ESPN Breaks Out the Broom in Ratings Sweep

ESPN last week dominated all four major categories in the prime-time cable ratings race, marking the sports network’s first sweep since mid-October.Bristol delivered 3.67 million total viewers in the week ended Nov. 15, while hitting for the cycle among the core demos, drawing 1.89 million adults 25-54, 1.88 million viewers 18-49 and 876,000 viewers 18-34.Monday Night Football did much of the heavy lifting for ESPN, as the Nov. 9 Pittsburgh Steelers-Denver Broncos contest served up 16 million viewers, making it the fifth most-watched basic-cable telecast of all time, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data.The defending Super bowl champs’ 28-10 win over the Broncos drew 8.7 million adults 25-54, 8.61 million viewers 18-49 and 4.03 million viewers 18-34.Leading out of MNF, ESPN’s 94-minute SportsCenter drew 4.01 million viewers, of which 2.59 million were members of the 18-49 demo.USA Network took second place in prime, averaging 2.97 million total viewers, 1.29 million adults 25-54 and 1.24 million viewers 18-49. Tops among USA’s program deliveries were: the Nov. 11 installment of Monk, which drew 4.39 million viewers in its Friday 9 p.m. time slot; White Collar, which drew 4.28 million viewers leading out of Monk; and WWE Raw, which averaged 4.25 million viewers Monday night between 9 p.m. and 11:06 p.m.White Collar rebounded 11 percent from a season-low 3.85 million viewers the previous week. The fourth installment of USA’s newest original drama series also showed a return to form among its target demo, averaging 1.73 million adults 25-54, an improvement of 25 percent from the prior-week (1.39 million).Fox News Channel held onto third place, serving up 2.24 million total viewers, while moving back to ninth among the core news demo with an average nightly draw of 592,000 adults 25-54. TBS maintained fourth place on the week, drawing 2.02 million viewers, notching its best demo showing among viewers 18-49 (1.14 million). TBS took third among the two larger demos––it drew 1.03 million adults 25-54––and claimed second place among 18-34s (621,000).Nick at Nite held onto fifth place (1.9 million viewers), thanks in part to a new episode of iCarly, which delivered 5.04 million viewers Saturday night at 8 p.m. Last week’s top 10 ad-supported cable nets among the core TV demo were: ESPN, averaging 1.88 million viewers 18-49; USA (1.24 million); TBS (1.14 million); TNT (897,000); FX (859,000); Spike TV (778,000); A&E (652,000); Syfy (639,000); Discovery Channel (617,000) and truTV (573,000).The list of individual programs that drew the largest concentration of viewers 18-49 wasn’t nearly as diverse as it usually is, as sports and sports-related programming accounted for six of the top 10 attractions. ESPN’s MNF drew 8.61 million members of the core TV demo, good for first place on the week. Next up was Monday night’s SportsCenter wrap (2.59 million), which edged out FX’ original series Sons of Anarchy. With 2.5 million viewers 18-49 tuning in Tuesday at 10 p.m., Anarchy continues to be cable’s top-rated scripted series.NFL Network kicked off its slate of live Thursday night telecasts, drawing 2.23 million viewers 18-49 with the Nov. 12 Bears-49ers game. The demo accounted for 57 percent of NFL Net’s total draw (3.9 million viewers).Meanwhile, Bravo’s Top Chef took fifth place among the demo, averaging 2.21 million Wednesday night at 10 p.m., besting Spike TV’s UFC 105 slugfest (2.17 million). USA’s WWE Raw took seventh among the demo (2.05 million), followed in short order by: NFL Net’s post-game wrap (1.93 million); ESPN’s 90-minute Monday Night Countdown (1.93 million) and Comedy Central’s South Park (1.92 million).Non-ad-supported Disney Channel moved up a notch to third place among all basic-cable nets, averaging 2.26 million viewers. The Mouse once again ran the table among the the youth demos, drawing 966,000 kids 6-11, 1.23 million viewers 6-14 and 796,000 ‘tweens 9-14.A new installment of The Suite Life on Deck gave Disney its biggest draw of the week, averaging 4.78 million viewers Friday night at 8:30 p.m. Phineas and Ferb retained 86 percent of its Suite Life lead-in, averaging 4.13 million viewers at 9 p.m.

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ESPN Breaks Out the Broom in Ratings Sweep

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi