Due to the holidays I didn’t see as much cable data for the week as we have recently, so sadly I can’t tell you how TNT’s A Christmas Story marathon did, or how the basketball games did on TNT on Christmas night (they weren’t among the top forty).
For the week, the final Monday Night Football game of the season with 13.80 million led cable viewing by a large margin, followed by several college bowl games on ESPN and pre/post game coverage via ESPN’s Gameday. The Champs Sports Bowl where Wisconsin was thoroughly pummeled by Florida State led the bowl game coverage on cable with 7.059 million average viewers.
The 10pm airing of WWE RAW last Monday (12/22) and two airings of NCIS rounded out the top ten. SpongeBob, which typically dominates these lists faced much pressure from NCIS. NCIS had six airings in the top 20, while the yellow and porous wonder could muster only two — the 19th and 20th spots on the list. Of the top forty shows for the week, NCIS was twelve of them, SpongeBob “only” placed six airings in the top forty for the week.
Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 12/28/2008:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY(S) | Start Time | Live+SD HH Rating | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | NFL REGULAR SEASON L (PACKERS/BEARS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 8:30 PM | 8.4 | 13,803 |
| 2 | COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(WISCONSIN/FLORIDA STATE) | ESPN | SATURDAY | 4:30 PM | 4.5 | 7,059 |
| 3 | COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(MIAMI (FL)/CALIFORNIA) | ESPN | SATURDAY | 8:00 PM | 4.0 | 6,508 |
| 4 | COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(WEST VIRGINIA/NORTH CAROLINA) | ESPN | SATURDAY | 12:55 PM | 3.9 | 5,881 |
| 5 | COLL GAMEDAY SCOREBOARD | ESPN | SATURDAY | 4:11 PM | 3.9 | 5,802 |
| 6 | COLL GAMEDAY SCOREBOARD | ESPN | SATURDAY | 7:49 PM | 3.5 | 5,675 |
| 7 | COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(BOISE STATE/TCU) | ESPN | TUESDAY | 7:55 PM | 3.2 | 5,061 |
| 8 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (\WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,883 |
| 9 | NCIS | USA | SATURDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.0 | 4,781 |
| 10 | NCIS | USA | SATURDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.9 | 4,738 |
| 11 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (\WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,650 |
| 12 | NCIS | USA | SATURDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,551 |
| 13 | NCIS | USA | SATURDAY | 11:00 PM | 2.9 | 4,518 |
| 14 | COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(HAWAII/NOTRE DAME) | ESPN | WEDNESDAY | 7:55 PM | 2.6 | 4,413 |
| 15 | HOUSE | USA | SUNDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,279 |
| 16 | NCIS | USA | SATURDAY | 5:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,206 |
| 17 | NCIS | USA | TUESDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,142 |
| 18 | HOUSE | USA | SUNDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,109 |
| 19 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | TUESDAY | 10:30 AM | 2.6 | 4,077 |
| 20 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | TUESDAY | 2:30 PM | 2.5 | 4,057 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
Wow. I think USA should do more NCIS marathons.
How did the college football bowl games do on Dec. 20 and 21 on ESPN?
Anthony, you’re in the wrong week, but if you’ll give me the names of the teams that played, I’ll see what I can do…
I know. I posted this same question last week but was left unanswered then. You could post a response to my question in the post for last week’s cable info.
EagleBank Bowl
Wake Forest 29, Navy 19
Dec. 20, 11 a.m. ESPN
New Mexico
Colorado State 40, Fresno State 35
Dec. 20, 2:30 p.m. ESPN
magicJack St. Petersburg
USF 41, Memphis 14
Dec. 20, 4:30 p.m. ESPN2
Pioneer Las Vegas
Arizona 31, BYU 21
Dec. 20, 8 p.m. ESPN
R+L Carriers New Orleans
Southern Miss 30, Troy 27 (OT)
Dec. 21, 8:15 p.m. ESPN
sorry about that…
Wake Forest 29, Navy 19: 2.875 million
Colorado State 40, Fresno State 35: 3.432 million
USF 41, Memphis 14: 1.661 million
Arizona 31, BYU 21: 3.389 million
Southern Miss 30, Troy 27 (OT): 1.115 million
I agree about NCIS reruns, as well as House reruns. I have to admit that while I don’t watch NCIS, I watched most of the House episodes.
How did Leverage do?
Stop harshing my mellow.
The ratings for the “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” marathon should have been quite poor for TNT, given the annual marathon has been on TBS since 2004.