TNT 's Monday night dramas once again topped the weekly cable viewing chart, this time with The Closer again edging out newcomer Rizzoli & Isles.
The summer finales of USA's Burn Notice and Royal Pains took the third and fourth spots, with newcomer Covert Affairs coming in fifth in total viewing.
Though Rizzoli & Isles and The Closer have been topping the charts with viewers, USA still has been chalking up weekly wins with both adults 18-49 and total viewers. Burn Notice was the week's top scripted show on cable, and Jersey Shore was tops with 18-49 overall (at least on basic cable, I haven't seen 18-49 numbers for True Blood yet).
HBO's True Blood was 8th in total viewing with 5.44 million a new high in viewers and HBO is only available in about 1/3rd the homes of USA and TNT, that's pretty impressive.
please note: the numbers below for Rizzoli & Isles and The Closer and any Monday show referenced here are for Monday August 23, not August 30.
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 29, 2010:
| Rank | Program | Network | Day | Time | HH rating | Viewers (000) |
| 1 | CLOSER, THE | TNT | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 4.6 | 7,045 |
| 2 | RIZZOLI & ISLES | TNT | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 4.5 | 6,732 |
| 3 | BURN NOTICE | USA | THURSDAY | 9:00 PM | 3.7 | 6,285 |
| 4 | Royal Pains | USA | THURSDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.7 | 6,075 |
| 5 | COVERT AFFAIRS | USA | TUESDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.6 | 5,867 |
| 6 | Jersey Shore 2 | MTV | THURSDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.6 | 5,820 |
| 7 | NFL PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL L (COLTS/PACKERS) | ESPN | THURSDAY | 8:00 PM | 3.6 | 5,729 |
| 8 | True Blood | HBOM | SUNDAY | 9:04 PM | 2.9 | 5,444 |
| 9 | NFL PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL L (CARDINALS/TITANS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 8:00 PM | 3.4 | 5,060 |
| 10 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.9 | 4,941 |
| 11 | BREAK (True Blood Postmortem??) | HBOM | SUNDAY | 9:53 PM | 2.5 | 4,679 |
| 12 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.7 | 4,641 |
| 13 | WHITE COLLAR | USA | TUESDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.9 | 4,596 |
| 14 | Good Luck Charlie | DSNY | SUNDAY | 8:30 PM | 2.8 | 4,254 |
| 15 | SONNY WITH A CHANCE | DSNY | SUNDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.6 | 4,074 |
| 16 | NCIS | USA | WEDNESDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.5 | 3,882 |
| 17 | NCIS | USA | MONDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.5 | 3,865 |
| 18 | MEMPHIS BEAT | TNT | TUESDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.6 | 3,861 |
| 19 | NCIS | USA | WEDNESDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.6 | 3,732 |
| 20 | SpongeBob | NICK | SATURDAY | 11:30 AM | 2.2 | 3,696 |
| 21 | SpongeBob | NICK | SATURDAY | 9:30 AM | 2.3 | 3,648 |
| 22 | PSYCH | USA | WEDNESDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.3 | 3,630 |
| 23 | VICTORIOUS | NICK | FRIDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.3 | 3,607 |
| 24 | KEEPING UP KARDASHIANS | ENT | SUNDAY | 10:00 PM | 2.4 | 3,574 |
| 25 | HAWTHORNE | TNT | TUESDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.3 | 3,481 |
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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)
