TNT’s The Closer held off new episodes of USA favorites Royal Pains and Burn Notice to move into the top spot for the week’s most viewed cable show. While CNN’s Tuesday coverage of the Michael Jackson Memorial put 5 shows (of various lengths) in the top 20, nearly squeezing SpongeBob off the list entirely.
I’ve got to admit I thought that with 10 new episodes for his 10th anniversary celebration that SpongeBob would put more shows in the top 20, but clearly for TV ratings the gloved one > the absorbent one.
Update: or I was confused about the timing of the SpongeBob episodes and they are 7/17 not 7/10.
WWE Raw saw both its viewership and rankings fall this week down to #5 and #10. The NASCAR race and its post race show on TNT were #10 and #13 for the week. Once again, Lifetime’s Army Wives managed to squeeze onto the list at #19.
Here are the HBO numbers from Sunday night, although I didn’t include them in the table below: Entourage: 3.4 million, Hung: 3.6 million, True Blood: 3.9 million.
Robert is on hiatus until late July, I am on my own till then, so we will not be handling Twitter (or other) requests for ala carte show numbers.
Top 20 advertising supported cable network television shows for the week ending July 12, 2009:
| Rank | Programs | Net | Day | Time | Viewers (Live+SD) (000s) |
| 1 | THE CLOSER | TNT | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 6,053 |
| 2 | ROYAL PAINS | USA | Thu | 10:00P-11:00P | 5,733 |
| 3 | JACKSON MEMORIAL SERVICE | CNN | Tue | 03:00P-03:48P | 5,720 |
| 4 | BURN NOTICE | USA | Thu | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,505 |
| 5 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:06P | 5,399 |
| 6 | JACKSON MEMORIAL SERVICE | CNN | Tue | 02:00P-03:00P | 5,386 |
| 7 | ICARLY | NICK | Sat | 08:00P-08:30P | 5,226 |
| 8 | JACKSON MEMORIAL SERVICE | CNN | Tue | 01:33P-02:00P | 5,125 |
| 9 | M JACKSON MEMORIAL CVG | CNN | Tue | 03:48P-04:00P | 4,967 |
| 10 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 4,891 |
| 11 | SPRINT CUP RACING/CHICAGO | TNT | Sat | 07:59P-11:22P | 4,814 |
| 12 | M JACKSON MEMORIAL CVG | CNN | Tue | 01:00P-01:33P | 4,709 |
| 13 | NASCAR POST RACE SHOW | TNT | Sat | 11:22P-11:33P | 4,408 |
| 14 | PARENT TRAP, THE (1998) | DSNY | Sun | 09:00P-11:20P | 4,314 |
| 15 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 4,238 |
| 16 | HARRY POTTER/GOBLET | FAM | Sun | 07:30P-11:00P | 4,089 |
| 17 | IN PLAIN SIGHT | USA | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,915 |
| 18 | SITUATION ROOM | CNN | Tue | 04:00P-05:00P | 3,851 |
| 19 | ARMY WIVES | LIFE | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,829 |
| 20 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | Wed | 01:30P-02:00P | 3,728 |
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Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
Surprised Real World Cancun didn’t make Top 20. Wonder where it landed.
so I take it that Criminal Intent’s at about 3.5 million or less.
Bill, as far as I understand, the ten new SpongeBob episodes and marathon are not until this week.
Red, you may well be correct, and I may have been confused by that NY Times article.
Really Red, are you surprised? That show probably pulls in about 1-1.5 million viewers a week. Not enough to make the top 20, probably not even the top 40. This season of The Real World is super lame. Bring back the days of Coral, Pedro, Robin, CT and Adam, the people who made The Real World a household name
Law & Order: CI drew 3.473 million, #35 by viewership.
Does anyone know what CI did on Sunday? God that show is getting crushed now.
I am writing from a household that has an actor on JONAS and an actor on HawthoRNe. I know you’re busy, but you seem to have lots of info. Any chance you could put up their viewer numbers for the week?
John, anything for family
Top JONAS 3.029 million, Tues 8:30p
Top Hawthorne 2.631, Tues 9p
You are sooo lazy! You can’t put True blood in the top 20??? It’s ONE show!
Does anyone know how “True Jackson, VP” and “Wizards of Waverly Place” did?
what happened to NCIS? only one spot in the top 20?
A lot of people watched TV on Sunday night.
Re: ddaaaaeee,
If Bill puts (awesome) True Blood on there, it’ll push Spongebob off the list, and this site fears the Almighty Porous One.
Wasn’t really surprised, was just trying to find out how it did.
Does you know how ECW, TNA Impact and WWE Superstars did?
I wish Nickelodeon does a better job with their scheduling of iCarly but I was surprised to see it get 5.2 million viewers on Saturday Night as I was expecting less.
Good to see Sunday Night staples Army Wives and In Plain Sight make the list.
Michael Jackson dominated Tuesday afternoon and b/c it was spreaded on more than 10 networks, its numbers on the individual networks were split. I wish I could see NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX’s numbers on the service.
WWE has had a good run since Memorial Day and with Seth Green on there last night, I wouldn’t be surprised to see if boost up even more even though the Home Run Derby was on ESPN.
From what I heard TNA got around 1.7 million viewers, ECW was under a million viewers b/c of the timeslot change, and WWE Superstars a little over a million viewers.
BN and RP on USA are just Thursday Night hits always doubling NBC’s Thursday numbers. By it being an aggressively scheduled summer for cablers, we won’t see NCIS pop up on the list too much until the fall.
Honestly as far as TNT goes, The Closer is starting to fall flat and they’ll fall out of first place real soon. TNT’s Hawthorne and Saving Grace are growing on Tuesdays and Dark Blue and Leverage will do the same.
Um… @ddaaaaeee, what part of “Top 20 advertising supported cable network television shows” do you not understand? HBO is not an ad supported network. Perhaps you’re the “lazy” one, not taking the time to understand what kind of chart you’re looking at??
Hey Bill since you mentioned CNN in this article I guess the gag order on Cable News comments is temporarily lifted eh? Hehe.
Don’t worry no partisan comments here. It is worth noting that in addition the memorial coverage July cable ratings so far for CNN have shown a strong uptick, especially with Larry King (no surprise there) and AC 360. Larry’s up about 50% so far for July vs. June according to my calcs. AC’s up about 40%. It will be interesting to see if starting this week now that the MJ coverage is dying down whether they can sustain any momentum from this bounce.
Donna, already posted look up ^
Could I maybe get Real World XXII numbers for fixing the SpongeBob error?
I’m constantly amazed at Royal Pains. That show is terrible and does not belong there at #2.
@ Donna. I remember him putting it in that iCarly post. I think the number was something like 2.779 million viewers.
“Top Hawthorne 2.631, Tues 9p”
Ouch!
“I’m constantly amazed at Royal Pains. That show is terrible and does not belong there at #2.”
Royal Pains is an EXCELLENT show! It is now my favorite USA series, In Plain Sight slipped to number two.
Top Real World XXII airing 1.676 million, Wednesday 10pm
Donna, you are correct I posted them in another comment thread!
Top True Jackson VP episode, 2.779 million, Sat 8:30p
Thanks!
TVBill @ “Here are the HBO numbers from Sunday night, ************although I didn’t include them in the table below****************: Entourage: 3.4 million, Hung: 3.6 million, True Blood: 3.9 million.”
I wonder if CW ran the same HARRY POTTER movie over free tv if they would get better rating than abc family?
Any TV Land or Nick at Nite ratings? I’m dying to see how Malcolm did on Nick at Nite. It would also be nice to see how George Lopez did on its move to 9pm and how The Nanny is holding up at 11pm. Some Roseanne ratings on TV Land would be nice to see as well
There was a new Fairly OddParents special on July 10, how well did it do?
there is so much tv to at night know wow the Closer still going strong
Do you know why the Jackson memorial coverage is chopped into four shows?
Drew, my guess is that CNN called each segment a separate show.
how are Hawthorne and Saving Grace doing?
I haven’t seen “Rescue Me” up there in a while and I’m starting to get worried.
Law and Order: CI and In Plain Sight are pulling in lower numbers but I guess it does heavy competition from HBO and Lifetime. I expect a third season for IPS but not 100% sure about CI.
What numbers Hawthorne do a two week ago (07 -01)
Cheif you obviously have bad or just weird taste…. Royal Pains is freakin awesome.
Hey Bill Gorman,
Could you post #s for the new Fairly OddParents special that aired Friday night at 8pm ET on Nickelodeon?
Thanks!
I don’t know why people are saying “ouch” at ratings for “True Jackson VP” and “Hawthorne”. Both shows did really well. Any show on cable TV that can get over 2.5 million viewers is a hit, especially if they do it regularly. TJVP already does that and it gets higher ratings than several shows on the CW, like Gossip Girl and the 90210 remake. So both TJVP and Hawthorne (if it can keep up it’s hit ratings) are considered successes.
If CI does get renewed they will either have to air during a different part of the year or put it on a different night. It’s getting killed by True Blood and Army Wives. At least one of those shows is worth watching though.
TJVP’s new episode aired right after “iCarly” & lost almost 50% of iCarly’s viewership.
“Ouch” is an understatement.
what nights were law and order ci and in plain sight on last year
@Daniel,
The same night they’re on now. They’re basically where they were a few years ago on NBC when Desperate Housevives came on. True Blood is just great show thats eating up it’s audience. Hopefully it’ll be renewed for next season.
I’m glad The Closer is #1! It’s such a good show!
“I don’t know why people are saying “ouch” at ratings for “True Jackson VP” and “Hawthorne”. Both shows did really well. Any show on cable TV that can get over 2.5 million viewers is a hit, especially if they do it regularly. TJVP already does that and it gets higher ratings than several shows on the CW, like Gossip Girl and the 90210 remake. So both TJVP and Hawthorne (if it can keep up it’s hit ratings) are considered successes.”
HawthoRNe is most likely on the border line of renewal/cancellation. The Closer is above it, but Raising the Bar (because it loses so much of its lead in) and Saving Grace are below it. Leverage and Dark Blue will decide the fate of HawthoRNe IMO.
^I don’t know about that. I can’t really see TNT canceling three or more shows. It’s definitely possible, but I think unlikely. Since it’s doing better than the established Saving Grace, I think they are more likely to give it a second chance even if Leverage and Dark Blue beat it. I could see them putting it behind The Closer for the winter episodes, then moving it back to Tuesday and seeing if it can hold those extra viewers (which it is bound to get) for the summer.
BTW, I believe Leverage was averaging just under 3 million during it’s winter run. I expect it to do better than HawthoRNe’s 2.5, but, of course, no guarantees.
The Parent Trap makes the top 20 everytime Disney Channel airs it.
“BTW, I believe Leverage was averaging just under 3 million during it’s winter run. I expect it to do better than HawthoRNe’s 2.5, but, of course, no guarantees.”
Leverage’s lowest rating was 2.66 million. Plus it aired in the busier time of year, and around the holidays. The 2.66 episode was 2 days before Christmas. Plus the demo was around a 0.9 or 1.0, which is the same as Raising the Bar, and only 0.3 or 0.4 behind The Closer (which is older skewing).
^Soo….You’re saying it averaged just under 3 million and you expect it to do better than 2.5 when it comes back?
“^Soo….You’re saying it averaged just under 3 million and you expect it to do better than 2.5 when it comes back?”
It never did fall below 2.5 and moving an hour earlier could benefit it. I don’t recall it airing with another TNT show either. Now it has Dark Blue after it, which may help. Plus at the end of last season (the last 4 or so episodes) the show really found its groove. (The whole season average was 3.15 million viewers; through the first six this was released: “The first six episodes scored strong growth when comparing Live to Live + 7 numbers, with total viewership rising 33% to 4.1 million and adults 18-49 rising 42% to 1.9 million.” So, you never know.
How is it you make agreeing with me sound like you’re disagreeing?
I don’t know.
Yes, I think it will be above 2.5 million when it comes back.
I just misread your question.
I mostly hope Saving Grace stays on… It should be after the Closer
Hey Bill,
this is my first post, and I am wondering how I would find out the numbers for the new Slamball that aired on cartoon Network over the weekend?
Thank you kindly
HawthoRNe’s ratings i saw for yesterday on the Hollywood repoter it went back up to 3.2
here is yesterdays “Hawthorne” (3.2 million) perked up, climbing 22% from last week. rating from last night from the Hollywood repoter
Thank you, Bill. We love your work on the site.
Ha, can’t wait to see how the Ultimate SpongeBob Sponge Bash is going to do, 50 hours of SpongeBob must make some good numbers! Plus 12 new episodes! Gosh, I can’t wait to see these numbers!
How long is it before True Blood will get like 6 million viewers and will be at the top 20 list like The Sopranos was?
TheMediaFan, it’s already making the top 20 list. Depending on rounding, it’s #17 or 18.
6 million? At the pace it’s growing, that’s not out of reach for the season finale, and the third season will probably pass that number easily.
I truly hope HawthoRNe will not make it back next year.