L+7 Weds Ratings: ABC's Designated Survivor Scores TV's Biggest-Ever Playback Lift with a +117% Jump in Viewers

Live + 7 Day Ratings for Wednesday, 10/26/16

Opposite Game 2 of the World Series on Fox, ABC's Designated Survivor more than doubled its L+SD Total Viewer average, picking up +7.0 million viewers after 7 days of TV playback to represent a big +117% build (qualifying as the largest-ever L+7 build among Total Viewers for any broadcast program). The ABC drama has gained at least +7.0 million Total Viewers in L+7 playback on 4 of its 5 telecasts to date (with its 10/12/16 telecast coming in just below with a +6.9 million gain).

Designated Survivor also scored the 2nd-highest-ever L+7 increase of any program on the major networks among Adults 18-49 (behind only the 4/20/13 episode of NBC's Smash, which started with a 0.4 L+SD rating) and the best-ever for a 10pm telecast on the broadcast nets, with a +167% increase over its L+SD rating after 7 days of TV playback. The new ABC drama has posted triple-digit L+7 growth on all 5 telecasts to date, more than doubling its L+SD Adult 18-49 rating on 4 of its 5 telecasts.

Designated Survivor soared to a 3.2 rating among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 numbers (from a 1.2 rating in L+SD) to emerge as the night's #2 TV series (behind only ABC's Modern Family) and dominate NBC's Chicago PD head-to-head in the 10pm hour by 9-tenths of a rating point, after trailing by 1-tenth in L+SD.

With 13.0 million Total Viewers in L+7, Designated Survivor emerged as Wednesday's most-watched TV series after placing 5th in L+SD (with 6.0 million viewers).

In addition, against Game 2, ABC's Modern Family posted a season-high lift among Adults 18-49 (+1.8 rating points) to grow week to week (4.1 L+7 rating vs. 4.0 L+7 rating) and score a best-since-premiere L+7 rating (after being down 1-tenth of a rating point in L+SD) - since 9/21/16.

Source: The Nielsen Company, as dated