TNT 's Monday night dramas once again topped the weekly cable viewing chart, this time with The Closer edging out newcomer Rizzoli & Isles. History's Pawn Stars took the third and fourth slots, with a preseason Monday Night Football game in fifth. Jersey Shore was sixth, though it set series highs with adults 18-49.
USA's best performer on this chart was Burn Notice, followed by Covert Affairs and Royal Pains.
Though Rizzoli & Isles and The Closer have been topping the charts with viewers, USA still has been winning the primetime war both with adults 18-49 and total viewers.
HBO's True Blood was 8th and HBO is only available in about 1/3rd the homes of USA and TNT, so that's pretty impressive.
I'm not sure what aired during the break between True Blood and Hung (another Boardwalk Empire promo?) but for some reason HBO included the 5 minutes between 9:56p and 10:01p on Sunday as a separate item, so you'll see "Break" as the week's 12th most-watched program.
please note: the numbers below for Rizzoli & Isles and The Closer and any Monday show referenced here are for Monday August 16, not August 23.
As usual, we have already posted almost all of this data separately, as well as quite a bit of data for shows that aren't on the list below. Give our site's search feature near the top right of the site a try or our Overnight Cable TV Show Ratings category.
Top 25 Basic cable shows for the week ending August 22, 2010:
| Rank | Program | Network | Day | Time | HH rating | Viewers (000) |
| 1 | CLOSER, THE | TNT | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 4.4 | 6,818 |
| 2 | RIZZOLI & ISLES | TNT | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 4.2 | 6,494 |
| 3 | PAWN STARS | HIST | MONDAY | 10:30 PM | 3.8 | 6,238 |
| 4 | Pawn Stars | HIST | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.7 | 6,082 |
| 5 | NFL PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL L (GIANTS/JETS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 8:00 PM | 3.6 | 5,614 |
| 6 | Jersey Shore 2 | MTV | THURSDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.5 | 5,504 |
| 7 | BURN NOTICE | USA | THURSDAY | 9:00 PM | 3.4 | 5,503 |
| 8 | True Blood | HBOM | SUNDAY | 9:02 PM | 3.0 | 5,394 |
| 9 | COVERT AFFAIRS | USA | TUESDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.4 | 5,362 |
| 10 | Royal Pains | USA | THURSDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.4 | 5,271 |
| 11 | AMERICAN PICKERS | HIST | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 3.2 | 5,199 |
| 12 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.9 | 4,920 |
| 13 | BREAK | HBOM | SUNDAY | 9:56 PM | 2.6 | 4,716 |
| 14 | KEEPING UP KARDASHIANS | ENT | SUNDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.0 | 4,678 |
| 15 | HANNAH MONTANA FOREVER | DSNY | SUNDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,631 |
| 16 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,619 |
| 17 | WHITE COLLAR | USA | TUESDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,481 |
| 18 | Swamp People | HIST | SUNDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.4 | 4,232 |
| 19 | SpongeBob | NICK | SATURDAY | 10:00 AM | 2.7 | 4,181 |
| 20 | PSYCH | USA | WEDNESDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.5 | 4,107 |
| 21 | NCIS | USA | WEDNESDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,074 |
| 22 | NCIS | USA | MONDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,072 |
| 23 | NCIS | USA | WEDNESDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.7 | 4,064 |
| 24 | Suite Life on Deck | DSNY | FRIDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.2 | 4,026 |
| 25 | MEMPHIS BEAT | TNT | TUESDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.5 | 3,937 |
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We always post whatever specific show data we received directly and see via press release or other trade publications. You can subscribe to our RSS feed and we have created a special category (Overnight Cable TV Show Ratings) to group the data we typically post each weekday from @TravisYanan on Twitter. During the week Travis usually posts selected cable results for each weekday, usually late in the afternoon on the east coast (and Friday night data isn't posted until Monday) and he posts the links to that info on his Twitter account to the info on Marc Berman's PI Forums.
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Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. All ratings above Live+SD (live viewing plus same day DVR viewing)
