Consistent high marks for quality and the receipt of the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series definitely did not hurt “Modern Family,” which returned Wednesday to an impressive rating.
The acclaimed comedy won the evening with a 5.0 adults 18-49 rating. While not a nightly high, its viewership count of 12.6 million was still quite impressive for a young-skewing comedy.
Not all of ABC’s Wednesday news was great, however. Although it improved on its performance from the latter portion of season one, “Cougar Town” only perked up to a 3.3 with 8.3 million, a notable decline from its “Family” lead-in and an underwhelming response to Jennifer Aniston’s guest appearance. Earlier comedy “The Middle” opened ABC’s night with a 2.6 and 8.8 million viewers, while the debuting “Better with You” started to the soft tune of a 2.5 rating with an 8.0 million person audience.
Even worse was the abysmal premiere of “The Whole Truth,” which opened to a 1.6 rating and 4.9 million viewers. ABC struggled to build the 10PM slot last year as well, but even failed former occupant “Eastwick” managed to post a significantly-higher number for its series premiere.
