L+7 Ratings: ABC's HTGAWM Earns its First-Ever Triple-Digit Lift and Biggest-Ever Playback Increase

Live + 7 Day ratings for the week of 2/8/16 (Week #21):

Powered by the return of its TGIT dramas, ABC claimed 4 of the week's Top 10 playback gainers on the broadcast networks (the most for any network) among Adults 18-49, including 2 of the Top 3: Modern Family (+1.9 rating points) - #2, How to Get Away With Murder (+1.8) - #3, Scandal (+1.5) - #5 and Grey's Anatomy (+1.3) - #9.

With the return of its TGIT drama lineup for the first time in nearly 3 months, ABC emerged as Thursday's #1 network among Adults 18-49 (3.7 rating) in the L+7 numbers, moving out of a tie with Fox in L+SD to dominate by 37% (2.7 rating from 8-10p) in L+7, while also increasing its lead over CBS (2.8 rating) to 32% versus 11% in L+SD.

At 10pm, ABC's HTGAWM scored its first-ever triple-digit increase and its biggest-ever playback lift, soaring +100% over its L+SD Adult 18-49 rating. Growing to a 3.6 rating after 7 days of TV playback, the mid-season premiere of HTGAWM came within 3-tenths of a rating point of its winter finale (after trailing by 5-tenths in LSD). In the final L+7 ratings, the ABC drama shot up to the week's Top 5 highest-rated broadcast shows in Adults 18-49 (3.6 rating), ranking #5 versus #15 in the initial L+SD numbers.

In the 9 o'clock hour, ABC's Scandal moved out of a tie with Fox's American Idol in L+SD to win the hour outright by 24% over its closest competitor in L+7 (3.6 rating vs. 2.9 rating for NBC's The Blacklist).

Season-to-Date TV Playback (9/21/15-2/14/16):

Based on TV playback data through 21 weeks of the 2015-16 season, ABC claims 5 of the Top 10 biggest broadcast gainers among Adults 18-49, tying CBS (1), NBC (2) and Fox (2) combined: Modern Family (+2.0 rating points) - #3, How to Get Away with Murder (+1.7) - #6, Scandal (+1.6) - #7, while Quantico and Grey's Anatomy (+1.5) tie for #8.

Quantico is the season's biggest playback gainer on the broadcast networks on a percentage basis, soaring +86% in Total Viewers (5.1 million to 9.5 million) and +100% (tie) in Adults 18-49 (1.5 rating to 3.0 rating) over its L+SD numbers. In fact, ABC has the #1 broadcast gainer among young adults on Monday with Castle (+82%) and Sunday with Quantico (+100%) and the Top 2 on Wednesday with Nashville (+82%) and Modern Family (+74%).

Among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 ratings, ABC has the top comedies on Tuesday with The Muppets (2.1 rating) and Fresh Off the Boat (2.1) tying for #1, 3 of the Top 5 highest-rated broadcast shows on Wednesday with Modern Family (4.7), The Goldbergs (3.1) and black-ish (3.0), the Top 3 dramas on Thursday with Scandal (4.1), Grey's Anatomy (3.9) and HTGAWM (3.8), the #1 show on Friday with Shark Tank (2.2) and the Top 2 broadcast series on Sunday with Quantico (3.0) and Once Upon a Time (2.6).

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: The Bachelor (+36% vs. +26%), black-ish (+58% vs. +50%), Castle (+82% vs. +69%), DWTS (+22% vs. +20%), Fresh Off the Boat (+40% vs. +38%), Galavant (+50% vs. +46%), The Goldbergs (+45% vs. +41%), Grey's Anatomy (+63% vs. +60%), How to Get Away with Murder (+81% vs. +70%), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+79% vs. +76%), Modern Family (+74% vs. +62%), Nashville (+82% vs. +71%), Once Upon a Time (+63% vs. +48%), Scandal (+64% vs. +50%) and Shark Tank (+47% vs. +37%).

Source: The Nielsen Company, as dated. Weekly averages based on regular, original telecasts only.