USA Posts Sixth-Straight Ratings Victory

Although the NBA All-Star Game made things interesting, USA Network last week was able to string together its sixth straight prime-time ratings win of 2009, averaging 3.22 million viewers. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data, USA wrapped the week of Feb. 9-15 with four of the top 10 programs on ad-supported cable, while retaining its hold over the 25-54 demo with an average delivery of 1.56 million viewers. Among USA’s top performers last week were the Monday night WWE Raw showcase, which drew 5.24 million viewers in the 9 p.m.-11 p.m. time slot, and Friday night’s episode of Monk (5.11 million viewers). USA dropped to second place on the week among viewers 18-49, serving up 1.48 million members of the demo, trailing only TNT (1.6 million). The NBC Universal cable flagship also took second among 18-34s (651,000), falling short of TNT’s 862,000. With 7.62 million hoops fans tuning in Sunday night for TNT’s presentation of the 2009 NBA All-Star Game, the Turner net muscled its way to a second-place finish in prime, averaging 3.04 million viewers on the week. In addition to its aforementioned demo wins, TNT also took the silver among adults 25-54, delivering 1.49 million members of the demo on the week. All told, the All-Star Game handily swept the three demos, averaging 4.43 million 18-49s, 3.8 million 25-54s and 2.71 million 18-34s. TNT set the table with its All-Star Saturday Night programming, scaring up 6.55 million viewers on the evening before the exhibition, 4.07 million of which fell into the 18-49 camp. President Barack Obama’s prime-time stimulus address proved to be a boon for Fox News Channel, as the net averaged 4.27 million viewers Monday, Feb. 9, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. FNC’s coverage of the president’s speech far outstripped that of its cable news rivals, as CNN averaged 3.24 million viewers in the time slot, and MSNBC drew 2.08 million. CNN did take the core news demo, averaging 1.21 million adults 25-54 during the hour, besting FNC (1.11 million) and MSNBC (658,000). For the week, FNC retained possession of third place in prime, averaging 2.46 million viewers, of which 590,000 were members of the 25-54 set. TBS held onto fourth place with 1.81 million total viewers, taking third among all three top demos, while Cartoon Network/Adult Swim closed out the top five with 1.65 million viewers. The week’s top programs among viewers 18-49s were: All-Star Game (4.43 million viewers), All-Star Saturday Night (4.07 million), WWE Raw (2.61 million), TNT’s half-hour All-Star tip-off (2.71 million), Bravo’s Top Chef (2.39 million), the 30-minute lead-in to TNT’s Saturday night basketball coverage (2.38 million), USA’s Burn Notice (2.35 million) and TNT’s Greatest Slam Dunk competition, which served up 2.06 million Saturday at 7 p.m. Non-ad-supported Disney Channel once again closed out the week in fourth among all basic-cable nets, averaging 2.13 million total viewers. Continuing a streak that shows no sign of slowing down, the Mouse delivered its 202nd consecutive win among kids 6-11 (1.18 million), and secured its 198th straight victory among ‘tweens 9-14 (746,000).

Convergent TV

USA Posts Sixth-Straight Ratings Victory

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi