The Bachelor: After the Final Rose” Hits Franchise Highs, Stands as Monday’s No. 1 Program, Giving ABC its Best Numbers in the Time Period Since May 2006

Monday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC’s Monday lineup featuring the season finale of “The Bachelor” followed by “The Bachelor: After the Final Rose” lifted the Net to the No. 1 rank on the night in Total Viewers (16.1 million) and Adults 18-49 (5.8/14). ABC towered over CBS by 41% (4.1/10), Fox by 76% (3.3/8) and NBC by 115% (2.7/8), turning in its highest Adults 18-49 performance in over 2 1/2 years - since 5/15/06. In fact, excluding the night of the “Academy Awards,” ABC registered its second-best rating on any night this season in Adults 18-49, behind only season premiere Thursday (9/25/08). ABC won the night across each of the key Women demographics: Women 18-34 (8.1/19), Women 18-49 (8.7/19) and Women 25-54 (9.4/19), qualifying as the No. 1 Network on the night among Women 18-34 for the last 9 weeks, while winning Monday evening among Women 18-49 for the 8th time in the past 9 weeks.

“The Bachelor” (8:00-10:00 p.m.)
The 13th season finale of ABC’s “The Bachelor” drew 15.5 million viewers and a 5.4 rating, 13 share in Adults 18-49, attracting the series’ largest finale audience in over 5 years (”The Bachelor 4″ - Bob) and top Adults 18-49 finale rating in over 4 years (”The Bachelor 5″ - Jesse) - since 11/19/03 and 5/19/04, respectively). “The Bachelor” built on its most-recent telecast 2 weeks ago (12.5 million & 4.4/10 on 2/16/09) by 3.0 million viewers and by 23% in Adults 18-49. In fact, for the first time in 6 years (10 seasons/cycles ago - going back to Spring 2003) and only the 2nd time in its history, “The Bachelor” has built on the previous performance on each regular telecast since its season opener on 1/2/09 (7 consecutive telecasts), excluding the prior week’s “Tell All” episode.

* Winning each half-hour in viewers and young adults, “The Bachelor” grew by nearly 4.0 million viewers (13.6 million to 17.5 million) and by 40% Adults 18-49 (4.5/11 to 6.3/14) from its first half-hour to its final half-hour.

“The Bachelor: After the Final Rose” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
Building on its lead-in by 2.0 million viewers and by 24% in Adults 18-49, “The Bachelor: After the Final Rose” won the 10 o’clock hour and stood as Monday’s No. 1 program in Total Viewers (17.5 million) and across all key Adults demographics: Adults 18-34 (6.0/16), Adults 18-49 (6.7/16) and Adults 25-54 (7.3/17), posting best-ever numbers for the franchise’s “After the Final Rose” specials. In fact, among the younger demos, ABC beat the combined performances in the hour of both CBS and NBC, by 8% in Adults 18-49 (6.7/16 vs. 6.2/15) and by 46% in Adults 18-34 (6.0/16 vs. 4.1/16).

* “The Bachelor: After the Final Rose” logged ABC’s best numbers in the hour in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 in over 2 1/2 - since 5/15/06.

Source: ABC Press Release