Lead by Pawn Stars, American Pickers, IRT: Deadliest Roads, and Swamp People History added the most viewership of any cable network, both in primetime and total day, during 2010.
If you're looking for the list of cable network viewership losers, look here.
Top primetime (8-11pm) average viewership gains 2009 to 2010:
| Rank | Net | 2010 Avg. Viewership (000) | 2009 Avg. Viewership (000) | Gain |
| 1 | History | 1642 | 1219 | 423 |
| 2 | MTV | 979 | 806 | 173 |
| 3 | Investigation Discovery | 369 | 224 | 145 |
| 4 | Nick Jr | 780 | 661 | 119 |
| 5 | TV Land | 833 | 717 | 116 |
| 6 | ESPN | 2400 | 2303 | 97 |
| 7 | EN | 678 | 598 | 80 |
| 8 | Bravo | 874 | 795 | 79 |
| 9 | ABC Family | 1441 | 1363 | 78 |
| 10 | Nick Toons | 298 | 233 | 65 |
| 11 | Cartoon | 1359 | 1302 | 57 |
| 12 | Science | 243 | 190 | 53 |
| 13 | Oxygen | 476 | 427 | 49 |
| 14 | AMC | 1092 | 1044 | 48 |
| 15 | Disney | 2576 | 2533 | 43 |
| 16 | TNNK | 215 | 174 | 41 |
| 17 | TLC | 1105 | 1070 | 35 |
| 18 | NFL Network | 258 | 224 | 34 |
| 19 | RFD | 136 | 102 | 34 |
| 20 | truTV | 1127 | 1094 | 33 |
| 21 | TV1 | 211 | 181 | 30 |
| 22 | BBCA | 161 | 132 | 29 |
| 23 | HGTV | 1226 | 1200 | 26 |
| 24 | Food Network | 1144 | 1118 | 26 |
| 25 | Military | 154 | 129 | 25 |
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Top total day (24 hr.) average viewership gains 2009 to 2010:
| Rank | Net | 2010 Avg. Viewership (000) | 2009 Avg. Viewership (000) | Gain |
| 1 | History | 830 | 717 | 113 |
| 2 | Investigation Discovery | 287 | 175 | 112 |
| 3 | Adult Swim | 1186 | 1100 | 86 |
| 4 | ESPN | 1083 | 1004 | 79 |
| 5 | Nick at Nite | 1598 | 1521 | 77 |
| 6 | TNT | 1337 | 1260 | 77 |
| 7 | Disney | 1723 | 1655 | 68 |
| 8 | Nick Jr | 558 | 490 | 68 |
| 9 | Nickelodeon | 2271 | 2204 | 67 |
| 10 | MTV | 545 | 481 | 64 |
| 11 | Cartoon | 1104 | 1054 | 50 |
| 12 | E! | 423 | 379 | 44 |
| 13 | HGTV | 688 | 645 | 43 |
| 14 | Travel | 268 | 230 | 38 |
| 15 | Nick Toons | 193 | 155 | 38 |
| 16 | TNNK | 178 | 140 | 38 |
| 17 | Science | 149 | 118 | 31 |
| 18 | WGNA | 279 | 249 | 30 |
| 19 | Bravo | 409 | 382 | 27 |
| 20 | HI | 127 | 106 | 21 |
| 21 | TV Land | 571 | 551 | 20 |
| 22 | APL | 359 | 339 | 20 |
| 23 | Galavision | 109 | 89 | 20 |
| 24 | Military | 106 | 86 | 20 |
| 25 | Weather Ch. | 255 | 237 | 18 |
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All are individual broadcast “Most Current” measurement, which are Live+7 Day Ratings for most shows except the late December football games, for which they are Live + Same Day ratings.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2011 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
While different cable networks target different age/gender demographics for advertising sales, I figured the best way to show overall annual gains/losses was via average viewership changes. Doing gainers and losers lists for each demo group we have numbers for would prove ungainly.
