All-Star Weekend Tips TNT Ratings Win

TNT nailed down its first ratings win of 2010, as the NBA All-Star Weekend drove the Turner channel past rival USA Network.On Sunday, Feb. 14, TNT drew 6.85 million viewers with its coverage of the NBA All-Star Game, down 10 percent from last year’s East-West showdown, which served up 7.62 million viewers. The game ran directly opposite NBC’s third night of Winter Olympics coverage, which drew 26.4 million viewers. TNT’s presentation of the annual pro hoops expo swept the demos, averaging 3.79 million viewers 18-49, 3.33 million adults 25-54 and 2.26 million viewers 18-34.All-Star Saturday Night was also a big draw, although as was the case with Sunday night’s deliveries, TNT appeared to lose some of its audience to the Winter Games. The network averaged 5.44 million total viewers Saturday night between 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., a drop of 17 percent versus last year’s 6.55 million viewers.For the week ended Feb. 14, TNT posted an average prime time delivery of 2.84 million total viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data, topping USA by approximately 71,000 viewers. The Turner net also cleaned up among the core TV demos, drawing 1.47 million viewers 18-49, 1.33 million adults 25-54 and 837,000 viewers 18-34.USA enjoyed yet another boost from its WWE Raw franchise, drawing 5.34 million viewers Monday night (9 p.m.-11:10 p.m.). The program scared up 2.6 million viewers 18-49 and 2.48 million adults 25-54.After suffering declines in the previous week, USA’s three original series bounced back rather convincingly. On Thursday night, Burn Notice drew 4.66 million total viewers, an improvement of 10 percent from the 4.24 million the show delivered on Feb. 4. Also rebounding from a down week were: White Collar, which lured 3.83 million viewers on Feb. 9, an increase of 33 percent from the prior week’s 2.89 million, and Psych, which on Wednesday night grew 25 percent to 3.57 million viewers.USA took second place across the board last week, averaging 2.77 million total viewers, 1.26 million adults 25-54, 1.22 million viewers 18-49 and 580,000 18-34s.Fox News Channel dropped a rung to third place, averaging 2.3 million viewers, of which 583,000 were members of the core news demo. FNC posted its biggest delivery Monday night, as The O’Reilly Factor drew 4.37 million viewers in its 8 p.m. time slot.Nick at Nite claimed fourth place on the week, averaging 1.81 million prime time viewers, while A&E rounded out the top five with 1.69 million.Among the core TV demo, last week’s top 10 ad-supported cable nets were: TNT, averaging 1.47 million viewers 18-49; USA (1.22 million); TBS (943,000); A&E (787,000); History (686,000); FX (656,000); ESPN (648,000); Discovery Channel (573,000); ABC Family (560,000) and Comedy Central (559,000).Non-ad-supported Disney Channel held onto third place among all basic-cable nets, averaging 2.57 million viewers. The Mouse once again scurried off with the kiddie demos, drawing 1.05 million viewers 6-11, 1.35 million viewers 6-14 and 880,000 ‘tweens 9-14. Disney Channel got a big lift from its latest original movie offering, as the Sterling Knight/Brandon Smith vehicle Starstruck delivered 5.96 million viewers Sunday night between 8 p.m. and 9:35 p.m. The 78th DCOM––the first to debut on a Sunday night––served up 2.3 million ‘tweens 9-14 and 2.4 million kids 6-11. Both Knight and Smith star in the Disney Channel series Sonny With a Chance.

Convergent TV

All-Star Weekend Tips TNT Ratings Win

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi