Primetime Ratings Report For the week of October 12, 2009 (Based on National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)

Growing Week to Week in Viewers and Young Adults, ABC Takes Second in Total Viewers and Across Key Women Demos

ABC Airs 5 of the Week's Top 20 TV Shows in Adults 18-49 and Claims Each of the Top 3 Shows in Women 18-49 and Women 18-34

ABC.com and "FlashForward" Rank No. 1 in Online Viewing for September

Building Week to Week, ABC's "DWTS" is Monday's Most-Watched TV Show and Beats Fox and NBC 9pm Dramas in Adults 18-49 by 36% and 111%, Respectively

Hitting Season Highs, "Castle" Dominates NBC's "Leno" in Viewers and Adults 18-49

Growing its Audience for the Second Straight Week, "Shark Tank" Produces its Best Numbers in Viewers and Young Adults Since August

"DWTS the Results Show" Achieves Season Highs in Viewers and Adults 18-49

ABC's "the forgotten" Beats NBC's "Jay Leno" in Viewers and Young Adults, while Posting Best-Since-Premiere Numbers in Adults 18-49 and Across All Key Women

ABC's "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town" Grow in Viewers and Young Adults

ABC Leads its 4th Consecutive Thursday of the Season in Adults 18-49

As NBC and CBS Continue to Decline on Thursday Year to Year, ABC is Up Over the Year-Ago Night by 5% in Viewers and by 8% in Adults 18-49

Increasing Across the Board Week to Week, "FlashForward" Leads Its 8 O'clock Competitors for the 4th Straight Week in Adults 18-34

Dominating the 9 O'clock Hour in Adults 18-49, "Grey's Anatomy" Registers as Thursday's No. 1 TV Show for the 4th Week in a Row

Winning the 10pm Hour for the 3rd Straight Thursday in Adults 18-49, ABC's "Private Practice" Surges Week to Week in Viewers and Adults 18-49

"Ugly Betty" Improves its Friday Time Slot for ABC in Viewers and Key Adults

ABC News' "20/20" Stands as Friday's No. 1 Non-Sports Show in Adults 18-49

Building its Audience Week to Week, "Desperate Housewives" Stands As Sunday's No. 1 Entertainment Series in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49

Hitting Season-Highs, ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" Dominates CBS at 10pm

WEEK No. 4:

ABC earned second place to CBS during the week of October 12, 2009 among Total Viewers (9.0 million) and across all key Women: W18-34 (2.7/8), W18-49 (3.4/9) and W25-54 (4.1/10).

� ABC was up week to week in Total Viewers (+7% - 9.0 million vs. 8.4 million) and Adults 18-49 (+4% - 2.6/7 vs. 2.5/7).

New Season Online Viewing: Based on the first round of data for the new season (Nielsen Online VideoCensus - Sept. '09), which included season-premiere week, ABC.com (5.5 million) stood as the No. 1 online broadcast site in Unique Viewers, topping runner-up CBS by 15% (4.8 million) and third-place NBC by 49% (3.7 million). In fact ABC.com claimed 6 of the Top 10 shows during September '09, including the No. 1 program with freshman drama "FlashForward" (pilot episode).

Rankings: ABC aired 5 of the Top 20 TV shows during the week in Adults 18-49: "Grey's Anatomy" � No. 4, "Desperate Housewives" � No. 7, "Private Practice" � No. 13 and "Modern Family and "Dancing with the Stars" tied at No. 17. The Net placed 4 of the week's Top 15 most-watched television shows overall: "DWTS" � No. 3, "DWTS Results" � No. 9, "Grey's" � No. 11 and "Housewives" � No. 12. ABC claimed the Top 3 TV shows for the week in both Women 18-49 and Women 18-34 with "Grey's," "Housewives" and "Private Practice," respectively.

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 33% currently, from 27% at the same point in 2008. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Monday

ABC qualified as the most-watched TV network (14.5 million) on Monday, outdrawing CBS by 2.8 million viewers (11.7 million), Fox by 3.8 million viewers (10.7 million) and NBC by 9.1 million viewers (5.4 million).

"Dancing with the Stars" (8:00-10:02 p.m.)

Growing week to week in both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" stood as TV's most-watched program (16.8 million) on Monday for the 3rd time in 4 telecasts (placing second the previous week only to ESPN's record-setting "Monday Night Football" game). The ABC dance competition built its audience from its first hour to its second hour by 1.1 million viewers (16.2 million to 17.3 million) and by 15% in Adults 18-49 (3.3/8 to 3.8/9). In fact among Adults 18-49 from 9:00-10:00 p.m., "DWTS" outperformed Fox's "House-"driven "Lie to Me" by 36% (2.8/7) and NBC's high-profile "Trauma" by 111% (1.8/4).

� "DWTS" won its 2-hour time period for the 3rd week running among Women 18-49 (5.1/12) and Women 25-54 (6.6/15).

"Castle" (10:02-11:00 p.m.) Hitting season highs in viewers and young adults, ABC's "Castle" towered over NBC's "Jay Leno" in the 10 o'clock hour, nearly doubling in Total Viewers (+4.7 million viewers � 9.8 million vs. 5.1 million) and dominating the NBC program in Adults 18-49 (+44% - 2.3/6 vs. 1.6/4).

Tuesday

Growing week to week in viewers and young adults, ABC's Tuesday lineup delivered its largest audience (8.9 million) and highest Adults 18-49 number (2.2/6) since premiere Tuesday (9/22/09). For the night, ABC topped Fox by 11% (8.0 million) and NBC by 11% (8.0 million).

"Shark Tank" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

Building its overall audience for the second week in a row, ABC's "Shark Tank" turned in a time-period best performances in Total Viewers (5.2 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.6/4). In fact, "Shark Tank" saw its best numbers in viewers and young adults since August � since 8/23/09 and 8/30/09, respectively.

� Opposite established time period competition, including the first hour of Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" season finale, "Shark Tank" grew by 8% in Total Viewers (5.0 million to 5.4 million) and by 20% among Adults 18-49 (1.5/4 to 1.8/5) from start to finish.

"Dancing with the Stars the Results Show" (9:00-10:01 p.m.)

Surging from its lead-in (+8.8 million viewers & +81% in AD18-49), ABC's "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show" hit season highs in both Total Viewers (14.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (2.9/7). Taking second in the hour in viewers, "DWTS the Results" outdrew the second hour of Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" season finale by 5.6 million (8.4 million) and the second half of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" by a best-yet 4.3 million viewers (9.7 million). Mixed Martial Artist and Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell was the fifth dancer to be eliminated from the competition this season.

"the forgotten" (10:01-11:00 p.m.)

Up over the previous week in young adults, "the forgotten" placed second in the final hour of primetime, beating NBC's "Jay Leno" in both Total Viewers (7.4 million vs. 5.8 million) and Adults 18-49 (2.1/6 vs. 1.8/5).

� "the forgotten" posted best-since-premiere numbers among Adults 18-49 (2.1/6) and across each of the key Women demographics: W18-34 � 2.0/6, W18-49 � 2.8/7, and W25-54 � 3.4/9.

Wednesday

Wednesday Night Freshman Comedy Block (8:00-10:01 p.m.)

Opposite stiff competition throughout the 2-hour time period from CBS and Fox, ABC's all-freshman 8:00-10:00 p.m. comedy block increased its overall audience week to week (7.6 million vs. 7.5 million).

� ABC's comedy block finished No. 2 in the time period among Adults 18-34 (2.2/7) to Fox ("So You Think You Can Dance"/"Glee"), leading CBS by 16% ("Old Christine"/"Gary Unmarried"/"Criminal Minds" = 1.9/6) and NBC by 22% ("Mercy"/"L&O: SVU" = 1.8/6).

"Hank" (8:00-8:30 p.m.)

At 8:00 p.m., ABC's freshman comedy "Hank" grew over the prior week by 11% with Adults 18-34 (1.0/4 vs. 0.9/3), by 9% in Women 18-34 (1.2/4 vs. 1.1/4) and by 6% Women 18-49 (1.9/6 vs. 1.8/6).

"The Middle" (8:30-9:00 p.m.)

Building audience for ABC at 8:30 p.m., ABC's "The Middle" jumped from its lead-in by 10% in Total Viewers (6.8 million vs. 6.2 million) and by 31% (2.1/6 vs. 1.6/5). ABC's freshman "The Middle" beat its established CBS comedy competition in the half-hour ("Gary Unmarried") by solid margins among Women 18-34 (+13% - 1.8/6 vs. 1.6/5) and Teens 12-17 (+33% - 0.8/3 vs. 0.6/2).

"Modern Family" (9:00-9:30 p.m.)

Building on its lead-in at 9:00 p.m., ABC's "Modern Family" finished in a virtual tie for No. 1 with CBS' veteran "Criminal Minds" in the half-hour, pacing within one-tenth of an Adult 18-49 rating point and tied in audience share (3.6/10 vs. 3.7/10). The freshman ABC comedy won with Men 18-49 for the 2nd time in 3 airings, beating CBS' "Criminal Minds" (3.0/8 vs. 2.9/8).

� ABC's "Modern Family" was up from it's week-ago numbers by 7% in Total Viewers (9.4 million vs. 8.8 million) and by 6% in Adults 18-49 (3.6/10 vs. 3.4/9).

� The new ABC comedy stood as Wednesday's No. 2 show to "Criminal Minds" in Adults 18-49 and as the night's No. 1 TV show with Men 18-49.

"Cougar Town" (9:30-10:01 p.m.)

Continuing to exhibit strong lead-in retention for ABC at 9:30pm in a highly-competitive half-hour against the second-half of CBS' "Criminal Minds" and Fox's "Glee," "Cougar Town" posted week-to-week gains in Total Viewers (8.0 million vs. 7.8 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.3/8 vs. 3.2/8).

� "Cougar Town" finished No. 2 in its slot across the across the 18-34 and 25-54 demographics (AD/Men/Wmn), as well as with Men 18-49.

"Eastwick" (10:01-11:00 p.m.)

Opposite CBS' time-period veteran "CSI: NY," ABC's freshman "Eastwick" beat out NBC's "Jay Leno" in Adults 18-34 (+15% - 1.5/5 vs. 1.3/4) and for the 3rd week in a row across each of the key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).

� "Eastwick" grew its audience week to week in Adults 18-34 (+7% - 1.5/5 vs. 1.4/4), Men 18-34 (+22% - 1.1/3 vs. 0.9/3) and Men 18-49 (+8% - 1.3/4 vs. 1.3/3).

Thursday

ABC won its 4th consecutive Thursday night in Adults 18-49 (4.0/11), beating second-place CBS by 14% (3.5/10), while topping NBC (2.4/7) and Fox (2.4/6) by 67% in a third-place tie. The Network also led the evening for the 4th week running with Adults 18-34 and all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).

� While CBS and NBC continued to downtrend on the night year to year, ABC was up over the year-ago Thursday (10/16/08) by 6% in Total Viewers (11.1 million vs. 10.5 million) and by 8% in Adults 18-49 (4.0/11 vs. 3.7/10).

"FlashForward" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

Growing week to week, ABC freshman "FlashForward" finished second in the 8 o'clock hour to CBS' "Survivor: Samoa" in Adults 18-49 (3.1/9), defeating Fox's veteran-drama "Bones" by 19% (2.6/7) and NBC's comedy block ("Community"/"Parks and Recreation") by 55% (2.0/6). "FlashForward" won its hour for the 4th week in a row with Adults 18-34, outperforming "Survivor" by 33% (2.8/9 vs. 2.1/7). The new show surged 12% week to week in Adults 18-34.

� The ABC freshman drama was up week to week in Total Viewers and across each of the key Adult demos (AD18-34/AD18-49/AD25-54).

"Grey's Anatomy" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

"Grey's Anatomy" qualified as Thursday's No. 1 TV show in Adults 18-49 (4.9/13) for the 4th consecutive week. Dominating the 9 o'clock hour, ABC's "Grey's" beat "CSI" by 36% (3.6/9), NBC's "The Office"/"30 Rock" (season premiere) by 40% (3.5/9) and Fox's "Fringe" by 123% (2.2/6).

"Private Practice" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

Up over the prior week, ABC's "Private Practice" won the 10 o'clock hour for the 3rd straight Thursday in Adults 18-49 (3.9/11), beating CBS' "The Mentalist" by 15% (3.4/9) and NBC's "Jay Leno" by 117% (1.8/5). The ABC drama delivered an even wider margin of victory over CBS' "The Mentalist" in Adults 18-34, leading by a best-yet 94% (3.5/11 vs. 1.8/6).

� Exhibiting strong retention of its lead-in, "Private Practice" grew over the prior week by nearly 1 million viewers (10.4 million vs. 9.5 million) and by 8% in Adults 18-49 (3.9/11 vs. 3.6/10).

Friday

"Ugly Betty" (8:00-10:00 p.m.)

Up against stiff competition from Game 1 of the MLB American League playoffs on Fox (LA Angels-NY Yankees) from 8:00-10:00 p.m., ABC's "Ugly Betty" drew 5.1 million viewers during its 2-hour season opener, finishing No. 2 in its slot with Women 25-54 (2.3/7-tie), behind only CBS' time-period established dramas ("Ghost Whisperer"/"Medium"). "Betty" gained viewers from its first hour to its second hour.

� "Betty" improved the time period for ABC over the year-ago season openers of "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" (on 10/3/08) by +1.1 million viewers (5.1 million vs. 4.0 million), by +10% in Adults 18-34 (1.1/4 vs. 1.0/4) and by +13% in Adults 25-54 (1.7/5 vs. 1.4/5), while holding even among Adults 18-49. Compared to ABC's October 2008 average in the time period, "Betty" pulled in 16% more viewers for ABC ("Supernanny"/"Wife Swap" originals = 4.4 million).

� Betty posted ABC's top Women 18-34 number in the time slot in 6 months � since 4/17/09.

� DVR Playback Note: Last season "Ugly Betty" posted substantial gains through DVR playback, picking up an average of 800,000 viewers and an additional four-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point (+17%) from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the final L+7 DVR finals. With Household DVR penetration increasing from 27% to 33% year to year, series are seeing even bigger increases in the final playback numbers this season.

"20/20" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

Building on its "Betty" lead-in, "20/20" won the 10 o'clock hour over its non-sports competition in Adults 18-49 (2.0/6) and Adults 25-54 (2.5/7), beating CBS' original "Numbers." In fact "20/20" paced as the No. 1 non-sports TV program on Friday in Adults 18-49 (tie). The ABC newsmagazine overshadowed "Jay Leno" in the hour, surpassing the NBC talker by 2.2 million viewers (7.2 million vs. 5.0 million) and by 54% in Adults 18-49 (2.0/6 vs. 1.3/4 � a new low for the NBC show).

Sunday

Opposite NBC with a strong "Sunday Night Football" contest (Bears-Falcons) and for the 2nd straight week against an NFL overrun-boosted CBS (1-hour and 15-min Bills-Jets overrun), ABC outdrew its non-sports-driven competition on the evening, leading Fox by 4.1 million viewers (10.4 million vs. 6.3 million) and by 7% in Adults 18-49 (3.2/8 vs. 3.0/8).

� Despite facing all of the sports competition in prime, including TBS with the National League Dodgers-Phillies MLB playoff game, ABC increased its overall audience week to week (+4% - 10.4 million vs. 10.0 million).

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

Competing against CBS with its NFL overrun into the second hour of Sunday's prime, ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" outdrew its Fox competition ("The Simpsons"/"Cleveland Show") by 2.1 million viewers (10.3 million vs. 8.2 million) and finished No. 1 in the 8 o'clock hour among Women 18-49 (3.9/10-tie) for the 4th consecutive week.

� "Home Edition" was up 5% over the prior week in Total Viewers (10.3 million vs. 9.8 million).

"Desperate Housewives" (9:00-10:01 p.m.)

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" stood as Sunday's No. 1 entertainment TV program in both Total Viewers (13.7 million) and Adults 18-49 (4.6/11). In fact "Housewives" has registered as Sunday's most-watched entertainment series on all 4 weeks this season.

� "Housewives" grew week to week in Total Viewers, Adults 18-34 and across all key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).

� "Housewives" is generating an even bigger increase this season than last over its first-reported numbers through DVR playback, picking up an average 1.6 million viewers and an additional 7-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals.

"Brothers & Sisters" (10:01-11:00 p.m.)

ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" dominated its non-sports competition in the 10 o'clock hour by wide margins, leading CBS' combo of "Amazing Race"/"Three Rivers" by 1.2 million viewers (9.7 million vs. 8.5 million) and 45% in Adults 18-49 (3.2/8 vs. 2.2/6). "Brothers & Sisters" finished No. 1 in the hour for the 4th consecutive week among key Women demos (W18-49/W25-54).

� Posting solid gains week to week in viewers and young adults, "Brothers & Sisters" hit season highs in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 (tie). In fact the ABC drama drew its biggest audience since March and matched its top Adult 18-49 number since April � since 3/22/09 and 4/19/09, respectively.

� Like its lead-in, "Brothers & Sisters" is seeing a sizeable uptick this season over its first-reported numbers through DVR playback (also bigger than last season), picking up an average 1.1 million viewers and an additional 5-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals.

Source: Nielsen Media Research (National Live+Same Day Program Ratings), week of 10/12/09, unless stated otherwise.