The Celtics-Knicks game easily won out as Christmas' highest rated and most-watched program with a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating and 5.9 million viewers. Yes, I know it was actually Christmas, but considering it was on a loop, impressive morning and afternoon numbers for A Christmas Story.
The highest rated program that began in primetime was the Clippers-Warriors game that started a bit before 11p on the east coast.
TNT's Leverage aired an original episode at 9pm which averaged a 0.6 adults 18-49 rating and nearly 2 million viewers, on par with last week's telecast (0.6 A18-49, 2.1 million viewers).
Update via commenter Nick: The Doctor Who Christmas Special pulled 933K viewers with an 0.4 A18-49 rating.
We only receive the top 100 cable shows for adults 25-54 for the whole day from our principal source. If you don’t see an original episode of a show here, it’s because it wasn’t in the top 100. I attempt to filter out repeats, kids shows, and most non-primetime shows. Will add extras that come from other sources later as we receive them.
Selected Sunday cable ratings: (all Live+Same Day ratings):
| Program | Net | Time | Viewers (000) | 18-49 Rating |
| NBA Basketball | TNT | 12:00 PM | 5860 | 2.5 |
| 24 HOURS OF A XMAS STORY | TBSC | 10:00 AM | 4532 | 1.9 |
| 24 HOURS OF A XMAS STORY | TBSC | 8:00 AM | 3663 | 1.6 |
| 24 HOURS OF A XMAS STORY | TBSC | 12:00 PM | 3675 | 1.5 |
| NBA REGULAR SEASON L | ESPN | 10:39 PM | 3007 | 1.4 |
| 24 HOURS OF A XMAS STORY | TBSC | 2:00 PM | 3137 | 1.3 |
| 24 HOURS OF A XMAS STORY | TBSC | 4:00 PM | 2784 | 1.1 |
| NBA REGULAR SEASON L | ESPN | 7:58 PM | 2566 | 1.0 |
| 24 HOURS OF A XMAS STORY | TBSC | 6:00 PM | 2275 | 1.0 |
| Pawn Stars | HIST | 10:30 PM | 2414 | 0.7 |
| American Pickers | HIST | 9:00 PM | 2397 | 0.6 |
| LEVERAGE | TNT | 9:00 PM | 1985 | 0.6 |
| NBA TIP-OFF | TNT | 11:00 AM | 1379 | 0.6 |
| American Restoration | HIST | 10:00 PM | 2106 | 0.6 |
| Hardcore Pawn | TRU | 10:30 PM | 1506 | 0.5 |
| Hardcore Pawn | TRU | 10:00 PM | 1457 | 0.5 |
| AMAZING WRLD/GUMBALL FILL | TOON | 7:48 PM | 1734 | 0.5 |
| American Pickers | HIST | 1:01 AM | 1165 | 0.5 |
| Parking Wars | AEN | 9:30 PM | 1185 | 0.5 |
| Iron Chef America | FOOD | 9:00 PM | 1224 | 0.4 |
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To see past daily cable ratings posts click here.
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2011 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
