MTV laid a beat down on the cable competition for the week, capturing the top four slots for primetime viewership lead by the Video Music Awards. Jersey Shore was the second and third most watched show of the week. The MTV five were all well ahead of TNT's Rizzoli & Isles and The Closer which were the fifth and sixth most-watched four of the week. True Blood slipped back just a bit from its series high viewership last week.
Top 25 Basic cable shows for the week ending August 28, 2011:
| Rank | Shows | Net | Day | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | 2011 VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS | MTV | Sun | 09:00P-11:27P | 12,445 |
| 2 | Jersey Shore SSN 4 | MTV | Thu | 10:00P-11:00P | 8,470 |
| 3 | Jersey Shore SSN 4 | MTV | Sun | 07:00P-08:00P | 8,028 |
| 4 | 2011 VMA PRESHOW | MTV | Sun | 08:00P-09:00P | 7,328 |
| 5 | CLOSER, THE | TNT | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 6,573 |
| 6 | RIZZOLI & ISLES | TNT | Mon | 10:00P-11:00P | 6,274 |
| 7 | BEARS/GIANTS | ESPN | Mon | 08:00P-11:24P | 5,853 |
| 8 | Royal Pains | USA | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 5,529 |
| 9 | True Blood | HBOM | Sun | 09:04P-09:54P | 5,312 |
| 10 | I JUST WANT PANTS SNK PK | MTV | Sun | 11:27P-11:58P | 5,131 |
| 11 | WWE Entertainment | USA | Mon | 10:00P-11:05P | 4,662 |
| 12 | REDSKINS/RAVENS | ESPN | Thu | 08:00P-11:25P | 4,614 |
| 13 | WWE Entertainment | USA | Mon | 09:00P-10:00P | 4,611 |
| 14 | Burn Notice | USA | Thu | 09:00P-10:00P | 4,576 |
| 15 | Necessary Roughness | USA | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 4,188 |
| 16 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 10:30A-11:00A | 4,117 |
| 17 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 10:00A-10:30A | 4,099 |
| 18 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sat | 09:30A-10:00A | 3,968 |
| 19 | SpongeBob | NICK | Sun | 10:30A-11:00A | 3,964 |
| 20 | NCIS | USA | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 3,881 |
| 21 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | Sun | 10:00A-10:30A | 3,842 |
| 22 | SUITS | USA | Thu | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,818 |
| 23 | Phineas and Ferb | DSNY | Fri | 09:00P-09:15P | 3,812 |
| 24 | Teen Mom SSN 3 | MTV | Tue | 10:00P-11:00P | 3,790 |
| 25 | iCarly: IPARTY W/VICTORIOUS | NICK | Sun | 11:00A-01:00P | 3,665 |
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There is a lot more information in the daily cable ratings.
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), which we usually post late in the afternoon on the east coast (and Friday night data isn't posted until Monday).
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Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2011 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. All ratings above Live+SD (live viewing plus same day DVR viewing)
