As is typical during football season, ESPN stayed on top both cable primetime adults 18-49 ratings and average viewership for the week. Although with no college football or NBA games finishing anywhere near the top of the week's cable ratings its margin over USA (which had the 2 hour Burn Notice season finale) narrowed significanly vs. recent weeks.
Folks hoping for ESPN to move off the top spot don't have too much longer to wait, there is only more Monday Night Football game, and the college bowl games on ESPN wrap up on January 10.
Nickelodeon remained comfortably at the top of the total day average viewership rankings.
For the week's top 25 individual cable programs click here.
Prime-time Average Viewers (Live+SD) Week of December 13-19, 2010
| Network | (000s) |
| ESPN | 3,026 |
| USA | 2,995 |
| FAM | 2,468 |
| DSNY | 2,327 |
| TNT | 2,129 |
| HIST | 1,924 |
| FOXN | 1,874 |
| TBSC | 1,847 |
| NAN | 1,599 |
| HALL | 1,573 |
| A&E | 1,430 |
| FX | 1,314 |
| TOON | 1,258 |
| FOOD | 1,229 |
| DISC | 1,219 |
| AMC | 1,218 |
| LIFE | 1,192 |
| HGTV | 1,177 |
| TLC | 1,132 |
| LMN | 1,106 |
| SYFY | 1,097 |
| SPK | 1,079 |
| TRU | 1,014 |
| CMDY | 987 |
| TVLD | 983 |
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Adults 18-49 Prime-time Average (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| ESPN | 1,537 |
| USA | 1,328 |
| FAM | 1,092 |
| TBSC | 1,050 |
| HIST | 856 |
| TNT | 809 |
| A&E | 722 |
| FX | 720 |
| DISC | 630 |
| BRAV | 611 |
| CMDY | 603 |
| FOOD | 549 |
| SPK | 498 |
| TLC | 494 |
| DSNY | 477 |
| TRU | 473 |
| LIFE | 468 |
| MTV | 455 |
| NAN | 437 |
| SYFY | 434 |
| NFLN | 418 |
| AMC | 397 |
| HGTV | 392 |
| BET | 337 |
| VH1 | 337 |
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Total Day Average Viewers (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| NICK | 2,437 |
| DSNY | 1,633 |
| NAN | 1,541 |
| TNT | 1,336 |
| USA | 1,324 |
| ESPN | 1,286 |
| ADSM | 1,227 |
| FAM | 1,150 |
| FOXN | 1,062 |
| TBSC | 1,003 |
| TOON | 998 |
| HIST | 940 |
| A&E | 773 |
| FX | 758 |
| DISC | 734 |
| HALL | 722 |
| LIFE | 709 |
| TRU | 697 |
| FOOD | 686 |
| HGTV | 671 |
| AMC | 643 |
| TVLD | 642 |
| SPK | 634 |
| LMN | 572 |
| CMDY | 548 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Cable Channel Abbreviations: NICK = Nickelodeon, NAN = Nick At Nite, TOON = Cartoon Network, ADSM = Adult Swim, TRU = truTV, LIFE = Lifetime, NKJR - Nick Jr., FAM = ABC Family, TVLD = TV Land, FOXN = Fox News, TBSC = TBS, DISC = Discovery
