With the early rounds of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, TBS and truTV, and to a lesser extent TNT got primetime boosts, but USA Network held them off to stay on top the cable primetime adults 18-49 ratings and average viewership for the week. I'm not sure if the primetime games in the second week of the tournament will be enough to challenge USA this week, we'll have to wait and see.
SpongeBob's NCAA bracket is always a winner, and he kept Nickelodeon 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 March 14-20, 2011
| Network | (000s) |
| USA | 3,447 |
| DSNY | 2,425 |
| FOXN | 2,114 |
| TNT | 2,085 |
| TBSC | 2,076 |
| HIST | 1,798 |
| FAM | 1,742 |
| NAN | 1,534 |
| A&E | 1,483 |
| CNN | 1,453 |
| FX | 1,427 |
| TRU | 1,342 |
| MTV | 1,329 |
| HGTV | 1,258 |
| ADSM | 1,240 |
| ESPN | 1,159 |
| SYFY | 1,157 |
| FOOD | 1,122 |
| LIFE | 1,104 |
| CMDY | 1,096 |
| DISC | 1,031 |
| TLC | 961 |
| SPK | 912 |
| AMC | 900 |
| NKJR | 893 |
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Adults 18-49 Prime-time Average (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| USA | 1,224 |
| TBSC | 1,108 |
| TNT | 944 |
| MTV | 859 |
| FAM | 812 |
| FX | 789 |
| HIST | 763 |
| A&E | 709 |
| CMDY | 657 |
| TRU | 655 |
| ESPN | 632 |
| ADSM | 597 |
| FOOD | 533 |
| SYFY | 504 |
| DSNY | 493 |
| BRAV | 470 |
| DISC | 449 |
| SPK | 441 |
| HGTV | 438 |
| LIFE | 437 |
| NAN | 432 |
| TLC | 425 |
| CNN | 415 |
| BET | 389 |
| FOXN | 382 |
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Total Day Average Viewers (Live+SD)
| Network | (000s) |
| NICK | 2,193 |
| DSNY | 1,640 |
| NAN | 1,462 |
| USA | 1,456 |
| ADSM | 1,315 |
| FOXN | 1,270 |
| TNT | 1,230 |
| TBSC | 990 |
| CNN | 987 |
| TOON | 958 |
| FAM | 891 |
| A&E | 815 |
| HIST | 815 |
| FX | 766 |
| TRU | 726 |
| ESPN | 700 |
| HGTV | 686 |
| FOOD | 678 |
| MTV | 655 |
| CMDY | 621 |
| TVLD | 589 |
| NKJR | 577 |
| DISC | 576 |
| LIFE | 563 |
| AMC | 562 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2011 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
