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TNT celebrated Independence Day by winning the first week of the third quarter, notching an average prime-time delivery of 2.75 million total viewers and 1.26 million adults 25-54.
In a sleepy holiday week, TNT put up big numbers with a new installment of its original drama series, The Closer, which drew 6.3 million viewers on Monday, June 29, per Nielsen ratings data. The Turner net also got a lift from its fifth Nascar race of the season, serving up 5.28 million viewers on July 4 with its telecast of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.
Post-race coverage drew 5.48 million viewers between 11:15 p.m. and 11: 27 p.m. Among the new sponsors that signed on for TNT’s Daytona coverage were the Weinstein Co. (Inglorious Basterds), Pfizer, Burger King and Goodyear.
On the week, TNT finished second among the adults 18-49 set, averaging 1.04 million members of the core TV demo.
After winning the second quarter, USA Network dipped to second place in prime during the week ended July 5, averaging 2.43 million viewers. That said, the network won the 18-49 demo outright, averaging 1.11 million viewers, while taking second among adults 25-54 (1.16 million) and viewers 18-34 (484,000).
In light of the holiday, USA on Thursday night did not air new episodes of its hit shows Burn Notice and Royal Pains, opting instead for a marathon of repeats. The net notched its best program delivery of the week on Monday, June 29, as its WWE Raw franchise scared up 5.96 million viewers between 9 p.m. and 11:09 p.m. Hour two of the wrestling program drew 6.24 million viewers.
At 8 p.m., USA drew 4.41 million viewers with a repeat of NCIS.
Third place went to Fox News Channel, which averaged 1.9 million viewers in prime, of which 469,000 were members of the core news demo. While CNN took seventh place on the week with 1.33 million viewers, the news network actually beat FNC in the 25-54 demo, drawing 475,000.
FNC’s largest single audience of the week (2.94 million viewers) gathered on Tuesday at 8 p.m. for a new installment of the O’Reilly Factor. The prior evening’s Factor delivered 2.91 million viewers.
Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite took fourth place, averaging 1.7 million viewers while TBS rounded out the top five with 1.54 million. TBS won the 18-34 demo, averaging 519,000 viewers, and took third among viewers 18-49 (931,000) and 25-54 (826,000).
The holiday provided an apt backdrop for Lifetime’s Army Wives, as a new episode drew 3.62 million viewers Sunday night at 10 p.m., an improvement of 16 percent versus the prior week’s delivery (3.14 million). The July 5 episode also outdrew the season-three premiere, which averaged 3.48 million total viewers on June 7.
Army Wives also drew 1.8 million adults 25-54 and 1.6 million viewers 18-49.
On an individual program basis, tops on the week among the 18-49 demo were: USA’s WWE Raw (2.85 million); Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch (2.21 million); TNT’s Daytona coverage and post-race analysis (2.14 million); BET’s Tiny & Toya (1.84 million); Food Network’s The Next Food Network Star (1.73 million); TNT’s The Closer (1.67 million); Lifetime’s Army Wives (1.6 million) and Adult Swim’s Thursday 11:30 p.m. installment of Family Guy (1.57 million).
While ad-supported cable was relatively sleepy, Disney Channel enjoyed a torrid start to the quarter, taking second among all basic-cable nets with 2.56 million total viewers. The Mouse boasted the largest program delivery of the week, as a one-hour Hannah Montana drew 6.9 million viewers Sunday night at 8 p.m.
Disney’s Sunday night block was particularly strong last week, as Hannah Montana lead-out Sonny with a Chance delivered 5.17 million viewers. At 9:30 p.m., JONAS retained 78 percent of its lead-in, averaging 4.03 million viewers.
