ABC marches to another May sweep win
Network takes third straight May victory, edging season winner CBS
May 27, 2016

For the third straight season, ABC has won the May sweep.
This time that victory seemed least probable of all, considering the network’s struggles during the regular season.
The four-week period used to set advertising rates for local stations ended on Wednesday. In that span, ABC averaged a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen.
That was a tenth ahead of CBS, which won the regular season in the demo, and 0.2 ahead of NBC, which placed second for the season.
Fox placed fourth with a 0.9.
CBS, as usual, won the sweep period among total viewers, well ahead of No. 2 CBS. ABC was third and NBC fourth.
Univision was fifth in both 18-49s and total viewers, with the CW sixth.
ABC wasn’t competitive for much of the past year. In fact, it finished fourth in 18-49s this season.
The network suffered steep declines versus last year, with top shows including “Scandal” and “Once Upon a Time” down by more than a quarter year to year among adults 18-49.
But the main reason ABC fell so far behind the other networks was sports. ABC carries a limited number of sporting events during the regular season, and it doesn’t have the NFL. The other three networks do.
They not only get a big boost from NFL programming—NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and CBS’s “Thursday Night Football” were the top two shows of the season in the demo—but programming that airs after the football games benefits.
Though Fox doesn’t have a primetime NFL series, its Sunday night lineup surges when it airs after games.
Fox also airs the World Series, while CBS has March Madness.
Those sporting events all make a big difference in the numbers. But during May, all those events are over. ABC suddenly becomes competitive again, especially with the addition of the Billboard Music Awards, which was one of the top shows of the sweep.
Even so, ABC’s still troubled. The network was down 22 percent from last year’s sweep period, though some of that reflects tough comparisons to last year, when the network’s Caitlyn Jenner interview was the top-rated program of sweeps.
ABC has made sweeping changes for fall hoping to stabilize its schedule. It will be interesting to see if it can succeed or if it’s simply impossible to be competitive in the fall without sports in this era of time-shifted and online viewing.
Tags: abc, cbs, may sweep, may sweep winner, may sweeps, sweep period, sweeps
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