Strong ratings week for ABC

The fall finale of Greys Anatomy helped boost ABC to its best ratings week this season.The Big Bang Theory was the weeks top scripted series in young adults, leading CBS pack of successful laffers. A nice boost from the CMA Awards, the fall finale of "Grey's Anatomy" and more strong numbers from new drama "Once Upon a Time" carried ABC to its most competitive finish of the season last week. According to Nielsen, the Alphabet placed a close second to Fox among young adults, racking up its best demo score since premiere week and its largest overall audience for any non-Academy Awards sesh in two years. Last week was also another good one for the CBS comedies, which took the top five spots in adults 18-49, and for football, as the nets airing primetime pigskin action racked up victories on Monday, Saturday and Sunday. Overall for the Nov. 7-13 sesh, Fox led in adults 18-49 with a 3.0 rating/8 share, followed by ABC (2.8/7), CBS (2.6/7), NBC (2.4/6), Univision (1.6/4) and top cabler ESPN (1.4/3). ABC and CBS tied for the lead in adults 25-54 (3.5/8), while the Eye still prevailed in total viewers (10.8 million to 10.3 million for ABC). At ABC, top-rated "Modern Family" was preempted, but the net still racked up its best Wednesday of the season with "The 45th Annual CMA Awards" (4.8/13, 16.40m), which matched a seven-year high in adults 18-34 (4.1/12). Thursday saw "Grey's Anatomy" (4.1/10, 11.29m) match its best 18-49 score since early last spring. Net also had a strong weekend with its "Saturday Night Football" game between Oregon and Stanford (3.0/9, 8.73m) and a winning perf Sunday by "Once Upon a Time" (3.8/9, 11.36m), which has stayed at a lofty level after its premiere last month. Fox was led by "The X Factor" on Wednesday (3.8/10, 10.25m) and "New Girl" on Tuesday (3.5/9, 6.84m), though the latter doesn't look quite as hot as in its early weeks. The net narrowly led Thursday in 18-49, though both the "X Factor" results show (3.3/9, 10.13m) and "Bones" (2.6/6, 8.64m) declined from their first pairing of the previous week.The net scored on Saturday with its first UFC telecast (3.0/9, 5.67m), which became the league's most-watched event ever; it was neck-and-neck with ABC's college football among adults 18-49 in the 9 o'clock hour, and the Fox fight led in men 18-34 (4.3/15 to 3.5/12). At CBS, "The Big Bang Theory" (5.3/15 in 18-49, 15.89m) "Two and a Half Men" (5.2/12, 14.71m), "2 Broke Girls" (4.6/11, 11.43m), "How I Met Your Mother" (4.4/12, 10.28m) and "Mike and Molly" (4.2/10, 11.93m) were the week's top scripted series among young adults, with "Broke" standing as the season's top-rated newcomer in 18-49. Also for the Eye, "NCIS" (4.1/11, 20.38m) became the first drama to top 20 million viewers this fall. NBC's best news was probably the showing of "Whitney" (2.1/5, 4.28m), which held steady even though its lead-in from "The Office" (3.0/8, 5.96m) declined; the 9:30 p.m. comedy also isn't getting much backend support from 10 p.m. drama "Prime Suspect" (1.3/3, 4.28m). The Peacock also saw "Harry's Law" edge up (1.3/3, 7.11m), matching its season high in 18-49 although that still left it well behind the offerings on the other major nets. "Rock Center" struggled for a second straight week (1.0/3, 3.46m), barely finishing ahead of Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" (3.40m) as Monday's most-watched primetime news show. CW, led as usual by "The Vampire Diaries" (1.4/4, 3.17m), also saw some season highs for "90210" (0.8/2, 1.55m), which did a 1.0/3 in adults 18-34. In cable, ESPN saw one of its best "Monday Night Football" perfs with its Chicago-Philadelphia matchup (6.9/18, 16.85m). The net also did well with its Veteran's Day college basketball game between North Carolina and Michigan State on an aircraft carrier in San Diego (1.6/5, 3.86m). The top original scripted series among young adults remained hot: AMC's "The Walking Dead" (3.2/8 in 18-49, 6.12m) and FX's "Sons of Anarchy" (2.0/6, 3.93m) and "American Horror Story" (1.6/4, 2.83m). Following "Walking" on Sunday, AMC newbie "Hell on Wheels" declined in its second week but was still saw a solid number (1.5/4, 3.84m). And Friday saw nice perfs from Discovery's "Gold Rush" (1.6/5, 4.15m) and Disney Channel's movie "Geek Charming" (0.8/2, 4.91m), whose delivery among persons 12-34 (1.7/7) was the best for any English-language primetime program (broadcast or cable) on the night. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com