Note: earlier I inadvertently posted the live numbers rather than the live plus same day DVR numbers (the most common Nielsen currency these days).  I apologize for any confusion this may have caused, especially if as a result your favorite show was underreported!

While many baseball pundits suggest that it’s time to nix the Home Run Derby from the MLB All Star Game week festivities, that hardly seems likely. Over two hour and forty minutes worth of the 2008 Home Run Derby averaged 9.116 million over 1.3 million more than The Closer’s 7.809 million. And those are no shabby numbers for The Closer. So yeah, Home Run Derby will be around a while.

The Home Run Derby intro of about nine minutes wound up being counted separately and it placed third. Monk, USA’s highest rated show for the week came in fourth and Avatar: Sozin’s Comet came in fifth with 5.585 million viewers. Avatar also took the 13-15 spots. Burn Notice and In Plain Sight continue to do well for USA, though not as well as Saving Grace (#6, 5.156 million)

Not in the top 20 list below but in the Top 40 were seventeen SpongeBob airings, one Family Guy (#23), a repeat of The Closer (#25) and the Celebrity Softball Game from the All Star Game festivities (#36).

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 07/20/2008:

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On a household ratings basis, USA’s Burn Notice and In Plain Sight were not only two of the Gormans’ favorite shows, but the highest rated programs of the week. But when it came to total viewers, the family effect (more people watching per household) came into play and WWE RAW led all programs with 5.831 million viewers. The season two premiere of Burn Notice was close behind at 5.385 million, followed by Sprint Cup Racing on TNT with 5.087 million. In Plain Sight was fourth in viewers (5.087 million) followed by another WWE RAW with 5.059 million viewers. Including Law & Order: CI with 4.899 million, USA took five out of the top six spots.

The ABC Family original movie Picture This! captured the seventh spot followed by Camp Rock on Disney, SpongeBob and an airing of Monsters Inc. on Disney. Also in the top twenty in addition to four more airings of SpongeBob were two airings of Law & Order: SVU on USA and two airings of Family Guy on Adult Swim. Lifetime’s Army Wives was 16th with 3.549 million viewers and Deadliest Catch on Discovery was 19th with 3.46 million.

Not on the list but in the top forty - eleven more SpongeBobs, four more Law & Order: SVU on USA, one original Law & Order on TNT, and two more Family Guy airings on Adult Swim. Hannah Montana (#24, 3.342 million) and The Wizards of Waverly Place (#34, 3.150 million) also placed for Disney, as did another airing of Monsters Inc. (#23).

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 07/13/2008:

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing at Daytona was the most-watched show on cable last week with almost 6.4 million viewers. WWE RAW, NASCAR post-race coverage and Law & Order: CI rounded out the Top 5. Gorman favorite In Plain Sight, Sunday Night Baseball featuring the Yankees and the Sawx, Wizards of Waverly Place and Army Wives on also ranked high. A rerun of Law & Order: SVU on USA was the tenth most-watched program of the week.

Indeed for the week the Law & Order franchise seemed to encroach on SpongeBob. Ten out of the weekly top forty were in the Law & Order Franchise. SpongeBob managed only twelve out of forty this week.

Life Size and Hannah Montana joined the Waverly Wizards in the top 20 for Disney.

Shows not in the list below or already mentioned above but in the top 40: Family Guy, Drake and Josh, and Design Star III – a rare appearance in the top 40 for HGTV which came in at #35 with 2.937 million viewers.

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 07/06/2008:

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Nielsen advises that due to the fourth of July holiday the weekly top cable show and top cable network by time rankings will be delayed until tomorrow, Wednesday July 9.  We’ll post them as soon as we have them.

Nineteen out of this week’s top forty cable shows were SpongeBob.  Five were Law & Order (four SVU airings in syndication on USA, plus an original CI) Three were WWE RAW, and two each for iCarly and Mighty B! That gets you to 31 out of 40 shows right there!

On a household ratings basis, Nielsen had NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing as number one, but in viewers it was third proving once again the main live hour of WWE RAW is more of a family affair (more people watching in the same house) than NASCAR.  So too was the BET Awards Show which trailed both RAW and NASCAR in household rating, but edged out NASCAR in overall viewers.

USA’s Sunday night lineup of Law & Order: CI (#8) and In Plain Sight (#5)remains potent.  Another airing of Camp ROCK landed at #6 for Disney.  An airing of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory also landed Disney in the top ten at #9.

Army Wives couldn’t make it to 4 million viewers  but was still strong for Lifetime at #13.   The only shows in the top 40 not previously mentioned were the movie The Tenth Circle on Lifetime, an airing of Family Guy and the NBA Draft on ESPN this past Thursday (#39 out of 40).

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 6/29/2008:

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While not in the same league as the High School Musical franchise, Disney’s Camp Rock was a tour de force leading all cable programs for the week with almost 9 million viewers. I suppose you could say Camp Rock lapped the field, including second place NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing. Our friends at the WWE took the third and fourth spots with WWE RAW and the first half of the epic 18 hole US Open golf playoff took the fifth spot with almost 4.8 million viewers. Considering that aired during the daytime, on a Monday that’s pretty impressive. Sadly for golf fans and the TV networks, no more Tiger this year.

Bill’s favorite of the Law & Order franchise, Law & Order: CI took the sixth spot. It’s obvious from the 4.7 million-ish viewers that it was a Goren/Eames episode. No edit is required Bill, if it’s close to 5 million, it’s Goren/Eames. If it’s close to 4 million it’s Logan/Wheeler. No rocket science involved. How that makes the Logan/Wheeler team feel is another story!

USA’s freshman drama In Plain Sight put the smack down on Lifetime’s sophomore Army Wives. While the show’s were close in household rating, Sight wound up #7 with 4.7mm viewers and Wives took the #14 spot with 3.8 million. SpongeBob wasn’t as absorbent this week placing only 15 airings in the top forty, and only eight of them in the top twenty, the best at #8. Disney also placed Hannah Montana (12th), a re-airing of Camp Rock (16th) and the Wizards of Waverly Place in the top 20.

Not in the chart below but in the top 40 were: more SpongeBob and Hannah Montana, one airing each of NICK’s Back at the Barnyard and Mighty B! several Law & Order: SVU airings, a few airings of Family Guy on Adult Swim and more still more Disney with High School Musical, and the Suite Life of Zach & Cody.

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 6/22/2008:

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SpongeBob only took up 21 out of the cable top 40 spots this week, but NICK made up for it with six placings of iCarly and one airing of Back at the Barnyard in the weekly top forty.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing led the way and although Army Wives, In Plain Sight and iCarly took the #2, #3 and #4 spots on a household ratings basis, only iCarly could hold her place when it came to viewers where WWE RAW grabbed the #2 and #3 spots. Army Wives was in fifth, ahead of sixth place In Plain Sight by 123,000 viewers. SpongeBob, House of Payne and Top Chef rounded out the top ten.

SpongeBob dominated the back half of the top twenty, taking eight out of 10 spots and leaving room for only one airing of iCarly and a new Law & Order: CI which could only pull in 3.355 million. It must’ve been an episode with the Logan/Wheeler team [Bill Edit: Indeed it was!].  The only programs in the top forty not already mentioned: two airings of Family Guy on Adult Swim (#22 and #34), second round coverage of US Open Golf on ESPN (#33, 3.088mm), and an airing of The O”Reilly Factor last Monday (June 9) on  FOX News (#39, 2.813mm viewers).

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 6/15/2008:

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The most watched program on cable for the week was NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing with 6.098 million. I know the cable world is all atwitter with the season premiere of Lifetime’s Army Wives which came in 5th place in terms of viewers with 4.518 million. But since we had a contest for Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s season premiere we were more interested in seeing that it had slightly more viewers than “Wives” with 4.529 million and a 3rd place finish. Information on the contest winner, coming soon…

Second and sixth were sewn up by WWE RAW and Anderson Cooper 360 had a top five finish in fourth place for CNN.

The second episode of In Plain Sight on USA, which went head-to-head with the season premiere of Army Wives held up fairly well. While it was definitely off its premiere numbers of 5.25 million, it didn’t trail Army Wives by much at 4.389 million viewers and a seventh place finish. History’s Ice Road Truckers nabbed a top twenty spot at number 14 with 3.852 million and CNN placed election coverage last Tuesday at #18 with 3.788 million.

The entire rest of the top 20 was SpongeBob, who was ultra-absorbent for the week in soaking up 11 out of the top twenty spots and 27 out of the top 40 spots!! The only programs not named SpongeBob that I haven’t already covered were MSNBC election coverage in the 29 spot (3.450 million), Law & Order: SVU in the 38 and 40 spots (3.034mm and 2.983mm respectively) and Drake & Josh at #39 (3.022mm).

Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 6/08/2008:

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