WWE Raw again captured the top two spots, followed by Nick's iCarly, an NCIS rerun and the controversial sponginess that is SpongeBob rounded out the top five.
People are showing NCIS the love, with it taking nine of the top twenty spots. And while Penguins of Madagascar only showed up once in the top 20, like SpongeBob, there are a zillion episodes and many of them that performed much better than shows I list that are outside of the top twenty.
The first two rounds of The Masters golf tournament fared well for ESPN. Rescue Me returned after about a year and a half hiatus to decent numbers for FX. Let's get to the numbers...
Top 20 cable shows for the week ending April 12, 2009:
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING, THANK YOU!
Please note, all shows outside of the top twenty are sorted by viewers but ARE 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. But if I see anything I'll post it here and if you see anything, please post a link in the comments.
There are over 14,000 shows. I'm not taking requests as it would be impossible to please everyone. Sorry! If you make a request in the comments anyway, I will ignore it, sorry.
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:03P | 6,140 |
| 2 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,743 |
| 3 | iCarly | NICK | Sat | 08:00P-08:30P | 5,051 |
| 4 | NCIS | USA | Tue | 07:00P-08:00P | 4,394 |
| 5 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 09:30A-10:00A | 4,210 |
| 6 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,997 |
| 7 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXN | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,977 |
| 8 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,967 |
| 9 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,966 |
| 10 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 09:00A-09:30A | 3,879 |
| 11 | PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR | NICK | Sat | 10:00A-10:30A | 3,766 |
| 12 | NCIS | USA | Wed | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,703 |
| 13 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,701 |
| 14 | TRUE JACKSON, VP | NICK | Sat | 08:30P-09:00P | 3,654 |
| 15 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,590 |
| 16 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXN | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,513 |
| 17 | MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT L | ESPN | Fri | 04:00P-07:34P | 3,503 |
| 18 | NCIS | USA | Tue | 06:00P-07:00P | 3,493 |
| 19 | NCIS | USA | Sun | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,475 |
| 20 | NORA ROBERTS TRIBUTE | LIFE | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 3,430 |
| Other shows (sorted, but not ranked) | |||||
| MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT L | ESPN | Thu | 04:00P-07:30P | 3,366 | |
| ROCK OF LOVE 3 | VH1 | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,239 | |
| FOR THE LOVE OF RAY J | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,164 | |
| SOUTH PARK | CMDY | Wed | 10:00P-10:30P | 3,106 | |
| S Hannah Montana | DSNY | Mon | 06:00P-06:30P | 2,998 | |
| HOUSE OF PAYNE | TBSC | Wed | 10:30P-11:00P | 2,979 | |
| HILLS, THE | MTV | Mon | 10:30P-11:00P | 2,970 | |
| CUBS/BREWERS | ESPN | Sun | 08:00P-11:36P | 2,961 | |
| FAMILY GUY | ADSM | Sun | 11:00P-11:30P | 2,960 | |
| BACK AT THE BARNYARD | NICK | Sat | 10:30A-11:00A | 2,946 | |
| MIGHTY B! | NICK | Sat | 11:00A-11:30A | 2,832 | |
| UCONN/LOUISVILLE | ESPN | Tue | 08:30P-10:43P | 2,668 | |
| GHOST HUNTERS | SCIF | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,654 | |
| LOVE FINDS A HOME | HALL | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 2,532 | |
| MAX AND RUBY | NICK | Fri | 10:00A-10:30A | 2,634 | |
| I LOVE MONEY 2 | VH1 | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,551 | |
| SAVING GRACE | TNT | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,539 | |
| NUGGETS/LAKERS | TNT | Thu | 10:50P-01:35A | 2,510 | |
| RESCUE ME | FX | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,297 | |
| HOUSE HUNTERS INTL | HGTV | Thu | 10:00P-10:30P | 2,001 | |
| Mythbusters | DISC | Wed | 09:00P-11:00P | 1,981 | |
| DAILY SHOW | CMDY | Wed | 10:59P-11:30P | 1,888 | |
| ECW | SCIF | Tue | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,883 | |
| RIVER MONSTERS | APL | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,886 | |
| LIFE WITH DEREK-LN | DSNY | Fri | 12:00A-12:30A | 1,875 | |
| THE FIRST 48 | A&E | Thu | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,790 | |
| RENO 911! | CMDY | Wed | 10:30P-10:59P | 1,786 | |
| DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES | FOOD | Fri | 09:30P-10:00P | 1,767 | |
| THATS SO RAVEN - LN | DSNY | Thu | 11:30P-12:00A | 1,767 | |
| REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NYC | BRAV | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,737 | |
| DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER | A&E | Wed | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,637 | |
| BATTLES BC | HIST | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,626 | |
| DIRTY JOBS | DISC | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,602 | |
| COLBERT REPORT | CMDY | Wed | 11:30P-12:00A | 1,446 | |
| RL HSWVS OF NJ PREV SP | BRAV | Tue | 11:00P-11:30P | 1,432 | |
| BREAKING BAD | AMC | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,407 | |
| COUNTDOWN W/ K. OLBERMANN | MSNB | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 1,332 | |
| THE SOUP | EN | Fri | 10:00P-10:30P | 1,244 | |
| NANCY GRACE | HLN | Wed | 08:00P-08:54P | 1,170 | |
| Chelsea LATELY | EN | Wed | 11:00P-11:30P | 911 | |
| GREEK | FAM | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 834 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
