With 8.5 million average viewers, Captain Phil Harris’ final Deadliest Catch on Discovery topped all cable viewing for the week ending July 18, 2010. The return of The Closer and the premiere of Rizzoli & Isles on TNT were the second and third most-watched programs for the week with After the Catch on Discovery and the State Farm Home Run Derby on ESPN rounding out the top 5. USA’s top show Burn Notice was pushed out of the viewing top 5, but both it and USA sibling Royal Pains made the top 10.
USA’s Covert Affairs debuted at #12 and HBO’s True Blood was thirteenth for the week in viewing with 4.86 million. White Collar returned at #16 with 4.3 million and TNT’s Leverage was way up versus last week and snuck into the top 20 with 3.93 million.
As usual, we have already posted almost all of that data separately, as well as quite a bit of data for shows that aren’t on the list below. Give our site’s search feature near the top right of the site a try.
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) to group the data we typically post each weekday from @TravisYanan on Twitter. During the week Travis usually posts selected cable results for each weekday, usually late in the afternoon on the east coast (and Friday night data isn’t posted until Monday) and he posts the links to that info on his Twitter account to the info on Marc Berman’s PI Forums.
Top 25 cable shows for the week ending July 18, 2010:
| Rank | Program | Network | Day | Time | HH Rating | Viewers (000) |
| 1 | DEADLIEST CATCH | DISC | TUESDAY | 9:00 PM | 5.0 | 8,546 |
| 2 | CLOSER, THE | TNT | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 5.0 | 7,660 |
| 3 | RIZZOLI & ISLES | TNT | MONDAY | 10:01 PM | 4.9 | 7,553 |
| 4 | AFTER THE CATCH(S) | DISC | TUESDAY | 10:01 PM | 4.0 | 6,849 |
| 5 | HOME RUN DERBY L | ESPN | MONDAY | 8:15 PM | 4.0 | 6,418 |
| 6 | SONNY WITH A CHANCE | DSNY | SUNDAY | 8:30 PM | 3.5 | 6,115 |
| 7 | BURN NOTICE | USA | THURSDAY | 9:00 PM | 3.5 | 5,647 |
| 8 | HANNAH MONTANA FOREVER | DSNY | SUNDAY | 8:00 PM | 3.1 | 5,399 |
| 9 | ROYAL PAINS | USA | THURSDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.2 | 5,196 |
| 10 | PAWN STARS | HIST | MONDAY | 10:30 PM | 3.3 | 5,170 |
| 11 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.0 | 5,061 |
| 12 | COVERT AFFAIRS | USA | TUESDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.3 | 4,878 |
| 13 | TRUE BLOOD | HBOM | SUNDAY | 9:03 PM | 2.7 | 4,860 |
| 14 | PAWN STARS | HIST | MONDAY | 10:00 PM | 3.0 | 4,634 |
| 15 | WWE ENTERTAINMENT (WWE RAW) | USA | MONDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.7 | 4,497 |
| 16 | WHITE COLLAR | USA | TUESDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.8 | 4,290 |
| 17 | HOME RUN DERBY PRELUDE L | ESPN | MONDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.7 | 4,177 |
| 18 | FAMILY GUY | ADSM | WEDNESDAY | 11:30 PM | 2.7 | 4,071 |
| 19 | CAMP ROCK | DSNY | SUNDAY | 9:30 PM | 2.4 | 3,944 |
| 20 | LEVERAGE | TNT | SUNDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.5 | 3,932 |
| 21 | NCIS | USA | WEDNESDAY | 8:00 PM | 2.5 | 3,833 |
| 22 | FAMILY GUY | ADSM | MONDAY | 11:30 PM | 2.6 | 3,790 |
| 23 | FAMILY GUY | ADSM | THURSDAY | 11:30 PM | 2.5 | 3,752 |
| 24 | SPONGEBOB | NICK | SATURDAY | 10:00 AM | 2.4 | 3,739 |
| 25 | NEXT FN STAR 6(S) | FOOD | SUNDAY | 9:00 PM | 2.2 | 3,700 |
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Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. All ratings above Live+SD (live viewing plus same day DVR viewing)
