ABC Has a Solid Start With Once Upon a Time
image via blastr.com
On Sunday, October 23, ABC premiered its new fairy tale-based drama, Once Upon a Time, to strong ratings. For a number of people though, this was their second opportunity to view the pilot. Following in the footsteps of Fox’s New Girl and running concurrently with Starz’s Boss, Once Upon a Time was available for free online starting a week before its premiere. Much like New Girl, Once Upon a Time seems to have been positively affected by this decision.
According the Deadline’s ratings post, Once Upon a Time came in at a 3.9 rating/10 share in the highly prized adult 18-49 demographic with 12.8 million total viewers. This is a solid number on its own, but put into context it looks even better. Not only was it ABC’s highest-rated new series premiere this fall, but it is also the #1 drama debut with adults 18-49 on any network this season. The premiere airing doubled both its lead-in (America’s Funniest Home Videos) and the show that held the timeslot forABC last week (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition). To go a step further, it even boosted the ratings of Desperate Housewives by 11%—the show’s highest since the premiere.
For anyone who missed the premiere but is interested in checking it out, ABC currently has the episode available online for free.
It seems like ABC put a big promotional push behind this show. In the Cleveland area, I’ve seen multiple billboards along the highway promoting this show for a couple of weeks now.
I saw a lot of TV promos for it and the push for the online pre-air of the pilot. Looks like it has really paid off for them. Hopefully the show will be able to maintain most of its audience for weeks two and beyond.
Have either of you had a chance to catch Grimm? Similar Fairy Tale focus but more of a Supernatural meets cop-show bent.
I’ll be watching Grimm tonight. I know that pilot is supposedly available online if you follow the show’s official twitter feed, but I decided to wait for the premiere.
I caught this. It was ok. The acting was only so-so. It could be awesome-ish, but will never be my favorite show.