Update: ABC confirms that Sunday’s “Once Upon A Time,” “The Family,” and “Quantico” will be coded as “specials” due to the Easter Holiday.
As a result, they will not count toward the season averages.
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Save for FOX, which re-ran its “Grease: Live” special the “big four” broadcast networks generally opted not to withhold original programming from Easter Sunday.
In most cases, the originals predictably endured episode-to-episode losses on the holiday evening.
Since ABC’s “Once Upon A Time,” “The Family,” and “Quantico” fell to series lows in adults 18-49 last week, the episode-to-episode losses meant new lows this week. “OUAT” and “Quantico” also slipped to new live+same-day viewership lows.
Leading out of a re-run of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (ABC’s only encore programming of the evening), “Once Upon A Time” drew what Showbuzz reports as a 1.0 and 3.47 million viewers in the fast nationals. The numbers trail the 1.1 and 3.54 million drawn last week.
Airing at 9PM, recently launched drama “The Family” posted a 0.6 and 2.65 million. A new low, the adults 18-49 rating trails the 0.7 posted by last week’s episode. Based on preliminary data, this week’s episode did, however, narrowly top last week’s 2.64 million viewership mark.
10PM drama “Quantico” closed the night with a 0.9 and 3.34 million viewers. The numbers trail the 1.0 and 3.54 million drawn last week.
As they are not too far removed from last week’s live+same-day numbers, this week’s shows all have a chance of making up most if not all of the lost ground when DVR viewership is factored into the equation. “Quantico” has proven to be a particularly big percentage gainer — one of television’s biggest, in fact — when it comes to live+7 DVR gains.
“Once Upon A Time” and “Quantico” have already been renewed for next season. “The Family” is not expected to make the cut.
