Dang, who knew!? I mean I was all over a marathon weekend of catching up on season one of Mad Men and its season two premiere on Sunday night (2.1 million viewers in the final tally), but completely missed out on Next Food Network Star which pulled in 4.5 million viewers on Sunday and cracked into the top 10 for the week.
I loved Mad Men, but unsurprisingly even though it was up more than double from last year’s average, it didn’t break into the Top 40. I’ll cut it some slack because it faced off against In Plain Sight (4.2 million, #14), Army Wives (3.6 million, #21) and ESPN’s Sunday Night game where the New York Yankees played the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park (#13, 4.2 million).
The Closer, in usual summertime fashion was perched in the top spot with nearly 7.1 million viewers followed by the NASCAR fiasco at the Brickyard in Indianapolis which pulled in 6.67 million.
A Hannah/Miley “best of both worlds” concert in 3D to boot, was the third most watched show of the week with nearly 5.9 million. Miley Cyrus is smarter than some give her credit for. She’s mumbling publicly about how long she wants to continue to Hannah while everybody and their mother is apparently throwing money at her. My guess is that Disney will throw as much money at her as it possibly can to keep her around. Monk, Psych and WWE RAW were strong as usual for USA, and TVbytheNumbers favorite, Burn Notice took the six spot with almost 4.8 million viewers.
A bad week for our absorbent pal, SpongeBob. His best showing was #20! Bob still managed to place 11 airings in the weekly top 40 though. Not already mentioned or in the list below but also in the top 40: Deadliest Catch on Discovery (3.56 million), Design Star III on HGTV (3.45 milllion), a couple of Family Guy airings (3.4 million and 3.2 million), Drake and Josh (3.35 million) and a Law & Order: SVU repeat (3.4 million).
Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 07/27/2008:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY(S) | Live+SD HH Rating | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | CLOSER, THE | TNT | MONDAY | 4.7 | 7,058 |
| 2 | NASCAR SPRINT CUP L (BRICKYARD 400) | ESPN | SUNDAY | 4.3 | 6,668 |
| 3 | HANNAH & MILEY:BEST OF | DSNY | SATURDAY | 3.0 | 5,864 |
| 4 | MONK | USA | FRIDAY | 3.1 | 5,062 |
| 5 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 3.0 | 4,961 |
| 6 | BURN NOTICE | USA | THURSDAY | 3.0 | 4,760 |
| 7 | SAVING GRACE | TNT | MONDAY | 3.1 | 4,571 |
| 8 | FOOD NETWORK STAR | FOOD | SUNDAY | 2.8 | 4,508 |
| 9 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 2.7 | 4,494 |
| 10 | PSYCH | USA | FRIDAY | 2.8 | 4,484 |
| 11 | ICARLY | NICK | FRIDAY | 2.7 | 4,446 |
| 12 | LAW & ORDER: CI (ORIG) | USA | SUNDAY | 2.9 | 4,321 |
| 13 | MLB SUNDAY NIGHT L (YANKEES/RED SOX) | ESPN | SUNDAY | 2.8 | 4,230 |
| 14 | IN PLAIN SIGHT | USA | SUNDAY | 2.8 | 4,174 |
| 15 | INCREDIBLES, THE | DSNY | SUNDAY | 2.4 | 3,922 |
| 16 | CAMP ROCK | DSNY | THURSDAY | 2.4 | 3,913 |
| 17 | ICARLY | NICK | FRIDAY | 2.3 | 3,815 |
| 18 | TBS PRIME MOVIE (LAST HOLIDAY) | TBSC | SUNDAY | 2.4 | 3,813 |
| 19 | S HANNAH MONTANA(S)-07/26/2008 | DSNY | SATURDAY | 2.3 | 3,768 |
| 20 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | SUNDAY | 2.4 | 3,716 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Are these the coverage area ratings or the U.S. ratings?
– Paulsen
Doh! You have a good eye, Paulsen, I totally screwed up and used the coverage area. Now fixed.
None of the shows mentioned in the comments so far were in the data we received (top 40).
the closer owns!
If you get the top 40 why only show us the top 20? Makes no sense.
Ash's, I am inclined to agree with you, but Nielsen tells us we can only publish lists of 20, and they own the data, so we conform to their wishes.