Two Monday Night Football matchups to kickoff the season last week (9/8) led ESPN to the top two spots. The Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers game took top honors with 12.50 million viewers leading the Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders game with 9.67 million viewers by a comfortable margin. TNT's The Closer, with 7.44 million viewers was the highest rated scripted show on cable last week. The Lifetime original movie, Coco Chanel took the fourth spot with 5.226 million viewers.
A commemoration of September 11, 2001, 102 Minutes That Changed America led History channel to the fifth spot with 5.153 million viewers. Monk and Burn Notice both made the top 10 for USA Network and Psych with over 4 million viewers was #19.
Raising the Bar fell far from its premiere, but still managed almost 5 million viewers and seventh place for the week.
Interviews with Barack Obama and afterglow proved very strong for Fox News Channel and The O'Reilly Factor, with O'Reilly taking the 10, 14, 15, and 17 spots. Almost SpongBob-esque. Speaking of which, SpongeBob's best showing was at #16 and the yellow and porous one also grabbed the #20 spot. The "mid-season" finale of The Secret Life of an American Teenager took the eleventh spot on the list with 4.5 million viewers.
Not in the top twenty but among the data we received (Nielsen limits us to lists of 20) were nine more airings of SpongeBob, Bravo's Project Runway (#22, 3.864 million), three airings of House on USA, Back at the Barnyard on Nick (#29, 3.396 million), four airings of FNC's Hannity & Colmes, and a special on FNC called The Cost of Freedom with 3.216 million viewers. MTV's The Hill's was #40 with 2.969 million viewers on Monday 9/8.
I know that many of you are interested in other shows like Mad Men and Sons Of Anarchy - I haven't seen any numbers yet but will post them here if/when I do, so check back later...
Update 1: My sources tell me this past Sunday's episode of Mad Men, episode eight out of thirteen for season two was on in 1.4 million homes and watched by almost 1.9 million (1.870) viewers based on preliminary overnight data. That's pretty strong after some early season drop offs.
Update 2: The second installment of HBO's True Blood on Sunday night drew 1.8 million, up almost 25% from its premiere the previous week. Also, looks like HBO made the right call with cancelling Inside the NFL. Its debut on Showtime last Wednesday drew but 171,000 in its initial airing.
Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 09/14/2008:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY(S) | Live+SD HH rating | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | NFL REGULAR SEASON L (VIKINGS/PACKERS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 7.9 | 12,501 |
| 2 | NFL REGULAR SEASON L (BRONCOS/RAIDERS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 6.2 | 9,665 |
| 3 | CLOSER, THE | TNT | MONDAY | 4.9 | 7,440 |
| 4 | SATURDAY MOVIE III (COCO CHANEL) | LIF | SATURDAY | 3.8 | 5,226 |
| 5 | 102 MINUTES THAT CHANGED AMERICA | HIST | THURSDAY | 3.3 | 5,153 |
| 6 | MONK | USA | FRIDAY | 3.1 | 5,020 |
| 7 | RAISING THE BAR | TNT | MONDAY | 3.5 | 4,978 |
| 8 | Burn Notice | USA | THURSDAY | 3.1 | 4,768 |
| 9 | Hannah Montana | DSNY | SUNDAY | 3.1 | 4,606 |
| 10 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | MONDAY | 3.1 | 4,572 |
| 11 | SECRET LIFE/AMERICAN TEEN | FAM | TUESDAY | 2.6 | 4,537 |
| 12 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 2.6 | 4,441 |
| 13 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 2.6 | 4,413 |
| 14 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | TUESDAY | 2.9 | 4,303 |
| 15 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | WEDNESDAY | 2.9 | 4,228 |
| 16 | SpongeBob | NICK | SATURDAY | 2.8 | 4,173 |
| 17 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | FRIDAY | 2.8 | 4,151 |
| 18 | Army Wives | LIF | SUNDAY | 3.0 | 4,126 |
| 19 | PSYCH | USA | FRIDAY | 2.4 | 4,023 |
| 20 | SpongeBob | NICK | SATURDAY | 2.4 | 3,997 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
