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)
Someone must really like that picture. Feed that boy something!
Did none of the history channel shows make the top 25? Seems strange.
The top Pawn Stars drew 3.258 million, and was #44. I was away, might it have been a repeat?
yes, last week’s Pawn Stars were repeats and that seems to help Rizzoli & Isles.
I thought the Design Star finale would have been in the top 25.
It wasn’t, but it also wasn’t for the week above (8/23-29). It was on 8/22.
Do you have the ratings of the 2-Hour season 2 finale of Drop Dead Diva ?
Drop Dead Diva hasn’t been renewed yet , has she ?
I expect that will be published in the overnight report from @TravisYanan you can either follow him on Twitter and follow the link to his roundup on pifeedback.com, or you can check later at:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/ratings/tv-ratings-nielsen-overnight-cable-tv-show-ratings
Ok! Thank u Robert!
Pawn Stars and American Pickers are both in repeats. Besides that, they run both shows repeatedly on the weekends.
I was thinking that exactly! “Not that there is anything wrong with that.”
So how is rizzoli and Isles really doing?
11. BREAK (True Blood Postmortem??)
- What the heck is that?
True Blood postmortem are short videos of various lengths that have run all season after True Blood. I’m not sure that’s what the “break” was though.
For the last two weeks Nielsen has counted the break in between TB & Hung as one of the week’s top programs. I haven’t been DVR-ing the show so I am not sure what is on during the break.
Ever USA series is on the top 25. Everything they put out is great
Wow, Covert Affairs really is a Burn Notice/Royal Pains-size hit. Just wish it weren’t such a soap opera. I like episodes that stand alone.
Interesting to note I don’t any entries for Hannah or iCarly in the top 25. I am glad Psych made the top 25 again.
Thank god.
Nice to see White Collar do well.
Still won’t be surprised if Kate isn’t dead…