USA Takes First Week of 2009 Cable Ratings

USA Network secured its first weekly ratings wins in 2009, averaging 3.09 million viewers in prime time, while beating all comers with its delivery of adults 25-54 (1.43 million) and viewers 18-49 (1.39 million).According to Nielsen ratings data for the week ended Jan. 11, USA boasted six of the top 10 most-watched shows on ad-supported cable. Coming in at No. 1 on the week was the premiere episode of the second half of season seven of Monk, which drew 5.25 million viewers Friday night at 9 p.m. The return of USA’s OCD PI also scared up 2.32 million adults 25-54. USA drew 4.99 million viewers with its Monday night WWE Raw showcase, which also served up the week’s largest clutches of 25-54s (2.45 million) and 18-49s (2.56 million).Also bringing the heat in the second week of 2009 were: Psych, which drew 4.14 million viewers, holding onto 79 percent of its Monk lead-in, and a pair of NCIS repeats, which pulled 4.1 million viewers Tuesday night at 7 p.m. and 4.06 million viewers the previous evening. Second place on the week went to TNT, with 2.04 million total viewers. The Turner net put up its strongest delivery among viewers 25-54, averaging a third-place 975,000. (Sibling net TBS edged TNT for second place in the demo by fewer than 2,000 viewers.) Nickelodeon/Nick-at-Nite grabbed third place on the week, averaging 2.01 million viewers, as a new installment of iCarly served up 4.24 million fans Wednesday night at 6:30. Fourth place went to TBS, which squeezed by Fox News Channel by a margin of 3,000 viewers (1.9 million to more than 1.89 million). TBS got a lift from the series premiere of the new Tyler Perry project, Meet the Browns, which delivered 4.03 million viewers Wednesday night at 10:30, marking the net’s best sit-com rating since the summer 2007 debut of Perry’s House of Payne. Maintaining its stranglehold on the 18-34 demo, TBS again won the race among the youngest of the three major categories, averaging 652,000. USA trailed in the demo by some 18,000 viewers, while FX took third with 487,000.Across the entire basic cable universe, non-ad-supported Disney Channel drove back into second place on the week, averaging 2.05 million viewers. Sibling net ABC Family picked up where it left off with the mid-season premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which drew 4.38 million viewers Monday Jan. 5, at 8 p.m. (The series’ first trimester came to an end on Sept. 9, 2008, drawing 4.54 million viewers.)Secret Life also put together solid demo numbers, averaging 1.9 million 18-49s and 1.22 viewers 18-34. Elsewhere, MTV’s 21st incarnation of its Real World franchise opened strong, as the Red Hook, Brooklyn, crew scared up a week-high 1.46 million viewers 18-34. USA’s WWE Raw took the #2 spot in the demo with 1.4 million viewers, followed by FX’s winter premiere of Nip/Tuck (1.34 million). The FX melodrama sliced its way into the top 50 last week, averaging 3.12 million total viewers, 2.43 million viewers 18-49 and 2.08 million adults 25-54.

Convergent TV

USA Takes First Week of 2009 Cable Ratings

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi