TV Ratings: ABC's 'Once Upon A Time' Off to Solid Start

ABC

ABC’s Once Upon a Time opened strong with a 3.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic (12.7 million viewers), lifting ABC to its best performance in the time period with regular programming in nearly three years in the demo and more than three years among total viewers. At 9 p.m., Desperate Housewives pulled in a 3.0 rating with 9.2 million viewers. But new 10 p.m. drama Pan Am held on to a fraction of its Desperate lead-in, sinking to a 1.8 rating with 5.7 million viewers.

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Fox will win the night with Game 4 of the World Series and NBC will slide into second with Sunday Night Football.

The baseball game, which saw the Texas Rangers shut-out the St. Louis Cardinals to even up the series two games each, averaged a 10.1 metered-market household rating. Sunday Night Football pulled in an 8.2 household rating for a blow-out 62-7 win by the New Orleans Saints over the winless Indianapolis Colts, which marked the most lopsided game in SNF’s 6-year history.

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For the night, Fox averaged a 4.4 rating (14.6 million) from 7-11 p.m. followed by NBC (3.8, 9.5 million). ABC averaged a 2.6 rating with 8.5 million total viewers, and CBS with a 2.3 rating and 10.4 million viewers. CBS’ primetime slid by 20 minutes in many markets due to football. (Ratings for Fox and NBC will change due to the live nature of sports.)

Below, networks ranked by demo:

FOX - 4.4, 14.6 million
- Regional NFL overrun (until 7:30 p.m.): 7.4, 21.8 million
- The OT: 4.3, 13.4 million
- World Series Pre-Game:  4.0, 14.3 million
- World Series Game 4 (St. Louis vs. Texas from 8:30 -11 p.m.): 3.9, 13.6 million

NBC - 3.8, 9.6 million
- Football Night In America: 2.9, 7.5 million
- Sunday Night Football (New Orleans vs. Indianapolis from 8:30 - 11 p.m.): 4.6, 11.2 million

ABC - 2.6, 8.6 million
- America's Funniest Home Videos:  1.5, 6.6 million
- Once Upon a Time:  3.9, 12.8 million
- Desperate Housewives:  3.0, 9.2 million
- Pan Am:  1.8, 5.8 million

CBS - 2.3, 10.5 million
- 60 Minutes:  2.5, 12.7 million
- Amazing Race 19:  2.7, 9.9 million
- The Good Wife:  2.0, 9.6 million
- CSI: Miami:  2.1, 9.8 million