The Burn Notice finale was outstanding (and no, I don't get paid to Go On about my love for Burn Notice, but if anybody at NBC Universal wants to send a check, let me know), and the numbers were great too, with 6.09 million. But that was not enough to best iCarly for the top spot. iCarly took the win with an impressive 6.299 million. WWE Raw took the third and fourth place slots on the chart, with an NCIS rerun rounding out the top 5.
True Jackson VP and Hannah Montana also made the top 10 with over 4.2 million viewers. More NCIS, iCarly and of course Sponge Bob were rounded out by a dash of Sonny with a Chance and The O'Reilly Factor.
The biggest surprises of the week to me were that anyone was actually watching the World Baseball Classic on ESPN. More people watched the USA vs. Venezuela game on Sunday night than watched LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Boston Celtics on Friday. I know more people are watching TV on Sunday night than Friday night, but, it still surprises me.
Woe is Detective Hanadarko! The return of Saving Grace also surprised me. 2.497 million last Monday (3/2) It's lead in, a repeat of The Closer had more viewers with 2.964 million. If that keeps up, indeed, it will take an angel from Heaven to save Grace.
Ashes to Ashes, the British sequel to the British (and original) version of Life on Mars bowed on BBC America on Saturday night with 241,000 viewers. That network is on a different scale than most of the shows we wind up writing about, its best performer of the week, Top Gear averaged 489,000. Ashes was the 3rd most-watched show on BBCA for the week, coming in behind a season 1 episode of the British version of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.
We also have weekly rankings of the top advertising supported cable networks.
Top 20 cable shows for the week ending March 8, 2009:
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING, THANK YOU!
Please note, all shows outside of the top twenty are sorted by viewers but not ranked. If you don't see a show listed here, the only thing you can conclude for sure is that it wasn't in the top twenty. The top twenty would include premium cable, if any of those shows ever made the top twenty. But the additional show list is for advertising supported basic cable networks only. We do not see data directly for premium cable channels.
There are over 14,000 shows. I'm not taking requests. If you make a request in the comments anyway, I might delete it, ignore it or mock you. Or turn the comments off altogether 
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | iCarly | NICK | Sat | 08:00P-08:30P | 6,299 |
| 2 | BURN NOTICE | USA | Thu | 10:00P-11:02P | 6,090 |
| 3 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:10P | 5,765 |
| 4 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,257 |
| 5 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 07:00P-08:00P | 4,677 |
| 6 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 4,502 |
| 7 | TRUE JACKSON, VP | NICK | Sat | 08:30P-09:00P | 4,405 |
| 8 | NCIS | USA | Tue | 07:00P-08:00P | 4,276 |
| 9 | HANNAH MONTANA | DSNY | Sun | 07:30P-08:00P | 4,249 |
| 10 | iCarly | NICK | Sun | 11:00A-11:30A | 4,061 |
| 11 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sun | 10:30A-11:00A | 4,017 |
| 12 | SpongeBob | NICK | Mon | 05:30P-06:00P | 3,991 |
| 13 | NCIS | USA | Wed | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,962 |
| 14 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXN | Thu | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,953 |
| 15 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 12:30P-01:00P | 3,884 |
| 16 | SONNY WITH A CHANCE | DSNY | Sun | 08:00P-08:30P | 3,872 |
| 17 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 09:30A-10:00A | 3,855 |
| 18 | ICARLY | NICK | Sat | 07:30P-08:00P | 3,841 |
| 19 | ICARLY | NICK | Mon | 06:00P-06:30P | 3,816 |
| 20 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | Sat | 09:00A-09:30A | 3,732 |
| Other Shows (sorted in order but NOT ranked) | |||||
| AMERICAS BEST DANCE CREW | MTV | Thu | 10:00P-11:06P | 3,446 | |
| HOUSE | USA | Thu | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,352 | |
| SECRET LIFE/AMERICAN TEEN | FAM | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,329 | |
| S Suite Life on Deck | DSNY | Sun | 07:00P-07:30P | 3,241 | |
| HOUSE OF PAYNE | TBSC | Wed | 10:30P-11:00P | 3,114 | |
| FAMILY GUY | ADSM | Sun | 11:00P-11:30P | 3,106 | |
| JON & Kate Plus 8 | TLC | Mon | 09:00P-09:31P | 3,103 | |
| WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE | DSNY | Sun | 08:30P-09:00P | 3,099 | |
| BACK AT THE BARNYARD | NICK | Sat | 10:00A-10:30A | 3,026 | |
| H2O | NICK | Sat | 09:00P-09:30P | 2,747 | |
| USA/VENEZUELA | ESPN | Sun | 08:00P-11:48P | 2,645 | |
| CAVALIERS/CELTICS | ESPN | Fri | 08:01P-10:40P | 2,515 | |
| STAR WARS:CLONE WARS | TOON | Fri | 09:00P-09:30P | 2,499 | |
| SAVING GRACE | TNT | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,497 | |
| FOR THE LOVE OF RAY J | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,434 | |
| NIP TUCK | FX | Tue | 10:00P-11:02P | 2,385 | |
| ROBOT CHICKEN | ADSM | Sun | 11:30P-11:45P | 2,356 | |
| LITTLE PEOPLE, Big World | TLC | Mon | 08:30P-09:00P | 2,349 | |
| THE FIRST 48 | A&E | Thu | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,194 | |
| GHOST HUNTERS INTERNATL | SCIF | Wed | 09:00P-10:01P | 2,154 | |
| DAILY SHOW | CMDY | Wed | 10:59P-11:30P | 2,110 | |
| BATMAN:BRAVE & THE BOLD | TOON | Fri | 08:30P-09:00P | 2,073 | |
| DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER | A&E | Wed | 10:00P-10:30P | 2,060 | |
| Intervention | A&E | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,043 | |
| IMPORTANT THINGS | CMDY | Wed | 10:30P-10:59P | 1,964 | |
| THATS SO RAVEN - LN | DSNY | Fri | 12:00A-12:30A | 1,964 | |
| I LOVE MONEY 2 | VH1 | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,940 | |
| REAL WORLD XXI | MTV | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,927 | |
| TOP CHEF | BRAV | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,904 | |
| USA/CANADA | ESPN | Sat | 02:07P-05:07P | 1,850 | |
| ECW | SCIF | Tue | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,842 | |
| LOUISVILLE/WEST VIRGINIA | ESPN | Sat | 09:00P-11:10P | 1,780 | |
| SEINFELD | TBSC | Thu | 07:30P-08:00P | 1,774 | |
| NORTH CAROLINA/VIRGINIA T | ESPN | Wed | 07:00P-09:01P | 1,732 | |
| BREAKING BAD | AMC | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,662 | |
| KEEPING UP KARDASHIANS | EN | Sun | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,656 | |
| BATTLSTR GALACTICA (ORIG) | SCIF | Fri | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,568 | |
| CH DISNEY CELEBRATE CAKES | FOOD | Sun | 08:00P-09:00P | 1,500 | |
| DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES | FOOD | Fri | 09:30P-10:00P | 1,416 | |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Mon | 05:30P-06:00P | 1,306 | |
| KYLE XY | FAM | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,297 | |
| THE SOUP | EN | Fri | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,202 | |
| DAMAGES | FX | Wed | 10:00P-11:01P | 974 | |
| MOONLIGHT | SCIF | Fri | 09:00P-10:00P | 928 | |
| AROUND THE HORN | ESPN | Tue | 05:00P-05:30P | 900 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
