In a season in which ABC has often lagged near the bottom of the big four broadcast ratings, Sunday was a very good night in prime time, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.
Paced by a strong premiere for the drama "Resurrection," and with good numbers for both the return of "Revenge" and the midseason premiere of "Once Upon a Time," ABC won the night handily among the broadcast nets. TVbytheNumbers.com reports that "Resurrection" opened to a hefty 3.6 average rating in 18-49 to easily rank as the top show of the night on broadcast.
"Once Upon a Time" delivered a solid 2.3 average in the 18-49 demo for its midseason premiere on ABC, four-tenths of a point better than the number for the show’s previous original installment. "Revenge" returned from hiatus to a 1.9 average, surging six-tenths from its previous original.
Second-place Fox got a piece of the multichannel airing of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey," pulling in a 2.1 demo rating for the show in the 9 p.m. hour, along with 5.79 million total viewers. Counting all 10 networks airing the program, "Cosmos" delivered 8.5 million total viewers.
"Family Guy" was Fox’s highest-rated show with a 2.2 average in viewers 18-49, up two-tenths from its previous original episode. Back-to-back episodes of "The Simpsons" settled for a 1.2 and a 1.6, both down from a 1.7 last time out. "Bob’s Burgers" managed only a 0.9, falling six-tenths.
CBS saw "The Amazing Race" bounce back from a series low last week, climbing three-tenths in 18-49 to a 1.8. "The Mentalist" drifted downward by two-tenths from its previous original, recording a 1.6, while "60 Minutes" came in with a 1.5, ticking up one-tenth from last week.
CBS’s "The Good Wife" returned from hiatus to a soft 1.3 average in adults 18-49, losing a half-point from its previous original.
NBC’s two-hour "Dateline" pulled a 1.1 average in 18-49, the same number delivered by a rerun of "The Voice."
For prime time overall, ABC’s 2.2 average led the way in viewers 18-49, followed by Fox (1.7 average), CBS (1.6) and NBC (1.1) CBS won total viewers with 9.5 million, ahead of ABC (7.9 million), NBC (4.8 million), Fox (4.1 million) and Univision (2.2 million).
Although baseball won the night, so far the overall ratings for the World Series are down. Game 2 saw 10.28 million viewers tune in, the second-lowest number in World Series history, ahead of only last year s Game 2 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays. Game 1 was equally dismal, with 10.811 million viewers, also the second-lowest mark in history for corresponding games in history. The reunion saw Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking back at their time together. Executives no doubt were saying Zoinks! when they saw its 0.1 and 0.50 viewership. The trailing show, Nancy Drew, fared better, up in demos to an 0.1 and in viewership.