USA 'Burns' Cable Competition

USA Network last week posted some incendiary ratings numbers, as Thursday night’s midseason finale of Burn Notice notched a series-high 7.59 million viewers.According to Nielsen ratings data for the week ended August 9, USA boasted six of the week’s top 10 most-watched programs on ad-supported cable, including the August 6 episode of the Miami spy drama and its 10 p.m. lead-out Royal Pains, which drew 6.69 million viewers.Also drawing a crowd was the eighth, and final, season premiere of USA’s OCD PI dramedy, Monk, which scared up 5.14 million viewers Friday night at 9 p.m. The return of Tony Shalhoub and company edged USA’s Monday night wrestling franchise, as WWE Raw drew 5.11 million total viewers on August 3.All told, USA averaged 4.13 million viewers on the week, a delivery that was 30 percent greater than the network’s second-quarter prime time average. The net coasted to wins in all three major demos, drawing 1.74 million adults 25-54, 1.43 million viewers 18-49 and 578,000 viewers 18-34.Second place on the week went to TNT, which averaged 2.73 million viewers in prime, of which 1.28 million were members of the adults 25-54 club. TNT averaged 1.05 million viewers 18-49, while taking third among the 18-34 set (384,000). As has been the case throughout its five-season run, TNT’s original drama The Closer enjoyed a strong showing, as the August 3 installment averaged 6.98 million viewers. The Closer picked up 2.69 million adults 25-54 in its Monday 9 p.m. time slot, while drawing 1.96 million viewers 18-49. TNT also enjoyed a consistent performance from its crime drama Leverage, which drew 3.69 million viewers Wednesday night at 9 p.m., and its freshman hospital strip Hawthorne, which landed 3.58 million viewers Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Fox News Channel once again held on to third place in the weekly ratings race, averaging 2.34 million viewers, of which 573,000 were members of the core news demo. FNC enjoyed its strongest showing courtesy of The O’Reilly Factor, which drew 3.72 million viewers on Thursday night at 8 p.m. On Tuesday night, O’Reilly delivered 3.67 million viewers in the first hour of prime. Fourth place once again went to Nick at Nite, which drew 1.94 million total viewers, thanks in large part to the premiere of the one-hour special iCarly event, iFight Shelby Marx. The Nickelodeon movie served up 7.87 million viewers in the Saturday 8 p.m.-9 p.m. slot, making it the year’s most-watched scripted program on ad-supported cable.In key kids demos, the martial arts-themed iCarly special averaged 4.26 million kids 2-11 and 3.5 million kids 6-11. Meanwhile, a new 30-minute installment of the iCarly series lead out of the movie at 9 p.m., drawing 4.87 million viewers.TBS closed out the week in fifth place, averaging 1.58 million viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data. The Turner net took second place among viewers 18-34, averaging 471,000 viewers, while finishing third with 18-49s (881,000) and 25-54s (800,000). Tops among the core TV demo were: USA, which drew 1.43 million viewers 18-49; TNT (1.05 million) TBS (881,000); Discovery Channel (766,000); FX (701,000); TLC (656,000); Nick at Nite (637,000); ESPN (616,000); Comedy Central (596,000) and History (585,000).USA’s Burn Notice notched the week’s largest delivery of viewers 18-49, averaging 2.83 million. Two new episodes of TLC’s Jon & Kate Plus 8 drew 2.48 million members of the TV demo, squeaking past USA’s Royal Pains (2.47 million) for second place on the week. Fourth place went to USA’s WWE Raw (2.36 million), while ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball closed out the top five with 2.03 million viewers 18-49.ESPN’s coverage of the final game of the Yankees-Red Sox series was seen by a national TV audience of 4.7 million total viewers, 2.21 million of which were adults 25-54.Non-ad-supported Disney Channel slipped a notch, finishing third among all basic-cable nets with an average nightly audience of 2.54 million viewers. The Mouse scurried to yet another victory among kids 6-11 (1.11 million) and had no trouble repeating as the top net among ‘tweens 9-14 (886,000), On the week, Disney Channel enjoyed its largest program delivery with Friday night’s installment of Wizards of Waverly Place, which drew 5 million total viewers at 8 p.m. Lead-out Suite Life on Deck retained 98 percent of Selena Gomez’ audience, averaging 4.89 million viewers from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Convergent TV

USA 'Burns' Cable Competition

Anthony Crupi

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Anthony Crupi