With less than a week to go before the sun sets on another summer TV season, USA Network has sewn up its fifth consecutive tropical ratings win, sweeping the key demos and outdistancing its competition by a comfortable margin.
According to preliminary Nielsen ratings data for the period spanning May 31 through August 22, USA averaged 3.48 million total viewers in prime time, beating runner-up TNT by 48 percent. The network also coasted to another summertime sweep of the three major demos, averaging 1.44 million adults 25-54, 1.3 million viewers 18-49 and 566,000 viewers 18-34.
USA did experience some slippage in its nightly deliveries, although it’s worth noting that the network set records across the board a year ago. Summer-to-date, USA dipped 5 percent among total viewers, while adults 25-54 were down 13 percent. Viewers 18-49 declined 12 percent versus summer 2009 and 18-34s were down 9 percent.
Among all ad-supported cable networks, USA was the only programmer to top the 1 million mark with the 18-49 demo. That was also the case last summer.
In a season of high-profile original series launches, USA introduced one of cable’s most-watched new programs, as the Piper Perabo spy caper Covert Affairs averaged 6.27 million total viewers through its first six episodes. (Measurements for three of the installments are based on live-plus-7-day deliveries, while the latter three reflect live-plus-same-day ratings. Per LSD deliveries, Covert is averaging 5.23 million total viewers through its first seven episodes.)
According to the blended Nielsen data, Covert was the most-watched new series on cable among TV’s prized 18-49 demo, averaging 2.65 million viewers in its Tuesday 10 p.m. time slot. The additional seven days of time-shifted viewing gave Covert a 73 percent lift in the demo.
The show has showed steady gains since debuting to 4.88 million viewers on July 13. Tuesday’s episode notched a series high, drawing 5.87 million viewers, including 2.66 million adults 25-54 and 2.46 million adults 18-48.
(While the cable researchers tend to push their L-7 deliveries, noting that the 7 days of DVR playback provide the most reliable sense of how an audience builds over the course of a week, the networks are only credited for three days of live and commercial ratings. That said, there generally isn’t a significant difference between the numbers at the end of day three and day seven.)
USA’s returning Thursday night dramas Burn Notice and Royal Pains sizzled, averaging 6.93 million viewers and 6.89 million viewers, respectively. Both shows put up strong demo numbers as well, as Burn averaged 2.89 million viewers 18-49 and 3.24 million adults 25-54, while lead-out Royal Pains drew 2.88 million/3.28 million, per the blended Nielsen data. Other big draws were White Collar, In Plain Sight and Psych.
“The dominance of our originals and their demos may be unprecedented,” said USA Network vp, program research Ted Linhart. “To have five shows that performed the way ours have in a single summer, and at such a sustained rate––I don’t think that’s ever happened before.”
Linhart admits that there is a whiff of deja vu around USA’s summer numbers; in fact, the network’s seasonal victory coincides with what should be its fifth straight total-year victory. “We struggle sometimes to find the nuance in our story,” Linhart laughed. “It’s not such a bad problem to have.”
TNT held onto second place, remaining flat versus summer 2009 with an average nightly draw of 2.5 million viewers. The Turner net posted its best demo delivery with the 25-54 set, averaging 1.11 million (down 4 percent) and also took the silver among 18-49s (954,000, down 4 percent). TNT finished seventh among viewers 18-34, averaging 350,000, down 7 percent versus the year-ago period.
As has been the case since it debuted in June 2005, The Closer continued to draw a huge audience in its Monday 9 p.m. time slot, averaging 7.92 million total viewers, of which 2.77 million, or 35 percent, were in the 25-54 demo. TNT also enjoyed bragging rights to the biggest new hit of the summer in Rizzoli & Isles, which has averaged 8.1 million viewers leading out of The Closer. The Angie Harmon procedural was also the most-watched new series among adults 25-54, averaging 3.03 million, and ranked No. 2 with viewers 18-49 (2.3 million).
Another newcomer that has been a welcome addition to TNT’s lineup is Memphis Beat, which has averaged 4.41 million viewers and 1.76 million adults 25-54/1.38 million viewers 18-49 in its Tuesday 10 p.m. slot. Returning TNT series Leverage, Hawthorne and Dark Blue did not finish in the top 10.
“To us, the ratings reinforce what we’ve known for a while,” said Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer for Turner Broadcasting. “You have to have skin in the game if you’re going to make noise in prime time, and that means investing in big budget, high quality original series.”
One of the challenges for networks that spend a good deal of money on developing original series is to recognize when a show has reached it sell-by date. With only so many hours in prime time, a series that begins to sag a bit after a hot run may not get invited back for another season. “The trick is in balancing what you have on the air with what you’ve got coming down the pike,” Wakshlag said. “You want to keep taking swings even after you’ve created a hit or two because you’re going to want to introduce something new to your air before that earlier hit fades out.”
After growing 37 percent in summer 2009, Fox News Channel decelerated a bit, averaging 1.9 million viewers in prime, a drop of 12 percent. FNC’s core audience of adults 25-54 dropped 16 percent to 468,000; again, that’s when compared to the huge gains of a year ago (59 percent). When lined up with its summer 2008 deliveries, FNC actually grew its demo deliveries by 23 percent.
History enjoyed a blockbuster summer, zooming to a fourth-place finish with an average draw of 1.62 million viewers, an increase of 37 percent from the year-ago 1.21 million. Last year at this time, History ranked fifteenth in prime. History soared to a third-place finish among adults 25-54 (822,000), and secured a top-five berth with the 18-49 set, averaging 745,000. Both demos expanded by 30 percent versus the year-ago period.
The channel drew a crowd with its Monday night lineup, as Pawn Stars landed 6.22 million viewers, more than half of which were adults 25-54 (3.36 million) and 18-49 (3.26 million). American Pickers has averaged 4.87 million viewers during the summer months, a total that includes 2.45 million adults 25-54 and 2.18 million viewers 18-49.
Also giving History a boost was newcomer Top Shot, which averaged 2.43 million total viewers, 1.4 million adults 25-54 and 1.37 million viewers 18-49.
Fifth place went to Nick at Nite, which dipped 10 percent to 1.62 million viewers. The network drew its largest audience of the hot season on July 30, as a special episode of iCarly (“iGot a Hot Room”) delivered 9.07 million L-7 viewers. A one-hour iCarly movie, iPsycho, also scared up some huge numbers, averaging 8.29 million L-7 viewers on June 4.
NAN boosted its nightly delivery of kids 2-11 by 6 percent, averaging 639,000 members of the footy-pajama set, putting it within 64,000 viewers of top-ranked Cartoon Network. Turner’s animation channel was up 13 percent during the summer, averaging 703,000 kids 2-11. Meanwhile, NAN passed Cartoon to gain first place in the kids 6-11 demo, averaging 476,000. The margin of victory in this particular demo was 11,000 viewers.
Closing out the top 10 were: TBS (down 4 percent to 1.54 million viewers); ABC Family (up 3 percent to 1.46 million); A&E (up 12 percent to 1.45 million); Discovery Channel (up 7 percent to 1.44 million) and ESPN, which finished tenth among ad-supported cable nets, averaging 1.37 million viewers, a decline of 9 percent versus last summer’s 1.5 million.
The top 10 new original series among adults 18-49 on ad-supported cable this summer were: Covert Affairs (2.65 million viewers); Rizzoli & Isles (2.3 million); ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars (1.57 million); TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland (1.56 million); TBS’ Are We There Yet? (1.47 million); the E! reality series Holly’s World (1.46 million); Bravo’s Bethanny Getting Married? (1.43 million); Memphis Beat (1.38 million); Top Shot (1.37 million) and A&E’s new scripted drama, The Glades, which averaged 1.28 million viewers 18-49.
Twenty-three of the top 40 ad-supported nets lost ground this summer, and of those, a nine experienced double-digit declines. CNN took the biggest hit of the season, falling 42 percent in prime with an average delivery of 549,000 viewers. The news net’s decline in the 25-54 demo was similarly pronounced, with deliveries falling 43 percent to 167,000.
Also enduring double-digit declines were: VH1, which dropped 30 percent to 465,000 total viewers; Hallmark Channel (down 22 percent to 767,000); National Geographic Channel (down 13 percent to 378,000); Spike TV (down 11 percent to 840,000); CMT (down 11 percent to 372,000) and TLC, which fell 10 percent to 1.1 million.
On the other side of the axis, nine of the top 40 nets put up prime time delivery gains of 10 percent or more. The most profound ratings improvements were demonstrated by: Nicktoons, which grew its prime time deliveries by 63 percent to 416,000; TV Land, which rode the popularity of Hot in Cleveland to a 62 percent gain (941,000); Bravo, up 22 percent to 956,000 total viewers; MTV, which lobbed grenades at the competition with season two of Jersey Shore, growing 21 percent in prime to 906,000; Cartoon Network, up 13 percent to 1.26 million viewers; E!, up 13 percent to 696,000; and Comedy Central, up 11 percent in prime with an average draw of 1.02 million viewers.
Through August 22, cable’s household share was 65.3, down three-tenths of a point from last summer, but still far outstripping the four-network broadcast share (24.2). This summer marks cable’s eleventh consecutive win over its network rivals.
