TBS Wins Primetime Race, Despite ESPN's 'MNF' Monster
Baseball Lifts Turner Network, Even Though Minnesota-Green Bay Game Ranks As Cable's Most-Watched Show Ever
by R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 10/13/2009 4:23:20 PM
ESPN's Oct. 5 Minnesota-Green Bay Monday Night Football telecast may have set an all-time cable viewership ratings record, but it was TBS which hit the biggest ratings home run on cable last week.
Yanks celebrate ALDS win over Twins
Backed by its exclusvie coverage of Major League Baseball's four Division Series, TBS was the most-watched cable network in primetime for the week of Oct. 5 to Oct. 11, according to a Disney-ABC Television Group analysis of Nielsen ratings. TBS' 3.9 household rating average was the best in the network's 33 -year history.
ESPN was second with a 3.0 rating, trailed by USA's 2.2 rating. Disney finished fourth with a 2.1 rating, followed by Fox News (1.7 rating); Nick At Nite (1.3); A&E and Syfy (both tied with a 1.1 rating); and Cartoon Network, TNT, FX and HGTV (all tied with a 1.0 rating.)
TBS also tied with perennial total day ratings leader Nickelodeon for the most-watched network on a 24-hour basis with a 1.5 rating. Disney (1.3) and ESPN, USA and Nick-at-Nite (all tied with a 1.1 rating) rounded out the top five.
Sports and sports entertainment programming dominated the top 10 spots among the most watched shows of the week, led by the record-breaking 21.8 million viewers generated by ESPN's Vikings-Packers contest.
TBS's coverage of baseball's divisional playoff series secured six of the next seven spots, with the three-game Minnesota Twins-New York Yankees series drawing the lion's share of viewers. The Oct. 11 telecast of the Yankees' clinching Game 3 win drew the biggest audience for TBS with 6.7 million viewers.
Most Watched Shows For The Week*
1. Packers/Vikings 10/5 ESPN 21.8 million
2. Yankees-Twins Gm. 3 10/11 TBS 6.7 million
3. Twins-Yankees Gm. 1 10/7 TBS 6.6 million
4. Tigers-Twins 10/6 TBS 6.5 million
5. Twins-Yankees Gm 2 10/9 TBS 6.4 million
6. SportsCenter 10/5 ESPN 5.2 million
7. Cardinals-Dodgers Gm. 2 10/8 TBS 5.1 million
8. Red Sox-Angels Gm. 2 10/9 TBS 5.0 million
9. Cardinals-Dodgers Gm. 1 10/7 TBS 4.9 million
10 WWE Raw (10-11 p.m.) 10/5 USA 4.7 million
*Week of Oct. 5 to Oct. 11
Source: Disney-ABC Television Group analysis of Nielsen ratings.
