ESPN Monday Night Football (Steelers/Ravens), as it will likely through December, led all cable shows for the week with 11.8 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel's airing of the Vice Presidential debate with 11.1 million. The pre-debate and post-debate analysis as well as the VP debate on other networks and ancillary news programs were all over the top twenty this week. Major League Baseball playoff games put 6 games in the top 20 at numbers 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, and 19.
The Force was strong with the two premiere episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars finishing at #27 (the top non-sports, non-news show for the week) and #30 with 3.992 million and 3.924 million viewers. There were only three SpongeBob airings in this week's top forty - the best at # 35 with 3.739 million. For at least this one week, Yoda > SpongeBob.
WWE Raw took the 15th and 17th spots with over 4.4 million viewers in each case. The Wizards of Waverly Place put an episode at #29 with 3.933 million. Suite Life on Deck pulled in 3.822 million at #32 and Army Wives was #39 with 3.319 million.
Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 10/5/2008:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Day | Viewers (Live+SD) |
| 1 | NFL (RAVENS/STEELERS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 11,783 |
| 2 | VP DEBATE(S)-10/02/2008 | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 11,098 |
| 3 | SR/VICE PRES DEBATE 2008(S)-10/02/2008 | CNN | THURSDAY | 10,685 |
| 4 | ON THE RECORD W/GRETA | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 9,801 |
| 5 | Anderson Cooper 360 | CNN | THURSDAY | 7,961 |
| 6 | VP DEBATE CVG(S)-10/02/2008 | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 7,372 |
| 7 | VP DEBATE ANALYSIS(S)-10/02/2008 | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 6,977 |
| 8 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (Angels-RED SOX 3) | TBSC | SUNDAY | 6,199 |
| 9 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 5,624 |
| 10 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (DODGERS-CUBS 1) | TBSC | WEDNESDAY | 5,381 |
| 11 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (RED SOX-Angels 2) | TBSC | FRIDAY | 5,268 |
| 12 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (CUBS-DODGERS 3) | TBSC | SATURDAY | 5,224 |
| 13 | Hannity & COLMES | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 4,935 |
| 14 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | MONDAY | 4,650 |
| 15 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 4,586 |
| 16 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (PHILLIES-BREWERS 3) | TBSC | SATURDAY | 4,573 |
| 17 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 4,493 |
| 18 | Anderson Cooper 360 | CNN | THURSDAY | 4,477 |
| 19 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (RED SOX-Angels 1) | TBSC | WEDNESDAY | 4,442 |
| 20 | DEBATE | MSNBC | THURSDAY | 4,412 |
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Update: More cable ratings from commenter Wyatt:
Last Week
09/29/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.5/2; A18-49: 0.7/2
10/05/08 True Blood HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 1.0/2
10/05/08 Entourage HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 0.9/2
10/05/08 Dexter HH: 0.5/1; A18-49: 0.3/1
10/05/08 Little Britain USA HH: 0.4/1; A18-49: 0.4/1
10/05/08 Californication HH: 0.3/0; A18-49: 0.2/1
Last Monday
10/06/08 Monday Night Football HH: 7.1/12; A18-49: 4.6/12
10/06/08 The Hills HH: 2.2/3; A18-49: 1.9/5
10/06/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.6/3; A18-49: 0.7/2
- Dexter: 0.786 million viewers
- Little Britain USA: 0.657 million viewers
- Californication: 0.442 million viewers
- The Life & Times of Tim: 0.275 million viewers
Baseball playoff ratings:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/cable-tv/e3i05c8198f5eab4cda85121f7582eedaad
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
Hi, Robert. Can you tell me how many viewers Disney Channel’s Studio DC Almost Live got? It was on Sunday night. Thanks!
Tom, we only see the top 40 cable shows each week and that wasn’t on the list. I will keep an eye out for a press release with results.
Is Spongebob’s popularity finally dying?
Or has these past couple of weeks just been a fluke?
Hi Robert, Any news on how TNT Raising the Bar did for its 5th episode that aired on Mon 9/29/08? Did it even make it into the Top 40? Thanks.
Alex, my guess, and its just a guess because we have limited cable data, is that Spongebob has been doing as well as Spongebob always does, but other categories of cable shows have moved past it into the top 40 like the baseball playoffs and the debates and associated news programs. When the playoffs are done, and the election is over, those shows will disappear and the yellow absorbent one will remain. Now with the new challenge from Yoda!
TesserT, Raising the Bar wasn’t in the top 40 and I have not been around much today to watch the news flow, but if I get more show data from press releases I will add it to the post.
Tesser I am in the midst of a move and not keeping up as normal, but I believe it was the 9/29 episode of RTB that plummeted to around the 2.5 million range. In any case it definitely did not make the top 40
how did all the baseball playoff game do?
Travis, we don’t get overnight cable ratings and I haven’t seen any press releases today on the baseball games.
Thanks guys! appreciate the update
FX just cancelled The Riches.
9/29/08Raising the Bar
More cable ratings (sorry, i don’t have viewers
)
Last Week
09/29/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.5/2; A18-49: 0.7/2
10/05/08 True Blood HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 1.0/2
10/05/08 Entourage HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 0.9/2
10/05/08 Dexter HH: 0.5/1; A18-49: 0.3/1
10/05/08 Little Britain USA HH: 0.4/1; A18-49: 0.4/1
10/05/08 Californication HH: 0.3/0; A18-49: 0.2/1
Last Monday
10/06/08 Monday Night Football HH: 7.1/12; A18-49: 4.6/12
10/06/08 The Hills HH: 2.2/3; A18-49: 0.7/2
10/06/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.6/3; A18-49: 1.9/5
Baseball playoff ratings:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/cable-tv/e3i05c8198f5eab4cda85121f7582eedaad
Thanks Wyatt! Added to the post.
any idea how the life and times of tim did? i thought that show was terrific.
The Hills and Raising of the Bar A18-49 is wrong. The Hills got 1.9/5 and Raising of the Bar 0.7/2, sorry.
Wyatt, thanks for the update. Changed!
Folks, I’ve just got some HBO and Showtime viewers
- Dexter: 0.786 million viewers
- Little Britain USA: 0.657 million viewers
- Californication: 0.442 million viewers
- The Life & Times of Tim: 0.275 million viewers
Life & Times of Tim is practically non-existent. I’m not surprised. It’s somewhat entertaining, but it’s definitely not laugh out loud funny, and probably doesn’t appeal to much of America.
I’ve said this before, but dang. HBO must have a lot of subscribers not watching it. Oh, and if anyone could tell me the approximate of TV households that have cable I’d appreciate it
johnthemon,
Here’s the latest numbers we have on how many households receive each “cable” network. Although “cable” isn’t exactly correct, since perhaps 1/3 of the homes get them via satellite.
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/05/06/nielsen-cable-network-coverage-estimates/3659