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'20/20' soars
with Rihanna interview

ABC newsmagazine hits three-year high among 18-34s

By Diego Vasquez
Nov 9, 2009

One of Diane Sawyer's last major scoops before moving to "World News" anchor in January drew a huge audience for ABC Friday night.

Sawyer's interview with pop star Rihanna, the singer's first since being assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown nine months ago, pushed "20/20" to its best rating among adults 18-34 in almost three years.

"20/20" averaged a 2.3 18-34 rating at 10 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, a full point ahead of second-place Univision in the hour.

It was the culmination of several days' worth of the interview playing out across different ABC platforms, including night and morning news shows. Rihanna talked about being ashamed of returning to Brown after the beating, the terror she felt during it, and her reaction to the post-assault picture of her that leaked onto the internet.

ABC also won the timeslot among 18-49s, averaging a season-high 2.7 and posting the highest rating of the night in the demo by an impressive 50 percent.

That boosted the network to a rare tie for No. 1 on Friday with usual leader CBS, which had won the first six weeks of the season. Both networks averaged a 1.8 rating and 6 share, followed by NBC in third place with a 1.6/5. Univision was fourth at 1.4/4, Fox fifth at 1.2/4 and the CW sixth at 0.9/3.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Thirty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m., CBS's "Ghost Whisperer" and the first hour of NBC's "Law & Order" averaged a 1.8. Univision's "El Nombre del Amor" was third at 1.2, followed by ABC's "Supernanny" in fourth at 1.3 and the CW's "Smallville" and Fox's "House" rerun tied for fifth at 1.2, marking a season high for "Smallville."

At 9 p.m., "L&O" moved ahead with a 1.9, followed by CBS's "Medium" at 1.8, Univision's "Sortilegio" at 1.6, ABC's "Ugly Betty" at 1.3, Fox's "Bones" repeat at 1.2 and the CW's "America's Next Top Model" repeat at 0.5.

At 10 p.m., ABC's "20/20" led with the 2.7, followed by a 1.8 for CBS's "Numb3rs" and a 1.2 for NBC's "The Jay Leno Show" and Univision.

Among households for the night, CBS led with a 5.1/9, followed by NBC at 4.5/8, ABC at 3.9/7, Fox at 2.6/4, Univision at 1.4/4 and the CW at 1.3/2.

Diego Vasquez is a staff writer for Media Life.	© 2010 Media Life Magazine

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