History Repeats as Pawn Stars Wins Week

History repeated itself last week, as the network’s original unscripted series Pawn Stars once again finished tops among all programs on ad-supported cable. Per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Pawn Stars on March 8 notched a series-high 5.82 million total viewers, while the 10:30 p.m. lead-out episode drew 5.41 million viewers. For the week ended March 14, History boasted three of the top five deliveries on ad-supported cable. At 9 p.m. Monday, Pawn Stars lead-in American Pickers snapped up 4.55 million viewers. As was the case a week ago, Pawn Stars won the three major TV demos, as the 10 p.m. installment drew 3.37 million adults 25-54, 3.27 million viewers 18-49 and 1.61 million viewers 18-34. The 10:30 episode took second place among the demos, delivering 3.05 million adults 25-54, 3.04 million viewers 18-49 and 1.57 million viewers 18-34. Despite History’s big week, USA Network maintained the status quo, winning the week with an average nightly draw of 2.48 million total viewers. The NBC Universal net also held onto the top spot among adults 25-54 (1.15 million) and viewers 18-49 (1.1 million). USA’s WWE Raw was its biggest draw, as the Monday night wrestling program brought in 5.09 million viewers between 9 p.m. and 11:06 p.m. Raw took third among viewers 18-49, delivering 2.58 million members of the demo, while finishing fourth with the 25-54 set (2.44 million). Along with Raw, USA secured its best numbers with NCIS and White Collar. The repurposed CBS drama delivered 4.27 million viewers Monday night at 8 p.m., while the season finale of USA’s newest original drama reached 4.04 million viewers in its Tuesday 10 p.m. time slot. Since debuting to 5.37 million viewers on Oct. 23, 2009, White Collar has been a solid, if inconsistent, draw for USA. The series hit its high-water mark with its second episode, drawing 6.27 million viewers on Oct. 30, before reaching low tide on Feb. 2 with a delivery of 2.89 million viewers. (After premiering in the Friday 10 p.m. slot, Collar on Jan. 19 was shifted to Tuesday nights at 10.) Fox News Channel held on to second place, averaging 2.25 million prime time viewers. The news net tied Syfy for twelfth place among adults 25-54, drawing 553,000 members of the core demo. The O’Reilly Factor did much of the heavy lifting for FNC last week, drawing 3.87 million viewers Monday night at 8 p.m. and 3.76 million viewers in its Wednesday night slot. TBS leapfrogged sibling net TNT for third place, drawing 1.93 million viewers. The demos came out in force for TBS, as the Turner net took viewers 18-34 outright, averaging 615,000, while finishing second among 18-49s (1.09 million) and 25-54s (928,000). TNT took fourth (1.68 million), putting together its best demo performance with adults 25-54 (741,000), while History once again rounded out the top five with an average nightly audience of 1.67 million viewers. History took the bronze with adults 25-54 (866,000) and viewers 18-49 set (808,000).Among the core TV demo, last week’s top 10 ad-supported cable nets were: USA, averaging 1.11 million viewers 18-49; TBS (1.09 million); History (808,000); FX (716,000); TNT (705,000); ESPN (704,000); A&E (691,000); ABC Family (650,000); Comedy Central (599,000) and truTV (589,000). Like History, non-ad-supported Disney Channel put on an encore performance of its own, serving up the week’s most-watched program on ad-supported cable. A new installment of Hannah Montana drew 6.92 million viewers Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., marking a 10 percent increase from last week’s topper (6.32 million). Lead-out Sonny With a Chance retained 85 percent of its Miley Cyrus lead-in, serving up 5.92 million viewers at 8 p.m. Disney closed out the week first among all basic-cable nets, drawing 2.5 million prime-time viewers––16,000 more than USA Network.Meanwhile, the Mouse continued to motor along with the younger demos, averaging 1.01 million kids 6-11, 1.28 million viewers 6-14 and 796,000 ‘tweens 9-14. Disney also outdistanced its rivals for supremacy among kids 2-11, delivering 1.37 million.

Convergent TV

History Repeats as Pawn Stars Wins Week

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi