‘Pretty Little Liars’ Halloween special sets record; ‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 5 wins

We don’t typically share cable ratings every night, but we like to do so when there is some significant achievement worth pointing out; and luckily for us, there is this time around courtesy of the success of the “Pretty Little Liars” Halloween special.

On Wednesday, ABC Family announced that the show, which featured the surprising death of one Officer Garrett in addition to a guest performance from Adam Lambert on board their “ghost train,” drew records ratings in a number of their key demographics (including the key ad measure of adults 18-49) for their “13 Nights of Halloween” feature. Overall, the special drew over 2.8 million viewers and a 1.2 in the demo, which is an increase of 20% from what the show drew for its similar special at this time last year. For those of you who are Twitter fanatics, it has also now been labeled as the second-most-discussed episode of  scripted TV show ever via social media, with the #1 telecast being the summer final for this show that featured the big reveal that Toby was on the A-Team.

For those of you who were curious as what ended up being the #1 telecast of the night, that honor went without question to the ratings beast that is “Sons of Anarchy.” For an episode that featured the end of Joel McHale’s plotline, the show ironically drew better numbers than his NBC program “Community” with over 4.3 million viewers as well as a 2.2 rating in the demo. Unlike with “Community” or “Pretty Little Liars,” the other good news here is that we are going to be seeing plenty more of this show in the weeks coming up, while the other two will likely not be back until early 2013 (though “Community’s” date is not confirmed).