on TV playback data for the 2014-15 season, ABC's How to Get Away with Murder (+2.2 rating points) and Modern Family (+2.2) share the #2 spot among broadcast gainers in Adults 18-49.

ABC's HTGAWM is the season's biggest gainer for any freshman series among Adults 18-49 (+2.2 rating points), topping the L+7 gain of runner-up Fox's Gotham (+1.8). In fact, the L+7 lift for HTGAWM is outdelivering the lift of last season's top freshman gainer through the same point last season, NBC's The Blacklist (+2.1).

HTGAWM is the season's #1 broadcast drama and #1 new TV show in the young adult demo (5.2 rating).

Among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 ratings, ABC has the #1 show on Wednesday with Modern Family (5.6 rating), the Top 3 dramas on Thursday with HTGAWM (5.2), Scandal (4.8) and Grey's Anatomy (4.0) and the #1 show on Friday with Shark Tank (2.5).

Several ABC's returning series are seeing bigger percentage gains among Adults 18-49 from L+SD to L+7 this year than last: Castle (+65% vs. +57%), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+76% vs. +64%), The Middle (+30% vs. +27%), Modern Family (+65% vs. +50%), Revenge (+83% vs. +59%), Scandal (+50% vs. +48%) and Shark Tank (+39% vs. +37%).

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.