To no one’s great surprise Monday Night Football was again the most watched program on cable for the week. Although more people watched the presidential debate than the football game, it was spread out over multiple channels. CNN averaged the most viewers for the debate with 9.228 million, followed closely by Fox with 8.773 million. Post debate coverage rounded out the top five.
The Boston Red Sox helped TBS place three games in the top ten, and TBS is no doubt hoping the series versus Tampa Bay goes seven games.
Both WWE Raw airings scored over 4.5 million. The best SpongeBob could do this week was number twenty with 4.16 million though the yellow and porous one scored another ten airings between numbers 21-40.
Ranked by viewers, the season premiere of South Park was #30 with 3.729 million.
Though we didn’t get the data for it from Nielsen, we’ve seen from other sources that Friday’s episode of the Star Wars: Clone Wars had 2.8 million viewers and that The Sarah Silverman Program had 2.4 million (thanks to “Rich from Aussie land”).
A Few Updates with additional numbers: The Starter Wife: 2.6 million, Rock of Love: 2.4 million, Dirty Jobs, 1.5 million, The Real Housewives of Atlanta: 656,000.
Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 10/12/2008:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY(S) | Live+SD HH Rating | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | NFL REGULAR SEASON L (VIKINGS/SAINTS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 7.1 | 10,975 |
| 2 | SR/PRES DEBATE 2 2008(S)-10/07/2008 | CNN | TUESDAY | 5.4 | 9,228 |
| 3 | PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE(S)-10/07/2008 | FOXNC | TUESDAY | 5.3 | 8,773 |
| 4 | ON THE RECORD W/GRETA | FOXNC | TUESDAY | 4.6 | 7,645 |
| 5 | ANDERSON COOPER 360 | CNN | TUESDAY | 4.5 | 7,633 |
| 6 | MLB ALCS (RED SOX-RAYS 1) | TBSC | FRIDAY | 4.1 | 6,689 |
| 7 | MLB ALCS (RED SOX-RAYS 2) | TBSC | SATURDAY | 3.8 | 6,089 |
| 8 | PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE CVG(S)-10/07/2008 | FOXNC | TUESDAY | 3.7 | 5,773 |
| 9 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (ANGELS-RED SOX 4) | TBSC | MONDAY | 3.6 | 5,720 |
| 10 | PRES DEBATE/ANALYSIS(S)-10/07/2008 | FOXNC | TUESDAY | 3.3 | 5,432 |
| 11 | ANDERSON COOPER 360 | CNN | TUESDAY | 2.9 | 4,596 |
| 12 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 2.5 | 4,540 |
| 13 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 2.6 | 4,521 |
| 14 | WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE | DSNY | SUNDAY | 2.8 | 4,399 |
| 15 | HANNITY & COLMES | FOXNC | WEDNESDAY | 2.9 | 4,392 |
| 16 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | TUESDAY | 3.0 | 4,366 |
| 17 | HANNAH MONTANA | DSNY | SUNDAY | 2.8 | 4,363 |
| 18 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | WEDNESDAY | 2.9 | 4,303 |
| 19 | PROJECT RUNWAY | BRVO | WEDNESDAY | 2.9 | 4,226 |
| 20 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | SATURDAY | 2.7 | 4,161 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
Rich from Aussie land commented earlier with these numbers:
Star Wars: Clone Wars: 2.8 million, 0.7/2
So much for competition between Yoda & Spongebob, this week Porous & Yellow > The Force.
Bill, I put those numbers in the post BEFORE posting it. I don’t expect our readers to read the freaking post first, but… et tu? It’s not like there was even a lot of prose this week! Though I didn’t “bold” those show names. my bad.
Oh no, now folks will *really* think we’re fighting
How did Raising the Bar do?
How did Suite Life On Deck do?
Ryan & PA, neither of those shows made the weekly top forty this week (probably pushed out by debate coverage and sports) so I am not sure. If I see the data later, I’ll post it here.
Could you tell me how True Blood did on the 12th?
Thanks!
Kasandra, True Blood wasn’t among the top 40 show data, and I didn’t see the info anywhere else. If someone else has the info, please post it, thanks.
More cable ratings (without viewers
):
- Army Wives (HH: 2.3/4; A18-49: 1.4/4)
- The Hills (HH: 2.2/3; A18-49: 1.9/5)
- Raising the Bar (HH: 1.6/3; A18-49: 0.7/2)
- Sons of Anarchy (HH: 1.4/2; A18-49: 1.1/3)
- Top Design (HH: 1.2/2; A18-49: 0.7/2)
- Mad Men (HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 0.5/1)
- True Blood (HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 0.9/2)
- Entourage (HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 1.0/2)
- Dexter (HH: 0.6/1; A18-49: 0.5/1)
- Little Britain USA (HH: 0.4/1; A18-49: 0.3/1)
- Californication (HH: 0.3/0; A18-49: 0.2/0)
Thanks for the True Blood info! and for responding if only to say you didn’t have it
Mad Men is falling like the Dow Jones. Ouch. How did Dexter draw so poorly?
Californication has jumped the shark and ended up in the mouth of the chopping block with those numbers.
above head line: “Updated: NFL, Future President and Boston Red Sox lead Weekly Cable Viewing” You mean……
Updated: NFL, Future President and Tampa Bay Rays lead Weekly Cable Viewing
Go Rays!
too bad there’s no more Pres. debates
What are the ratings for the Sci-Fi Channel lineup of SANCTUARY and STARGATE ATLANTIS?
Thanks