With the close of football season, ESPN's lock on the weekly cable ratings has been broken. With several of its original series back, plus WWE Raw and the ever present NCIS and L&O:SVU repeats, USA moved into its typical non-sports weekly perch atop the primetime cable viewership for the week, while two original episodes of Jersey Shore in one week pushed MTV past USA for the weeks adults 18-49 primetime ratings. I'd expect USA to top that next week as well.
SpongeBob kept Nickelodeon comfortably at the top of the total day average viewership rankings.
OWN Ratings Keep Falling in Third Week, near Discovery Health levels
In its third full week of programming, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network was down another 8% among women 25-54 (48,000 vs. 53,000) in total day, and 13% among women 25-54 in primetime (90,000 vs. 104,000) vs. its averages last week and is about at last year's averages for Discovery Health.
OWN replaced Discovery Health which averaged 51,000 W25-54 Total Day, and 84,000 W25-54 in Prime Time during 2010.
SELECTED NETWORKS Prime-time Women 25-54 (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| Lifetime | 182 |
| Oxygen | 171 |
| Hallmark | 169 |
| OWN | 90 |
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SELECTED NETWORKS Total Day Women 25-54 (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| LIFE | 258 |
| HALL | 107 |
| OXYG | 99 |
| OWN | 48 |
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For the week's top 25 individual cable programs click here.
Prime-time Average Viewers (Live+SD) Week of January 17-23, 2011
| Network | (000s) |
| USA | 3,146 |
| DSNY | 2,388 |
| TNT | 2,163 |
| MTV | 2,084 |
| HIST | 1,875 |
| FOXN | 1,791 |
| A&E | 1,687 |
| FX | 1,669 |
| NAN | 1,635 |
| TBSC | 1,517 |
| FAM | 1,459 |
| ESPN | 1,458 |
| DISC | 1,433 |
| SYFY | 1,324 |
| HGTV | 1,219 |
| ADSM | 1,182 |
| TRU | 1,168 |
| BET | 1,128 |
| FOOD | 1,135 |
| TVLD | 1,068 |
| SPK | 1,045 |
| BRAV | 1,026 |
| TLC | 1,016 |
| AMC | 992 |
| HALL | 937 |
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Adults 18-49 Prime-time Average (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| MTV | 1,335 |
| USA | 1,139 |
| TNT | 1,111 |
| FX | 894 |
| A&E | 865 |
| HIST | 815 |
| TBSC | 787 |
| DISC | 719 |
| ESPN | 698 |
| FAM | 653 |
| BRAV | 625 |
| TRU | 577 |
| BET | 570 |
| ADSM | 582 |
| CMDY | 569 |
| SYFY | 563 |
| FOOD | 548 |
| SPK | 527 |
| EN | 500 |
| TLC | 491 |
| DSNY | 449 |
| NAN | 441 |
| HGTV | 435 |
| AMC | 399 |
| VH1 | 338 |
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Total Day Average Viewers (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| NICK | 2,473 |
| DSNY | 1,728 |
| NAN | 1,573 |
| USA | 1,465 |
| TNT | 1,382 |
| ADSM | 1,286 |
| TOON | 1,029 |
| HIST | 1,008 |
| FOXN | 994 |
| A&E | 960 |
| FX | 911 |
| TBSC | 908 |
| MTV | 906 |
| ESPN | 879 |
| TRU | 785 |
| DISC | 772 |
| FAM | 736 |
| HGTV | 732 |
| FOOD | 718 |
| TVLD | 689 |
| AMC | 641 |
| SPK | 636 |
| NKJR | 571 |
| SYFY | 594 |
| LIFE | 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
