Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard
NBA playoffs dominated the top five spots led by Sunday night's Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic matchup on TNT. WWE Raw was pushed down to the sixth and seventh spots for the week, followed by NCIS and SpongeBob.
A couple of things to keep in mind. These are the ratings for the week ending Sunday, May 24 so the eye-popping numbers for the return of Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC on May 25 will not show up until next week, when barring basketball magic, it will easily top the list for the week ending 5/31.
Due to the Memorial Day holiday, USA did not run new episodes of In Plain Sight and Law & Order: CI on Sunday night.
Twenty-nine episodes of NCIS averaged over two million. I did not list anything outside of the six that appeared in the top twenty, but USA Network is getting a lot of mileage out of NCIS.
There is no TVbytheNumbers conspiracy against premium cable networks like HBO and Showtime, in fact, they are two of my favorite channels and I just finished up season two of In Treatment on HBO which showcased some outstanding writing and acting.
The reason we don't post any numbers for those networks in these lists is because unless they appear in the top forty (which basically hasn't happened since The Sopranos went dark), we don't see them. If we regularly saw them, we'd regularly post them. But TV Week, Broadcasting & Cable, USA Today and THR will frequently post them so in a few weeks when you're looking to see how True Blood did, those would be some good sites to keep your eyes on.
Update for fans of Cartoon Network (via Cartoon Network):
Cartoon Network's Memorial Day weekend marathon featuring back-to-back episodes of Total Drama Island (Sunday, 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.) earned double-digit increases among several key demos compared to the same week last year. Overall kids 2-11 delivery (513,000) grew by 20%, kids 6-11 delivery (404,000) by 33% and kids 9-14 (348,000) by 47%. Total Drama Island is the popular animated reality series that follows a group of spirited teen competing for a $100,000 grand prize.
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Top twenty cable network television shows for the week ending May 24, 2009:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | CAVALIERS/MAGIC | TNT | Sun | 08:36P-11:45P | 8969 |
| 2 | NUGGETS/LAKERS | ESPN | Tue | 08:57P-11:55P | 8085 |
| 3 | NUGGETS/LAKERS | ESPN | Thu | 08:56P-11:56P | 7886 |
| 4 | MAGIC/CAVALIERS | TNT | Wed | 08:36P-11:34P | 7321 |
| 5 | MAGIC/CAVALIERS | TNT | Fri | 08:35P-11:41P | 6910 |
| 6 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:06P | 5200 |
| 7 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 5032 |
| 8 | NCIS | USA | Sat | 10:00P-11:00P | 4151 |
| 9 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 11:30A-12:00P | 3917 |
| 10 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 07:00P-08:00P | 3911 |
| 11 | NCIS | USA | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 3911 |
| 12 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 12:00P-12:30P | 3826 |
| 13 | NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM | FX | Sun | 09:00P-11:30P | 3715 |
| 14 | NCIS | USA | Sat | 08:00P-09:00P | 3674 |
| 15 | NCIS | USA | Fri | 07:00P-08:00P | 3653 |
| 16 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 11:00A-11:30A | 3653 |
| 17 | PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR | NICK | Sat | 10:00A-10:30A | 3600 |
| 18 | NCIS | USA | Sat | 09:00P-10:00P | 3557 |
| 19 | INSIDE THE NBA PLAYOFFS | TNT | Wed | 11:34P-12:10A | 3504 |
| 20 | SPORTSCENTER LATE L | ESPN | Thu | 11:56P-01:00A | 3474 |
| Other shows (based on request order, not ranked or sorted) | |||||
| iCarly | NICK | Thu | 06:30P-07:00P | 3144 | |
| CARS | DSNY | Sun | 12:00P-02:05P | 3071 | |
| FAMILY GUY | ADSM | Mon | 11:30P-12:00A | 2819 | |
| NED DECLASSIFIED | NICK | Thu | 08:00P-08:30P | 2673 | |
| FAIRLY ODD PARENTS | NICK | Sun | 08:30A-09:00A | 2657 | |
| BACK AT THE BARNYARD | NICK | Sat | 08:30A-09:00A | 2642 | |
| HOUSE | USA | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 2622 | |
| NBA DRAFT LOTTERY L | ESPN | Tue | 08:30P-08:57P | 2565 | |
| DEADLIEST CATCH | DISC | Tue | 09:00P-10:01P | 2550 | |
| LAW & ORDER | TNT | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 2376 | |
| S PHINEAS & FERB | DSNY | Sun | 11:30A-12:00P | 2292 | |
| HILLS, THE | MTV | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 2232 | |
| GEORGE LOPEZ | NAN | Fri | 10:30P-11:00P | 2230 | |
| HOUSE HUNTERS INTL | HGTV | Sun | 09:30P-10:00P | 1985 | |
| CHARM SCHOOL 3 | VH1 | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 1893 | |
| AX MEN | HIST | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 1861 | |
| DEADLIEST WARRIOR | SPK | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 1816 | |
| OPERATION REPO | TRU | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 1789 | |
| NEW YORK GOES TO WORK | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 1774 | |
| POLAR STORM | SCIF | Sun | 09:00P-11:00P | 1729 | |
| CAROL-PITTS | VS | Thu | 07:30P-10:25P | 1725 | |
| NASCAR NATIONWIDE SRS L | ESP2 | Sat | 07:37P-11:31P | 1722 | |
| CHICA-DETRO | VS | Tue | 07:30P-10:29P | 1717 | |
| RESCUE ME | FX | Tue | 10:00P-11:01P | 1650 | |
| Mythbusters | DISC | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 1632 | |
| TOM&JERRY: BLAST OFF/MARS | TOON | Sun | 09:00A-10:30A | 1631 | |
| ECW | SCIF | Tue | 10:00P-11:05P | 1404 | |
| PARANORMAL STATE | A&E | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 1524 | |
| TNA: IMPACT | SPK | Thu | 09:00P-11:00P | 1522 | |
| DAILY SHOW | CMDY | Mon | 10:59P-11:30P | 1516 | |
| RW/RR THE DUEL 2 | MTV | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 1501 | |
| REAL HSWIVES OF NJ | BRAV | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 1489 | |
| JON & Kate Plus 8 | TLC | Sun | 10:00P-11:00P | 1410 | |
| LIFE AFTER PEOPLE | HIST | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 1400 | |
| DINERS, DRIVE INS & DIVES | FOOD | Mon | 10:30P-11:00P | 1312 | |
| BONANZA | TVLD | Mon | 03:06P-04:11P | 1175 | |
| LARRY KING LIVE | CNN | Fri | 09:00P-10:00P | 1128 | |
| DAISY OF LOVE | VH1 | Sun | 12:00P-01:00P | 1100 | |
| COLLEGE LIFE | MTV | Mon | 10:30P-11:00P | 960 | |
| Chelsea LATELY | EN | Thu | 11:00P-11:30P | 905 | |
| THE SOUP | EN | Fri | 10:00P-10:30P | 796 | |
| GREEK | FAM | Mon | 08:00P-09:00P | 680 | |
| Snapped | OXYG | Sat | 11:30A-12:00P | 494 | |
| HANEY PROJECT | GOLF | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 346 | |
| BRIDGETS SEXIEST BEACHES | TTC | Thu | 10:00P-10:30P | 305 | |
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Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
