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With less than a week to go before Nielsen draws the curtain on the summer TV season, USA Network has the ratings race in the bag, notching record deliveries in prime time and outdistancing its competition by a comfortable margin.
According to preliminary ratings data for the period spanning June 1 through August 23, USA averaged 3.59 million total viewers in prime time, beating runner-up TNT by 46 percent. The NBC Universal network also swept the three major demos, averaging 1.64 million adults 25-54, 1.45 million viewers 18-49 and 615,000 viewers 18-34.
USA’s record-setting summer saw its nightly deliveries increase 19 percent versus the year-ago period, when the network averaged 3 million viewers. Demos were also up significantly, with adults 25-54 growing 16 percent versus summer 2008, while 18-49s and 18-34s were up 10 percent.
In a season of high-profile original series launches, USA boasted nine of the top 20 most-viewed programs on ad-supported cable, as homegrown dramas Burn Notice and Royal Pains flooded the zone. The August 6 mid-season finale of Burn Notice drew 9.1 million viewers, per live-plus-seven-day data, making it the most-watched program in USA history, and the biggest scripted draw of the season. The cliffhanger also scared up 4.41 million adults 25-54 and 3.76 million viewers 18-49.
Leading out of Burn Notice at 10 p.m. that same night, Royal Pains landed the largest audience of its freshman run, averaging 8.2 million viewers.
The first half of Burn Notice’s third season––the show returns for a seven-episode arc in the first quarter of 2010––averaged 5.24 million viewers, per live-plus-same-day data. Upon application of seven days of DVR playback, that number shot up 46 percent, to 7.68 million. Royal Pains delivered an average 5.43 million viewers, and live-plus-7 data accounted for a 38 percent increase (7.52 million).
All told, Burn and Pains nailed down 18 of the top 35 program deliveries on ad-supported cable this summer. Burn also was the summer’s top-ranked program among adults 25-54 (3.72 million) and 18-49 (3.34 million).
Also helping USA secure its strongest summer were returning series In Plain Sight (5.11 million viewers), Monk (5.56 million), Psych (4.47 million) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which marked its second season on cable with an average draw of 4.59 million viewers.
TNT grew its nightly viewership by 7 percent, averaging 2.46 million viewers, while posting its best demo delivery with the 25-54 set, averaging 1.14 million (up 6 percent). The Turner net also took second place among 18-49s (981,000, up 3 percent), while finishing third among 18-34s (369,000, up 1 percent versus the year-ago period).
Now at the tail end of its fifth season on TNT, The Closer continued to draw a huge audience in its Monday 9 p.m. time slot, averaging 7.85 million total viewers, per a blend of live-plus-same-day and L7 data (the latter of which was collected through August 9). Sophomore drama Leverage did some heavy lifting as well, averaging 4.13 million viewers.
Two new summer series also pitched in for TNT, as Hawthorne has averaged 3.89 million viewers in its premiere run, while Dark Blue has drawn 3.4 million.
Fox News Channel posted the biggest ratings gains among cable’s top 10 nets, averaging 2.17 million viewers in prime, an increase of 37 percent over its summer ’08 delivery (1.58 million). FNC’s core audience of adults 25-54 grew 59 percent since June 1, averaging 559,000, good for 12th place among all ad-supported cable nets.
Fourth place went to Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, which drew 1.79 million viewers, an improvement of 8 percent. (On July 5, Nick at Nite officially moved the start of its programming day back an hour to 8 p.m. As such the first month of summer ratings includes a daily hour of Nickelodeon numbers.)
Nick/NAN grew its nightly delivery of kids 2-11 by 27 percent, averaging 603,000 members of the footy-pajama set, putting it within shooting distance of top-ranked Cartoon Network. Turner’s animation channel fell 20 percent during the summer, averaging 622,000 kids 2-11. Meanwhile, Nick/NAN and Cartoon tied for first in the kids 6-11 demo, as both nets averaged 455,000 viewers, with the Viacom net up 24 percent year-over-year.
Nick at Night drew its largest audience of the season with the iCarly movie iFight Shelby Marx, which drew 8.9 million viewers August 8 at 8 p.m. DVR playback boosted the iCarly special’s delivery by 13 percent, over the original live-plus-same-day estimate of 7.87 million.
Fifth-place TBS dropped 9 percent in prime, averaging 1.6 million summer viewers. Although the Turner net experienced single-digit declines in the demos, it finished second among viewers 18-34 (520,000), and took third with 18-49s (942,000) and 25-54s (835,000).
TBS this summer debuted Meet the Browns, a new series from Tyler Perry that averaged 2.91 million viewers, good for sixth place among all freshman projects. TBS ranked second in prime among African Americans in the 18-49 demo, averaging 205,000. (BET will close out the season with the greatest concentration of the demo, averaging 305,000 viewers.)
Closing out the top 10 were: ESPN (down 6 percent to 1.51 million viewers); ABC Family (up 10 percent to 1.4 million); Discovery Channel (up 12 percent to 1.34 million); FX (up 13 percent to 1.31 million) and HGTV, which finished tenth among ad-supported cable nets, averaging 1.28 million viewers, an increase of 8 percent versus last summer’s 1.18 million.
The top 10 new original series among adults 18-49 on ad-supported cable this summer were: Royal Pains (2.97 million viewers); Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey (1.99 million); Hawthorne (1.56 million); Syfy’s Warehouse 13 (1.54 million); E!’s Kourtney & Khloé Take Miami (1.52 million); Meet the Browns (1.51 million); E!’s Kendra (1.51 million); TLC’s Cake Boss (1.35 million); Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva (1.32 million) and Dark Blue (1.24 million).
Only 13 of the top 40 ad-supported nets lost ground this summer, and of those, a mere five experienced double-digit declines. TV land took the biggest hit of the season, falling 25 percent in prime with an average delivery of 582,000 viewers.
Also falling back were: Hallmark Channel (down 24 percent in total viewers to 981,000); Spike TV (down 21 percent to 939,000); Lifetime (down 21 percent to 1.22 million viewers) and Cartoon Network, which fell 19 percent to 1.11 million.
On the other hand, 16 of the top 40 nets enjoyed double-digit increases. Jon & Kate Plus 8 propelled TLC into rare air, as the net saw its nightly deliveries grow 52 percent to 1.21 million viewers, up from 795,000 a year ago. According to Nielsen L7 data, the June 22 installment of J&K+8 beat all comers this summer, drawing 11.2 million viewers, of which more than half (6.88 million) were members of the 18-49 demo.
Other nets that showed profound ratings improvement were: BET, which grew its prime time deliveries by 34 percent to 911,000; Food Network, which seized the #12 spot with 1.25 million viewers, a gain of 33 percent); Disney XD, up 30 percent to 333,000 viewers; CMT (up 25 percent to 417,000); Soap Net (up 25 percent to 389,000); Travel Channel (up 20 percent to 501,000); E! (up 18 percent to 611,000); Headline News (up 18 percent to 508,000); MSNBC (up 16 percent to 780,000) and National Geographic Channel, which grew 12 percent to 431,000 viewers.
Bravo and VH1 fell just shy of attaining double-digit growth, as both nets increased their summer deliveries by 9 percent versus a year ago. Bravo averaged 771,000 viewers in prime, while VH1 drew 665,000.
Through August 23, cable’s household share was 65.4, eclipsing the four-network broadcast share (23.8). This summer marks cable’s tenth straight win over its network rivals.
