WWE RAW again captured the top two spots, followed by Nick’s iCarly, an NCIS rerun and the controversial sponginess that is SpongeBob rounded out the top five.
People are showing NCIS the love, with it taking nine of the top twenty spots. And while Penguins of Madagascar only showed up once in the top 20, like SpongeBob, there are a zillion episodes and many of them that performed much better than shows I list that are outside of the top twenty.
The first two rounds of The Masters golf tournament fared well for ESPN. Rescue Me returned after about a year and a half hiatus to decent numbers for FX. Let’s get to the numbers…
Top 20 cable shows for the week ending April 12, 2009:
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING, THANK YOU!
Please note, all shows outside of the top twenty are sorted by viewers but ARE NOT ranked. If you don’t see a show listed here, the only thing you can conclude for sure is that it wasn’t in the top twenty. The top twenty would include premium cable, if any of those shows ever made the top twenty. But the additional show list is for advertising supported basic cable networks only. We do not see data directly for premium cable channels. But if I see anything I’ll post it here and if you see anything, please post a link in the comments.
There are over 14,000 shows. I’m not taking requests as it would be impossible to please everyone. Sorry! If you make a request in the comments anyway, I will ignore it, sorry.
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:03P | 6,140 |
| 2 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,743 |
| 3 | ICARLY | NICK | Sat | 08:00P-08:30P | 5,051 |
| 4 | NCIS | USA | Tue | 07:00P-08:00P | 4,394 |
| 5 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | Sat | 09:30A-10:00A | 4,210 |
| 6 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,997 |
| 7 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXN | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,977 |
| 8 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,967 |
| 9 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,966 |
| 10 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | Sat | 09:00A-09:30A | 3,879 |
| 11 | PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR | NICK | Sat | 10:00A-10:30A | 3,766 |
| 12 | NCIS | USA | Wed | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,703 |
| 13 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,701 |
| 14 | TRUE JACKSON, VP | NICK | Sat | 08:30P-09:00P | 3,654 |
| 15 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,590 |
| 16 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXN | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,513 |
| 17 | MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT L | ESPN | Fri | 04:00P-07:34P | 3,503 |
| 18 | NCIS | USA | Tue | 06:00P-07:00P | 3,493 |
| 19 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,475 |
| 20 | NORA ROBERTS TRIBUTE | LIFE | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 3,430 |
| Other shows (sorted, but not ranked) | |||||
| MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT L | ESPN | Thu | 04:00P-07:30P | 3,366 | |
| ROCK OF LOVE 3 | VH1 | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,239 | |
| FOR THE LOVE OF RAY J | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,164 | |
| SOUTH PARK | CMDY | Wed | 10:00P-10:30P | 3,106 | |
| S HANNAH MONTANA | DSNY | Mon | 06:00P-06:30P | 2,998 | |
| HOUSE OF PAYNE | TBSC | Wed | 10:30P-11:00P | 2,979 | |
| HILLS, THE | MTV | Mon | 10:30P-11:00P | 2,970 | |
| CUBS/BREWERS | ESPN | Sun | 08:00P-11:36P | 2,961 | |
| FAMILY GUY | ADSM | Sun | 11:00P-11:30P | 2,960 | |
| BACK AT THE BARNYARD | NICK | Sat | 10:30A-11:00A | 2,946 | |
| MIGHTY B! | NICK | Sat | 11:00A-11:30A | 2,832 | |
| UCONN/LOUISVILLE | ESPN | Tue | 08:30P-10:43P | 2,668 | |
| GHOST HUNTERS | SCIF | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,654 | |
| LOVE FINDS A HOME | HALL | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 2,532 | |
| MAX AND RUBY | NICK | Fri | 10:00A-10:30A | 2,634 | |
| I LOVE MONEY 2 | VH1 | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,551 | |
| SAVING GRACE | TNT | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,539 | |
| NUGGETS/LAKERS | TNT | Thu | 10:50P-01:35A | 2,510 | |
| RESCUE ME | FX | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,297 | |
| HOUSE HUNTERS INTL | HGTV | Thu | 10:00P-10:30P | 2,001 | |
| MYTHBUSTERS | DISC | Wed | 09:00P-11:00P | 1,981 | |
| DAILY SHOW | CMDY | Wed | 10:59P-11:30P | 1,888 | |
| ECW | SCIF | Tue | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,883 | |
| RIVER MONSTERS | APL | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,886 | |
| LIFE WITH DEREK-LN | DSNY | Fri | 12:00A-12:30A | 1,875 | |
| THE FIRST 48 | A&E | Thu | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,790 | |
| RENO 911! | CMDY | Wed | 10:30P-10:59P | 1,786 | |
| DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES | FOOD | Fri | 09:30P-10:00P | 1,767 | |
| THATS SO RAVEN – LN | DSNY | Thu | 11:30P-12:00A | 1,767 | |
| REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NYC | BRAV | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,737 | |
| DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER | A&E | Wed | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,637 | |
| BATTLES BC | HIST | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,626 | |
| DIRTY JOBS | DISC | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,602 | |
| COLBERT REPORT | CMDY | Wed | 11:30P-12:00A | 1,446 | |
| RL HSWVS OF NJ PREV SP | BRAV | Tue | 11:00P-11:30P | 1,432 | |
| BREAKING BAD | AMC | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,407 | |
| COUNTDOWN W/ K. OLBERMANN | MSNB | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 1,332 | |
| THE SOUP | EN | Fri | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,244 | |
| NANCY GRACE | HLN | Wed | 08:00P-08:54P | 1,170 | |
| CHELSEA LATELY | EN | Wed | 11:00P-11:30P | 911 | |
| GREEK | FAM | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 834 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
The best show is at the top… WWE reigns supreme again.
So few Spongebobs in the top 20. And the top 20 isn’t even that high this week.
there were another six not listed that did over 3 million though. And for Bob, how high the top 20 is at the high end doesn’t really matter so much, it’s how the top 20 is at the low end. Still, the range for the top 20 was a bit lower than a month ago or so when the Burn Notice finale aired. That week the range of the top 20 was 3.7-6.3 million (with iCarly the #1 show that week).
Unfortunately I am so clueless about how/when new episodes for the kid shows are rolled out, it’s difficult for me to do any meaningful comparisons.
Saving Grace and Breaking Bad were higher than last week, was Saving Grace the second season finale?
Rescue Me did well too, it must attract a decent sized 18-49 demo although I think Nip/Tuck tops it.
Robert, Is that a series low for Greek?
Greek very low… But Penguins very high! Great, I love Penguins ;P
Tribute was the last one for this year’s Nora Roberts Collection on Lifetime. The first one aired (Northern Lights) remains the most warched one (4.5million) followed by the second aired (“Midnight Bayou”) with 3.8 million viewers. Tribute (the 4th one) with 3.4m and High Noon (third one aired) with 3.3 million.
bad for greek!!!! Obv it only does well when it follows secret life!!
I wonder how King of the Hill is doing on Adult Swim. Its not as popular as Family Guy, but it does have a decent-sized following.
“Robert, Is that a series low for Greek?”
This makes me think Roommates is doing TERRIBLE. Roommates is a very funny comedy.
greek is such an awful show.
Jimmy, just because they hit you where it hurts doesn’t mean it’s a bad show.
disappointed for Greek, especially sice the crappy Secret Life got 4+ million viewrs a couple of weeks ago
it doesnt hit me where it hurts, they are completely wrong on how greek life is. the whole show is based on a stereotypical lie.
Could you be extremely nice and tell us about Moonlight (Sci-Fi). There was a marathon on 04/09 and the regular scheduled show on 04/10. Thank you! We would just like to know.
Greak had half the audience of Kyle XY, yet Greek is renewed.
Hey…I heard that The Newlywed Game and Catch 21 premiers on Monday were the highest premiers for a game show on GSN in a very long while. Can you give me those numbers if you have them?
It’s not a docummentary. Stereotypical or not it’s a good show. Roommates as well. Clearly both shows will be canceled
Robert, Greek is already renewed.
robert, incorrect, sorry try again later.
Jimmy’s just bitter because he’s a frat-brat.
Jimmy McAwesome
Greek is a good show.
Julia
couldn’t have said it better myself:)
its the same reason why cops hate cop shows, the show gets it wrong.
So, are those Reno 911! numbers better or worst then Important Things?
I use to really enjoy Reno, but I’m so pissed that they got ride of half there cast, I don’t know if I can forgive them.
Stacy, I think there were at least a couple of weeks where Important Things was at similar levels to Reno 911, but most weeks it was higher than that.
What happened to RW/RR: The Duel 2. I know you dont like requeasts but I’ve been waiting all week for the numbers. You’ve always included it.
Chris, I got those numbers early and did a separate post on them last week:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/04/09/mtvs-real-world-road-rules-the-duel-2-premiere-numbers/16418
So 1.78 million is ALL the viewers? Because if I read correctly it was only for the 12-34 demo. (Sorry for being such a brat)
but I thought the numbers were bigger.
Chris, that was the total viewers overall. the 12-34 were expressed in coverage ratings points.
Wat are coverage ratibgs points? I’m sorry but I dont know the “process” of how the ratings system works.
not the appropriate place for that discussion, Chris, and it’s not important since you have your answer (1.78 million was the total).
I understand.
(Greek had half the audience of Kyle XY, yet Greek is renewed.)
Yes it did and i am happy abc family shot itself in the foot!! Kyle XY was too good to not continue on for another season!!! The new shows are doing as bad and i knew they would bomb!!
Happy Saving Grace was up!
me to cant wait for the new season this summer
Greek rocks, suck it haters, it not their fault they abc family did not give your show a proper send off
Any word on how Krod Mondoon and the Flaming Sword did for Comedy Central?
Darius, given all the ads I saw for that I’m surprised I didn’t include it! It’s in the last paragraph of Hibberd’s write-up here:
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/04/rock-of-love-nora-roberts-krod-mandoon-ratings.html
Kyle XY was cancelled bacause it is suppose to be ABC Fanily’s hit program, but it seemed to not stand that good on its own. Even if it did better than Greek, it was suppose to have 2 million + viewers and that didnt happen. Greek can last on its own, but ABC Family likes it and they will probably stick it behind the secret life.
The WWE is red hot and its cookin’ big time right now. #1 and #2. I also liked how iCarly got over 5 million viewers. iCarly is the one cable show that should be on one of the broadcasters. If The CW had a few shows that were good as iCarly was or got those type of ratings then it could be looked at as a serious contender instead of a joke.
Good week for Rescue Me and Saving Grace. SG has done a great job of performing on its own.
The Hills is a joke and The City is way better and should’ve gotten its ratings during its run earlier this week.
By the way the Draft on Raw last night scored huge numbers and should be at the top again next week:
The first hour drew an average of 4,722,000 viewers, jumped up to 5,981,000 viewers in the second hour, but dipped down to 5,666,000 viewers in the third and final hour. What’s interesting about that rating is the fact that the first hour scored 4.7 million viewers and it normally does worse than that in the first hour.
Could we get the ratings for the NHL and NBA Playoffs?
The NHL might be seeing some great ratings for its playoffs since their on the rise each season and the Blackhawks are back in the picture.
again no mention of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Kyle, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is on HBO. Read the bold part right above the table.
Robert, thank you for adding the soup and greek. I really appreciate it
NCIS is still pulling em in even on USA. Great show. Hey where can I get the ratings for Moonlight on SciFi last week? Want to see them even if they are bad.
There are over 14,000 shows. I’m not taking requests as it would be impossible to please everyone. Sorry! If you make a request in the comments anyway, I will ignore it, sorry.
Good numbers for The Soup and Chelsea Lately! I wonder if Chelsea Lately will hit 1 million viewers next week…
Ryan: Kyle XY not only stood up on its own, but it was the highest rated show to ever appear on ABC Family, until The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Additionally, Kyle XY was repeated on the regular ABC channel to fill in some dead time on Fridays and did fairly well. For example, the first episode had 5.2 million viewers.
The large slip in the ratings for Kyle XY came during this last season. Two things caused it. One, The Secret Life of the American Teenager did better than ABC expected and Kyle XY was no longer the anchor show for the ABC Family channel it had been until that point. Two, the writer’s strike put a huge dent into the show. The first season had 10 episodes, the second had 23 and the third season had the number of episodes cut back down to 10 again.
Robert: The next new Spongebob–Spongebob Vs The Big One–will air on Friday. However, it will be more of a special episode than a regular series episode. Also, Johnny Depp will be doing a voice-over, so I expect higher than average ratings for this episode compared to regular new episodes.
Nice ratings for a late tv show in cable; Chelsey Lately
YAY GREEK!!!
I love Greek…
Casar and his dog show is the only cable show worth wathing.
Robert, any suggestions for finding the ratings of our favorite ad-supported cable shows? I tried the link from The Hollywood Reporter you gave us, and the article on Rod Blagojevich being on a reality show spooked me from ever doing research again. :-O
WWE is getting big numbers every week. I think they have won the week in Cable almost every week this year except for a few weeks.
The draft did good numbers. The thing is, i think that the ddraft should start at 9 and end at 12. I bet that the 11pm hour could have actaully pulled more than 4.7 mill.
And CW is struggling in every way, i dont know why they let go of Smackdown, that was consisitantly their top show and top demographic. They need more shows that pull around 5 mill.
I am a Newbie
The draft episodes (three of them) will appear on next week’s list for WE 4/19. Reports are it did about 3.2 for the first hour and 4.0 for the other two. It will be interesting to see how long they can maintain the high 3’s once the initial post-draft interest has died down. I think they will back down to the low 3’s by the dog days of summer.
Also not listed, TNA Wrestling on Thursday nights have been doing a solid 1.3 for the past month or so. They’re years away from challenging the WWE but nice to a #2 wrestling company starting to emerge.
Thanks Robert for the Krod numbers.
Yeah WWE will stay in the high 3s until May and then they will probably slip to 3.3-3.5 range for the rest of the year. but so far they are having a good year
And TNA is doing good, i think if they get a big star from WWE and a little more adverstising and promoting, they could be around a 2.0 by years end. With out a new big star i see tehm at around a 1.5 or 1.6 by years end
This is no fun without Moonlight numbers!
Why do Moonlight fans seem to think they are too good for the rules?
Thanks for giving us more numbers then just the top 20. After all it gets old looking at the same shows in the majority of places. No offense but looking at 9 NCIS ratings is rather pointless.
Where is making the band 4?
i need you to post, Tough Love
Dance, ratings monkey, dance!
Moonlight fans are way good! The show lives in our memories, re-runs and on the DVD and trust me, we still watch it and support our actors in other projects. Still, the numbers were posted for the previous 8 episodes and we simply are fans that want a little information. I am sorry that it offends anyone. I also understand that there are thousands of other shows not rated here, but those other shows are not asking, we are.
Bianca, perhaps fans of those shows understand “Sorry, no requests” while Moonlight fans feel entitled to make such requests even though I have specifically asked people NOT to do so. You have to understand that such a sense of entitlement will irk some people, whether you feel entitled to it or not. But unfortunately this is NOT a Moonlight fan site and if I honor your request people will say “What about Bridget’s Sexy Travels” and how about “George Lopez” and where is “The Cougar” and on and on and on. So, no.
Yes, I do understand! I did not mean to stir up bad feelings. Thank you anyhow!
Is there really a show called Bridget’s Sexy Travels?
yep. Tonight’s episode places Bridget in Spain (according to her PR people)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w00QPoCxOo8
correction: the show name is actually: Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches
I’m pretty sure Fairly OddParents did better than Back at the Barnyard, and Mighty B! according to this
Final K6-11 Ratings for Saturday, April, 11, 2009 Cable Networks only (Live + SD Data):
Source: Disney Research from Nielsen Media Research Data
NICKELODEON 4.1/24 Avg. (7a-1p)
Jimmy Neutron 1.5/19; Jimmy Neutron 2.5/21; Fairly OddParents 3.5/22; Fairly OddParents 4.6/26; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.8/28; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.5/27; Penguins of Madagascar 5.7/28; Back at the Barnyard 4.1/20; Mighty B! 4.0/21; SpongeBob SquarePants 3.8/21; SpongeBob SquarePants 4.0/23; SpongeBob SquarePants 3.9/23
why isn’t it on the list? If you can Could you tell me the total viewers that day?
Jose, in total viewers it did not do better than Back at the Barnyard. We don’t get the K6-11 demo ratings, so we can’t sort them that way (and it would probably hurt NCIS and RAW’s numbers a lot!)
Okeydokey. But another question do the Top 20 lists cost money? Like does the list have the best viewing for those shows?
the top 20 list doesn’t cost any money. but FOP wasn’t in the top 20. More and more, I think I will simply go back to posting ONLY the top 20 and then maybe quarterly post some data for other shows. People’s expectations about what they are entitled to and deserve are very annoying on a free web site (where apparently a great deal of our readers BLOCKS the ads!)
On a random note I for one think Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches looks like a fantastically informative travel show…
Alex, is that based on the 30 second promo, or something else?
Perfectly clear. I’m sorry since I was just wondering, since you guys know more than I in these Nielsen ratings jumbo. If I ever do start my own fan site, I would like to know how to get these ratings and such and which ones cost money.
can you tell me what this means exactly when somebody says this
SpongeBob SquarePants 5.8/28
http://tvbythenumbers.com/numbers-102
aack.. i meant
http://tvbythenumbers.com/demystifying-the-s
Does anyone know of:
1) a website that displays show ratings for all the shows on Travel Channel? I would like to know what the heck most couch potatoes are watching on TC. And,
2) how does TC rate overall next to other cable channels? It’s gotta be near the bottom.
Susan, there is no web site like that. That’s in the realm of, you need to sign up to be a Nielsen customer (and unless you work at The Travel Channel which may already have an account, you won’t want to do that). As for how TTC fares relative to other cable networks in the aggregate and in prime-time you can check that out here:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/ratings/top-cable-networks
WWE! Still rockin and rollin baby! Put O’reilly in the ring and it would be unbeatable!
TNA just signed Bobby Lashley and possbily Tazz, so that might help them. RAW has been the best thing on TV since 1993 and I haven’t missed a single one. BTW, where is Smackdown on this list? It has to be pulling in more numbers than Olbermann.
I’m a Kyle XY fan, wrote letters, did what I could do to stop Kyle Xy from being canceled .I’m 53 and my whole family enjoyed watching kyle.I’m so angry at abc family. I will not watch any show or movie that’s on that network! their are many other channels to watch with better quality series to enjoy.What about Roommates? The so called show in place of kyles slot, do they even have a ratings? I’ll miss this show Kyle XY,and Ive seen a lot of series go over the years,but Ive never missed a show so much as, this Kyle Xy