WWE Raw took the top two spots, but the NFL Draft on ESPN was not far behind. Considering that the NFL Draft had a duration of five hours and that we don't see the hourly data, it could well be that the two most-watched hours of cable last week were the NFL Draft.
Yankees/Sawx and iCarly rounded out the top five. In Plain Sight had one of its weaker (perhaps weakest, I didn't check) outings. I'm not really surprised because the season premiere didn't seem that great. The episode on Sunday though was much better and back to last year's form. We'll see if things pick back up next week. The debut of Jeff Goldblum on Law & Order: CI averaged 4.1 million. Disney had some success with the movie Hatching Pete averaging over 4.1 million viewers. Discovery appears to have a cable hit on its hands with Deadliest Catch which also averaged over 4 million viewers.
I normally don't take requests, but am somewhat crunched for time presently, so I'm not listing any shows outside of the top twenty. However, in a rare reversal this week I will take requests and do a table based on the first 20 requests received for airings outside the top 20 and then add it to the post. Please note, we don't have access to data for the premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc). Requests are now closed and the shows have been added below. If we do that again, please limit yourself to one request per person please.
Top twenty cable network television shows for the week ending April 26, 2009:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:07P | 5,498 |
| 2 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,101 |
| 3 | NFL DRAFT L | ESPN | Sat | 04:00P-09:00P | 5,058 |
| 4 | YANKEES/RED SOX | ESPN | Sun | 08:00P-11:22P | 4,598 |
| 5 | iCarly | NICK | Wed | 08:00P-08:30P | 4,521 |
| 6 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 07:00P-08:00P | 4,334 |
| 7 | FOR THE LOVE OF RAY J | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-11:30P | 4,223 |
| 8 | HATCHING PETE | DSNY | Fri | 08:00P-09:40P | 4,138 |
| 9 | LAW & ORDER: CI (ORIG) | USA | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 4,100 |
| 10 | DEADLIEST CATCH | DISC | Tue | 09:00P-10:01P | 4,049 |
| 11 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 09:30A-10:00A | 3,992 |
| 12 | IN PLAIN SIGHT | USA | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,969 |
| 13 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sun | 09:30A-10:00A | 3,962 |
| 14 | PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR | NICK | Sat | 10:00A-10:30A | 3,941 |
| 15 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,937 |
| 16 | NCIS | USA | Sat | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,875 |
| 17 | LAKERS/JAZZ | TNT | Thu | 10:42P-01:29A | 3,824 |
| 18 | NCIS | USA | Tue | 07:00P-08:00P | 3,801 |
| 19 | BULLS/CELTICS | TNT | Mon | 07:07P-09:53P | 3,760 |
| 20 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sun | 09:00A-09:30A | 3,746 |
| Other shows (based on request order, not ranked or sorted) | |||||
| SOUTH PARK | CMDY | Wed | 10:00P-10:30P | 2,587 | |
| I LOVE MONEY 2 | VH1 | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,491 | |
| HILLS, THE | MTV | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 2,342 | |
| COLLEGE LIFE | MTV | Mon | 10:30P-11:00P | 948 | |
| RESCUE ME | FX | Tue | 10:00P-11:03P | 1,538 | |
| PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR | NICK | Fri | 08:00P-08:30P | 3,195 | |
| LAKERS/JAZZ | ESPN | Sat | 09:00P-11:41P | 3,299 | |
| Intervention | A&E | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,359 | |
| GREEK | FAM | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 714 | |
| ROOMMATES | FAM | Mon | 09:00P-09:30P | 520 | |
| IRON MAN | NICK | Sun | 01:00P-01:30P | 1,918 | |
| IRON MAN | NICK | Sun | 01:30P-02:00P | 1,509 | |
| PISTONS/CAVALIERS | TNT | Tue | 08:07P-10:42P | 3,699 | |
| JAZZ/LAKERS | TNT | Tue | 10:42P-01:28A | 3,607 | |
| CELTICS/BULLS | TNT | Thu | 08:07P-10:42P | 3,389 | |
| PHONE, THE | MTV | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 920 | |
| DAISY OF LOVE | VH1 | Sun | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,950 | |
| BREAKING BAD | AMC | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,035 | |
| RW/RR THE DUEL 2 | MTV | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,798 | |
| UNSTABLE | LIFE | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 2,317 | |
| CHASING A DREAM | HALL | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 1,758 | |
We also have weekly rankings of the top advertising supported cable networks.
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
