ESPN rode the return of its Monday Night Football franchise to a first-place finish on the weekly primetime cable ratings charts.
Related: Engineering a Monday Night Comeback: Q&A With ESPN’s Burke Magnus
ESPN averaged 2.8 million viewers during the week of Sept. 11 to Sept. 17 to best all cable networks, according to Nielsen. Fox News Channel was second with 2.1 million viewers, followed by MSNBC’s 1.6 million watchers and USA Network’s 1.4 million viewers.
HGTV (1.3 million viewers), NFL Network (1.2 million), TBS (1.1 million) and History, CNN and Investigation Discovery (1 million) comprised the rest of the top 10 most watched cable networks of the week.
Fox News Channel regained the top weekly ratings spot on a 24-hour basis after relinquishing it to The Weather Channel last week, with Nickelodeon, ESPN, MSNBC and Adult Swim following close behind.
Adult Swim was the most watched network among adults 18-49 on a 24-hour basis, while ESPN scored best with the demo in primetime during the week.
Most Watched Cable Shows For The Week of Sept. 11 to Sept. 17
Date ShowNetworkTotal Viewers
9/11 MNF – New Orleans-Minnesota ESPN 11.4 million
9/11 MNF – LA Chargers-Denver ESPN 9.9 million
9/14 TNF – Houston-Cincinnati NFL Network 8.0 million
9/14 NFL Total Access NFL Network 3.3 million
9/14 NFL Pre-Kick NFL Network 3.0 million
9/11 WWE Monday Night Raw (8-9 pm) USA Network 3.0 million
9/11 WWE Monday Night Raw (9-10 pm) USA Network 2.9 million
9/14 Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC 2.9 million
9/12 Tucker Carlson Tonight Fox News 2.9 million
9/13 Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC 2.7 million
Source: Nielsen
