Ratings Review: ABC Sundays - First 4 Weeks

After four weeks of the new 2013-14 season, ABC's Sunday line up has had little punch in the Nielsen ratings. Here is a quick look at how ABC's Sunday night has unfolded after the first month of programming.

AMERICA'S FUNNIEST VIDEOS could run forever and the ratings will never change. The weeks leading up to its season premiere on October 13th, the ratings for the repeats were not any different than the ratings for the first two new episodes. AFV is the type of program that people enjoy when nothing else is on. If it is new, or not, they will catch it until their other program comes on.

ONCE UPON A TIME is the anchor of the night. It sets the tone for the remaining two dramas and so far this season, the tone has been declines. In the first four weeks, the series has yet to build from the previous week. OUAT may becoming a more niche stay program, much like GRIMM, except for the female demographics. It is still a much talked about series as it is one of the few sunday scripted series to do as well as some NFL games, in social media.

REVENGE may have hit its peak. A loss of two million viewers in just 14 days after the season premiere is a bad sign. the loss in the A18-49 ratings is 30%, in the same timeframe. It does grab a decent number of viewers back with DVR, Live+7 ratings, but not enough to make up the difference. If the numbers do not get any better during the November sweeps, we could see the beginning of a change on the last half of Sunday nights, on ABC.

And BETRAYAL is a big part of that change. It is currently the worst rated series on the network, now below a 1.0 rating in Adults 18-49. Viewership hovers around three million, representing a 40% to 50% loss from its led in audience. It is surprising that the series has not yet been cancelled. It numbers are just as bad as LUCKY 7 when it was axed. The network must be riding it out until the 13 episode commitment has run its course.

Live+SD Ratings

Series	Category	09/29	10/06	10/13	10/20	AVG
AFV	Viewers*			5.26	5.58	5.42
	A18-49			1.2	1.1	1.2
Once Upon A Time	Viewers*	8.52	8.00	7.53	7.05	11.11
	A18-49	2.6	2.6	2.4	2.1	7.78
Revenge	Viewers*	8.11	6.84	6.00	6.16	6.78
	A18-49	2.3	1.9	1.6	1.5	1.8
Betrayal	Viewers*	5.16	3.90	2.88	3.51	3.86
	A18-49	1.5	1.1	0.8	0.9	1.1

* - in millions