Source: MediaWeek
While Vince McMahon Appreciation Night didn’t exactly come off like a valentine to the WWE chairman and CEO––the three-hour event ended with a limousine explosion that seemed to result in McMahon’s “death”––USA Network still has a big ol’ crush on the mercurial entrepreneur, thanks to the ratings his grappling showcase pulls in week after week.
According to Nielsen Media Research live plus same day data, a special three-hour WWE Raw served up three of the top five largest audiences for the week ended June 17, with the final hour topping the list with an average 6.33 million viewers. McMahon’s staged demise was also witnessed by a week-high 3.11 million adults 18-49, 2.85 million adults 25-54 and 1.68 million adults 18-34.
All told, USA won the weekly prime time battle with 2.73 million total viewers; the net also swept the three demos, averaging 1.29 million 18-49s, 1.27 million 25-54s and 615,000 18-34s.
Rival net TNT took second place on the week among total viewers and third across the demos, averaging 2.12 million viewers, 915,000 million 18-49s, 988,000 25-54s and 385,000 18-34s. The Turner net claimed the week’s third-largest audience with its Sunday afternoon Nextel Cup coverage, averaging 5.23 million viewers between approximately 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., while also delivering the third-highest numbers among the two older demos.
TBS wrapped up third place (2.05 million), while snaring second among the demos with 1.14 million 18-49s, 1.04 million 25-54s and 599,000 18-34s, thanks in part to its Sunday night presentation of the Will Smith comedy Hitch, which averaged 3.54 million viewers, and the fourth installment of House of Payne (3.48 million).
Riding high on the strength of its newest original series, Army Wives, Lifetime claimed fourth place last week with 1.65 million viewers, and secured a sixth-place berth among 25-54s (677,000). The third episode of Army Wives won Sunday night with 3.84 million total viewers, while delivering the week’s eighth-largest audience of adults 25-54 (1.85 million).
Discovery Channel also got a lift from a hit show with its Deadliest Catch, which averaged 3.49 million viewers Tuesday night between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., while serving up 2.25 million 25-54s and 2.11 million 18-49s, good enough for fourth and fifth place on the week, respectively. The network averaged 1.45 million viewers in prime, and took fourth among 25-54s (760,000) and 18-49s (756,000) and fifth with its delivery of 18-34s (361,000), slightly shy of Comedy Central’s 380,000.
Individual programs of note include: Sunday nights Subway Series match-up between New York’s Yankees and Mets, which delivered 3.57 million viewers on ESPN; the Sunday night series premiere of The History Channel’s Ice Road Truckers, which smashed the network’s existing ratings record for an original series with 3.44 million viewers, 2 million 25-54s and 1.79 million 18-49s; and the latest installment of USA’s limited series The Starter Wife, which on Thursday night drew 3.55 million viewers, 1.9 million 18-49s and 1.84 million 25-54s.
