L+7 Ratings: ABC's Wednesday Comedies Post Solid Playback Gains / Grey's Moves Ahead of Fox's Idol to Dominate by 27%

Live + 7 Day ratings for the week of 2/9/15 (Week #21):

Please note: ABC's regular Sunday line-up is on hiatus until Sunday, March 1.

ABC had 5 of the week's Top 10 biggest broadcast gainers in TV playback among Adults 18-49 (with CBS, NBC and Fox having just two apiece), including the #1 biggest broadcast gainer of the week: Modern Family (+2.2 rating points) - #1, How to Get Away with Murder (+1.8) - #3, Scandal (+1.6) - #5, Grey's Anatomy (+1.5) - #6 and black-ish (+1.2) - #8.

Growing +0.8 rating points over its L+SD number to a 2.9 in Adults 18-49, ABC's The Middle matched a season high L+7 rating for the 2nd week in a row. Meanwhile, The Goldbergs delivered its biggest-ever playback lift this week in Adults 18-49 and Total Viewers, with a +1.1 rating point and +2.376 viewer gain from L+SD to L+7. In addition, Modern Family grew to a 5.5 L+7 rating in Adults 18-49, up over the prior week (+2%) to its highest-rated L+7 telecast since mid-November (since 11/19/14). In the L+SD numbers, Modern Family was down 1-tenth of a rating from the previous week. Lastly, black-ish scored its largest-ever percentage lift, growing +57% after 7 days of TV playback (to finish with a 3.3 rating in L+7).

Head to head in Thursday's 8pm hour, ABC's Grey's Anatomy moved out of a tie with Fox's American Idol in the L+SD numbers to dominate by 27% among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 ratings (3.8 rating vs. 3.0 rating). With a dominant Grey's (and Scandal and HTGAWM), ABC decisively claimed the Top 3 programs on Thursday night among young adults.

In the final Live + 7 Day ratings, ABC had 5 of the week's Top 10 highest-rated broadcast programs in Adults 18-49, including the #1 sitcom: Modern Family (5.5 rating) - #2, Scandal (4.7) - #3, How to Get Away with Murder (4.5) - #4, Grey's Anatomy (3.8) - #6 and The Bachelor (3.4) - #10.

Season-to-Date TV Playback (9/22/14-2/15/15):

Based on L+7 ratings through 21 weeks of the 2014-15 season, ABC grows to a 2.2 rating among Adults 18-49 in Nielsen's non-sports Adult 18-49 averages, up year to year by 5% (2.1 for 9/23/13-2/16/14), while CBS (-4%), NBC (-13%) and Fox (-10%) are each declining.

Based on TV playback data for the 2014-15 season, ABC's How to Get Away with Murder (+2.1 rating points) and Modern Family (+2.1) 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 (+2.1 rating points), topping the L+7 gains of runner-up Fox's Empire (+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 (+2.0).

Among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 ratings, ABC has the #1 drama on Thursday with HTGAWM (5.1 rating), the #1 show on Friday with Shark Tank (2.6) and the #1 broadcast series on Sunday with Once Upon a Time (3.7).

Several ABC's returning series are seeing bigger percentage gains among Adults 18-49 from L+SD to L+7 this year than last: The Bachelor (+26% vs. +24%), Castle (+69% vs. +65%), Last Man Standing (+46% vs. +36%), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+76% vs. +59%), The Middle (+35% vs. +23%), Modern Family (+62% vs. +54%), Nashville (+71% vs. +69%), Revenge (+91% vs. +63%), Scandal (+50% vs. +48%) and Shark Tank (+37% vs. +30%).

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.