Nick keeps homes titles; USA tops in demos

Cartoon Net 2nd in homes; TBS leads adults viewers

By TOM BIERBAUM

Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite has remained atop the cable heap in total-day household ratings for this year's third quarter, albeit with a slight drop vs. last year, while TBS held the total-day adults 18-49 lead and USA Network moved into first in primetime 18-49 standings.

Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite averaged a total-day 1.5 rating in households in the Nick universe, down 6% from last year's 1.6, but easily enough to keep ahead of the pack. Cartoon Network (1.2 in its universe, up 20%) took second with the biggest increases vs. last year of any cable net.

TBS (1.1, up 10%) and Lifetime (1.1, up 10%) tied for third, followed by USA (1.0, even), TNT (1.0, up 11%), A&E (0.9, up 13%), ESPN (0.7, down 13%), MTV (0.7, up 17%) and Discovery (0.6, even).

In adults 18-49, TBS' total-day average of 545,000 viewers (up 10%) topped USA's 474,000 (up 9%) and Lifetime's 448,000 (up 6%).

In primetime, USA led the way with an average 1.08 million viewers ages 18-49 (up 19%), followed by TBS (928,000, up 1%) and TNT (906,000, down 9%).

The rival news channels saw some falloffs vs. their year-ago Monica-boosted results. CNN led that race with a 0.5 total homes rating (down 17%), followed by MSNBC (0.3, even), CNBC, (0.3 down 40%), Fox News Channel (0.2, even) and Headline News (0.2, even).

The quarter's top-rated ad-supported cablecast was MTV's Sept. 9 airing of the "Video Music Awards" (11.1 rating, 18 share, in MTV homes), followed by three ESPN NFL gridcasts. The rest of the top 30 is made up of other ESPN sportscasts, WWF wrestling on USA and made-for cable pics "First Daughter" (TBS, 6.9/12) and "You Know My Name" (TNT, 6.4/10).

Each rating point represents 1% of the homes reached by that cable service.