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
I know requests are not allowed but I do wonder how the “Kingdom of the Blue Whale” special on National Geographic Channel did sunday night. It was an interesting show and has been advertised like crazy on the internet.
Ummm…can I put in a request for next week?
Good for Burn Notice & RAW. I love both shows. I see that Around the Horn is listed too, love watching that show also
what is up with icarly? did it really gain 1m viewers since the last new episode?
ICarly rules all!!! Last week it didn’t even make the top 20.
It just show how lazy the broadcast nets are for writing off Saturdays.
Good to see Burn Notice and Raw dominate like that. Raw had a really good show last night and ending where HHH took a sledgehammer to Orton’s whorehouse in St. Louis and chased him down. Raw should grow next week to #1 again.
USA/CANADA was amazing on Saturday. I went to that game and man was it loud at Rogers Centre. Good to see it reach 2 million viewers on ESPN.
iCarly was heavily promoted on Nickelodeon more than usual. iCarly deserves to be the number one show b/c its really the funniest sitcom on air right now. Its for all ages too don’t let it being on Nick fool you. iCarly is way funnier than anything NBC has on Thursday Nights right now.
Robert, I know requests are out of question, but do you by any chance have the viewers average for Nip/Tuck I know the second part of the fifth season averages 2.54mil, but I was hoping you could give me the fith season average
im glad Saving Grace has already been clenched for a 3rd season. People need to start watching this again!
Yeah WWE RAW had a really good show last night. I actaully thought it was one of the best shows in years, almost every match and every scene was well thought out and brought us closer to Wrestlemania. I think the next 3 weeks ratings are going to top 6 million they could possibly keep growing after Wrestlemania.
Burn Notice, not my cup of tea, but thought the finale was good and the numbers showed.
ICARLY??! The show always goes weeks with out a top 5 appereance in the ratings and then out of no where a new show comes on and 5.5 to 6.5 million viewers tune in, and they are all under 12 years old. I always woundered what ICARLYS 18-49 demo is lol. Prolley about 2% of the audience ha
Matt I agree I didn’t see it last week but I saw it last night and with Christina Ricci on there is definitely become watchable again.
The Closer is so overrated for me, I think TNT has way better shows than The Closer on there that should be getting higher numbers.
wow Saving Grace is an amazing show i hope they put it after The Closer again it worked for them
@tooltip, unfortunately we don’t see any season-to-date average information for cable shows, I’d have to go back and do it manually. Sorry.
Dylan, I agree on Raw I think last night’s was its best in a long time and the writing has really stepped up as of late heading into Wrestlemania. I wouldn’t be surprised if Raw reaches over 6 million viewers going into WM but I also agree with you that WWE won’t stop there as I sense another golden age for them coming after Wrestlemania since their younger talent is going to start getting established like Orton to carry the show but not as big as the Attitude Era.
iCarly is actually not your average under 13 show. Its ratings are high b/c they get a good portion of their audience from people over 18 that’s why their ratings are higher than other tween shows. A research report I read a month ago stated that iCarly is very popular among some people in their 20s. I was surprised by that since I thought I was the only person watching at my age until I discovered some of my friends were watching it too. WEIRD ISNT IT!
“The biggest surprises of the week to me were that anyone was actually watching the World Baseball Classic on ESPN.”
I’m amazed that anybody watches the soccer World Cup. Or a soccer game of any description. Or an NBA game at any time.
Different strokes for…different sports fans. Not to mention that the U.S. kicked butt 15-6.
Anyway, thanks for the great site. Nothin’ like numbers to tell the real story.
as i watched kyle xy last night, i saw promos for the new shows that will be taking its spot… I can’t wait to see the lousy numbers those shows start bringing in!!
Kyle XY is dead and gone but I do think ABC family will kick themselves when less than 1 million turn into those new shitty looking sitcoms taking this brilliant show’s place.
not too shabby for Important Things with Demetri Martin.
Eastbound and Down must be doing pretty bad. Too bad since the past two episodes have been an improvement.
Oh thanks for the info Hot Pocket i would of never guessed one person over 18 watched ICARLY! haha well that was my mistake
Also that is very true, RAW has a lot of younger stars like Randy Ortan, Ted Deibsei, Cena and even Edge that will wrestle for years to come. LAst year the ratings sunk for WWE but now they are beginning to get better ratings and that is becuase of the realistic storylines.
Im readt for another Golden Age of wrestling because im not the biggest fan in the world but i love to watch it when it is hot and has a lot of good storylines. its gonna be interseting
I’ve never heard of iCarly, so I can’t take it to task in such a public forum. But seriously … do parents have nothing better to do with their kids on the weekend than drop them in front of the television? (Says the girl with the 3-year-old nephew who has the entire Noggin schedule memorized, not to mention entire transcripts of Wow Wow Wubbzy stored in his little brain). It really blows my mind exactly how many of the cable shows in the top 20 are geared to children…
Stephanie: It’s because children show are very consisted. Shows like Heroes or Greys for example are inconsisted in their quality and because of that they’re bleeding viewers.
Kids are not dumb. If a show starts to get bad they’ll leave it faster than grown-ups.