Inauguration fascination swept the nation, and various coverage dominated this week's cable top twenty as SpongeBob finally met his match in president Obama. But do not underestimate the power of the WWE Raw which still managed to grab the fourth and eleventh spots on the list. The Monday 10pm airing averaged almost 6.2 million.
Burn Notice returned with series best numbers (5.2 million) and was the most-watched scripted program on cable, coming in number twelve. USA's Monk also made the top twenty with almost five million viewers. Our friends at NICK's Back at the Barnyard rounded out the top twenty with 4.45 million.
I've included a bunch of shows not in the top twenty this week. Please note that while those shows are sorted by the number of viewers, they are NOT ranked.
The thing that probably most impressed me was probably how well the Miss America pageant did on TLC (3.536 million) but if I had checked out the numbers from last year when it also ran on TLC and had 3.63 million, I wouldn't have been surprised. The thing that made me scratch my head the most was Damages which only averaged 761,000 in its initial airing, though a rerun of the Wednesday airing on Sunday night at 11pm drew an additional 473,000.
Is it just me, or is the self-indulgence of the producers of Battlestar Galactica showing up in the ratings? The second episode of the final batch of ten was down about 400,000 from the premiere last week to 1.7 million. While I've seen a fair bit of critical raving about the episode, my sentiment was "WTF you only have NINE episodes left, and you're spending it on this?!" In fairness, I've more or less felt that way since the middle of season two, and despite my whining, I will watch until the bitter end. Update January 30: Credit where credit is due, the episode that aired Friday January 30 was much better!
Update: I meant to add it to the table below, but forgot, but the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night averaged 2.5 million between 8p-10p on TBS.
The Screen Actors Guild Awards averaged 2.833 million million on TNT between 8pm-10:06pm on Sunday night. According to our data, a simulcast on TBS averaged 2.54 million.
Update two: I can't believe I forgot the Moonlight debut on SciFi (as BSG's lead-in, no less). But I did. Sorry. It did 1.166 million on Friday night between 9p-10p.
Full top twenty most-watched cable show for the week ending January 25, 2009:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | OBAMA INAUG OATH/SPEECH | CNN | Tue | 12:05P-12:27P | 8,602 |
| 2 | SR/INAUGURATION OF OBAMA | CNN | Tue | 12:00P-12:38P | 7,796 |
| 3 | SR/INAUGURATION OF OBAMA | CNN | Tue | 11:00A-12:00P | 6,733 |
| 4 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:19P | 6,165 |
| 5 | SR/INAUGURATION OF OBAMA | CNN | Tue | 01:00P-02:00P | 6,003 |
| 6 | SITUATION ROOM | CNN | Tue | 05:00P-06:00P | 5,726 |
| 7 | SITUATION ROOM | CNN | Tue | 06:00P-07:00P | 5,677 |
| 8 | OBAMA INAUGURAL ADDRESS | FOXN | Tue | 12:07P-12:28P | 5,571 |
| 9 | INAUGURATION 2009 | FOXN | Tue | 12:00P-12:07P | 5,290 |
| 10 | SR/INAUGURATION OF OBAMA | CNN | Tue | 03:00P-04:00P | 5,272 |
| 11 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,178 |
| 12 | BURN NOTICE | USA | Thu | 10:00P-11:00P | 5,124 |
| 13 | ANDERSON COOPER 360 | CNN | Tue | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,092 |
| 14 | SITUATION ROOM | CNN | Tue | 04:00P-05:00P | 5,061 |
| 15 | SR/INAUGURATION OF OBAMA | CNN | Tue | 02:00P-03:00P | 5,012 |
| 16 | MONK | USA | Fri | 09:00P-10:00P | 4,969 |
| 17 | INAUGURATION 2009 | FOXN | Tue | 12:28P-01:00P | 4,952 |
| 18 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 07:00P-08:00P | 4,793 |
| 19 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 12:00P-12:30P | 4,569 |
| 20 | BARNYARD | NICK | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 4,451 |
| Other Shows | |||||
| NCIS | USA | Wed | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,920 | |
| SECRET LIFE/AMERICAN TEEN | FAM | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,911 | |
| PSYCH | USA | Fri | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,831 | |
| PRAYERS FOR BOBBY | LIFE | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 3,780 | |
| iCarly | NICK | Sat | 01:00P-01:30P | 3,725 | |
| SUITE LIFE ON DECK | DSNY | Fri | 08:00P-08:30P | 3,709 | |
| CAVALIERS/LAKERS | TNT | Mon | 10:39P-01:12A | 3,654 | |
| ON BOARD | NGC | Sun | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,593 | |
| MISS AMERICA 2009 | TLC | Sat | 08:00P-10:02P | 3,536 | |
| KIDS INAUGURAL:WE ARE THE | DSNY | Mon | 08:00P-09:35P | 3,389 | |
| ANOTHER CINDERELLA STY EN | FAM | Sat | 07:00P-09:00P | 3,270 | |
| VERY DUGGAR WEDDING, A | TLC | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,242 | |
| MEET THE BROWNS | TBSC | Wed | 10:30P-11:00P | 3,025 | |
| PENGUINS MADAGASCAR SP | NAN | Mon | 09:45P-10:00P | 2,959 | |
| TOP CHEF | BRAV | Wed | 10:00P-11:15P | 2,844 | |
| LEVERAGE | TNT | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,830 | |
| KATT WILLIAMS: ITS PIMPIN | CMDY | Sun | 10:00P-11:30P | 2,802 | |
| REEL TO REAL | HIST | Sat | 08:00P-11:00P | 2,687 | |
| FAIRLY ODD PARENTS | NICK | Sat | 08:30A-09:00A | 2,612 | |
| POWERPUFF GIRLS MARATHON | TOON | Mon | 07:30P-08:00P | 2,447 | |
| GHOST HUNTERS INTERNATL | SCIF | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,378 | |
| STAR WARS: CLONE WARS | TOON | Fri | 09:00P-09:30P | 2,168 | |
| AMERICAS BEST DANCE CREW | MTV | Thu | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,138 | |
| REAL WORLD XXI | MTV | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,875 | |
| CLEMSON/NORTH CAROLINA | ESPN | Wed | 09:13P-11:09P | 1,868 | |
| CITY, THE | MTV | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,857 | |
| ECW | SCIF | Tue | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,827 | |
| DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES | FOOD | Sun | 03:30P-04:00P | 1,725 | |
| BATTLSTR GALACTICA (ORIG) | SCIF | Fri | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,717 | |
| BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD | TOON | Sat | 10:30A-11:00A | 1,701 | |
| BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD | TOON | Fri | 8:00P-8:30P | 1,641 | |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Mon | 05:30P-06:00P | 1,505 | |
| NARUTO | TOON | Sat | 9:30P-10:00P | 1,505 | |
| KYLE XY | FAM | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,426 | |
| MOONLIGHT | SCIF | Fri | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,166 | |
| MAVERICKS/PISTONS | ESPN | Fri | 07:00P-09:34P | 1,041 | |
| INVASION | SCIF | Fri | 8:00P-9:00P | 830 | |
| DAMAGES | FX | Wed | 10:00P-11:01P | 761 | |
| AFRO SAMURAI | SPIKE | Sun | 10:00P-12:00A | 710 | |
| Premium Cable Sunday Shows via James Hibberd's live feed |
|||||
| BIG LOVE | HBO | Sun | 1.4 mil | ||
| UNITED STATES OF TARA | SHO | Sun | 830,000 | ||
| FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS | HBO | Sun | 500,000 | ||
| THE L WORD | SHO | Sun | 761,000 | ||
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
The program about Air Force One, “On Board” on National Geographic Channel did really well. I wonder if that is an all time high rating for a program on that network? Those numbers are especially impressive when one considers that NGC is not in as many homes as alot of the other cable channels.
David, I don’t think it was a record, but I am not sure. I know (because the ads ran here too) that NGC advertised that show very heavily on the Internet. You’re right though, as of last March’s coverage estimates National Geographic was only available to about 58% of homes versus ~85% for the likes of USA, ESPN, etc.
I totally agree about BSG. While I love the show, I wonder why we are just dribbling along with only a few episodes left. I mean, c’mon, you spend months and months on these and tell us they are the best ever, and now we get an episode of practically nothing? At least Burn Notice is giving great numbers (let’s be honest, right now it’s a better show)
Wow, Damages is doing really, really bad, even for cable standards. I don’t know why though because everyone who watches it seems to love it. Also, this may be the first time in recent memory that Spongebob almost got shut out of the top twenty.
Damages is doing terible, good thing they got picked up for season 3 already, because I really love the show. BSG is doing amazing considering the quality of recent episodes. Leverage is having the same numbers like before, but I have no idea is that good or bad?
was damages a repeat this week? Because I could have sworn that Nip/Tuck wasn’t even on. Not smart airing Damages without Nip/Tuck. As for BSG, it is really simply why its losing viewers, the show is no longer good.
Entirely agree on BSG, but am in to the end.
Damages is the new Mad Men.
Fear not for the SpongeBob, he’ll be back
Jimmy, it wasn’t a repeat. Pix, it will be interesting to see if it really does get a season 3 if this keeps up. For a variety of reasons, doing worse than last year wouldn’t be a huge surprise, but even without Nip/Tuck (which didn’t air at all last week) these numbers surprised me, and not in a good way.
[edit] Bill, Mad Men improved its ratings from season one to season two and no episode of it did this poorly. Damages wishes it was Mad Men!
I agree with you Robert, Damages would love to have Mad Men’s ratings right now, which is saying a lot, if it keeps this up, that order for season 3 might get cancelled. I also agree with Jimmy that airing it without Nip/Tuck is just asking for it to do poorly.
BTW, I thought the SAGs were always on TNT, did they change it up this year?
Vader: re SAGs, see amendments to the post above…
I see Miss America with 3.536M viewers. Do you happen to know the 18-49 demo for that show?
It is a shame that BSG dropped 10+% from the premiere, and given the last episode it may do so again for episode #3.
sadly, we don’t see any of the 18-49 info for the cable data unless it’s put out in a release (which surprisingly to me, TLC apparently hasn’t issued) or covered by another source w/access to the data.
Hey, do you know the numbers for Afro Samurai(Spike TV; Sunday 10-12)?
Jim, 710,000
Thanks for Leverages ratings!
Woohoo – Burn, baby Burn…Notice
Dare I ask the number for Moonlight last Friday on SFC?
John, my bad! I’ve updated the text of the post with the numbers (1.166 million)
Thanks very much Robert!
I am really enjoying Leverage. How are its numbers relative to what TNT needs for it to be renewed. I know it isn’t in The Closer league or Burn Notice, Monk or Psych on USA, but are they acceptable?