USA Pushes Past TBS With 18-49 Demo

USA Network last week regained its lead among the core TV demo, edging TBS among viewers 18-49 by some 50,000 viewers. For the week ended April 18, USA averaged 1.07 million viewers 18-49 in prime time, topping TBS and its 1.02 million members of the dollar demo. USA also cruised to another win among total viewers, serving up 2.76 million on the week, of which 1.17 million were adults 25-54.All told, USA accounted for four of the 10 most-watched prime time programs on ad-supported cable, winning the week outright with the April 12 installment of WWE Raw. The Monday night wrestling block averaged 4.7 million viewers between 9 p.m. and 11:04 p.m., and finished fourth among viewers 18-49 (2.32 million).USA also got a lift from a pair of NCIS reruns, as Wednesday night’s 8 p.m. telecast scared up 4.38 million viewers and the WWE Raw lead-in drew 3.89 million viewers.Fox News Channel moved up a notch to finish out the week in second place, drawing 2 million viewers in prime. Per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings, 513,000 of those viewers were members of the core news demo.TNT took third place on the week, averaging 1.98 million viewers, while placing second among adults 25-54 (971,000) and viewers 18-34 (485,000). The Turner net averaged 970,000 viewers 18-49, good for a third-place finish.Game one of the first round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs battle between the Spurs and Mavs delivered 3.93 million viewers Sunday night, a total that included 2.15 million viewers 18-49 and 1.91 million adults 25-54.After taking the silver a week ago, TBS returned to fourth place, averaging 1.81 million total viewers. Along with the aforementioned second-place finish among the TV demo, TBS won the 18-34 crown (602,000) and took fourth among 25-54s (850,000). Bolstered by another strong outing of Pawn Stars, History surged to fifth place, drawing an average nightly crowd of 1.68 million viewers. The network put together its best demo performance with adults 25-54, taking third with 873,000 viewers.The April 12 episode of Pawn Stars delivered 4.2 million viewers at 10 p.m., of which 2.3 million were adults 25-54 and 2.28 million were members of the 18-49 set.Among the core TV demo, last week’s top 10 ad-supported cable nets were: USA, averaging 1.07 million viewers 18-49; TBS (1.02 million); TNT (970,000); Discovery Channel (845,000); History (821,000); ESPN (739,000); A&E (654,000); Comedy Central (602,000); Syfy (529,000) and MTV (518,000).Discovery Channel got a significant boost from the season-six opener of Deadliest Catch, which reeled in 4.59 million viewers Tuesday night at 9 p.m. In an episode that marks one of Captain Phil Harris’ final appearances on the show––the Cornelia Marie skipper died of an aneurysm on Feb. 9––the premiere won the week with 2.71 million viewers 18-49 and 2.89 million adults 25-54. Discovery also enjoyed a lift courtesy of its natural-history series Life. On Sunday night, the 9 p.m. installment drew 3.84 million viewers, topping its lead-in by 10 percent. Life also finished in the top 10 among viewers 18-49 (1.93 million) and 25-54 (1.79 million).Among other programs of note, ESPN’s Heat-Celtics playoff served up 3.82 million viewers Saturday night, of which 2.14 million were entrenched in the 18-49 camp. The Eastern Conference shootout also earned ESPN 2.01 million adults 25-54.Nickelodeon’s iCarly drew 4.27 million viewers Saturday night at 8 p.m., a delivery that included 1.7 million kids 6-11 and 2.2 million kids 2-11. The following night, episode two of the Nick’s new musical effort Victorious retained 96 percent of its premiere audience, averaging 3.33 million viewers in the 8 p.m. slot.Non-ad-supported Disney Channel retained second place among all basic-cable nets, drawing 2.27 million viewers in prime. The Mouse saw an improvement with the third episode of its new original series Good Luck Charlie, serving up 4.11 million viewers Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. (This marks an 8 percent increase from the sophomore installment’s 3.81 million viewers.)Disney once again swept its prime time target demos, averaging 974,000 kids 6-11, 1.23 million viewers 6-14 and 748,000 ‘tweens 9-14.

Convergent TV

USA Pushes Past TBS With 18-49 Demo

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi