Several cable networks posted big ratings gains Sunday during a very competitive night of primetime programming.
The penultimate episodes of Showtime’s Homeland and Masters Of Sex generated the highest ratings for their respective seasons. Homeland’s episode 11 of season three delivered 2.1 million viewers, the most watched show for all pay TV networks during the 9 p.m. hour. Season-to-date, Homeland is averaging 6.8 million weekly viewers, up 17% over season two, said network officials.
The 11th episode of freshman series Masters Of Sex drew a series-high 1.23 million viewers at 10 p.m., up 15 percent versus its prior week. For the night including repeats, Masters Of Sex attracted 1.5 million viewers, and season-to-date Masters Of Sex is averaging 4.8 million weekly viewers.
The season finales for both series air this upcoming Sunday (Dec. 15), said Showtime.
Bravo’s reality series Real Housewives of Atlanta delivered its highest rated episode of its current season, averaging 3.7 million viewers and more than 2.1 million adults 18-49, said network officials. Also, the network’s live series Watch What Happens Live, delivered its highest-rated episode of the season with 1.9 million total viewers and 1.1 million adults 18-49, which was up 21% and 41% respectively from the prior week’s episode, said the network.
Additionally, a bonus episode of reality seriesShahs of Sunset delivered 2 million total viewers- its second consecutive week of season-high performances -- while an episode of Fashion Queens scored a series-to-date high among total viewers (1.4 million viewers) and adults 18-49 (766,000 viewers), both up 22 percent from the prior week’s episode, said network officials.
Sunday also saw History, Lifetime and A&E combine to average 9.8 million total viewers and 4.2 million adults 25-54 viewers during its simulcast of original miniseries Bonnie & Clyde. The second episode of the two-part miniseries -- which follows the exploits of the famous bank robbing couple -- drew an additional 7.4 million total viewers and 3.1 million adults 25-54 viewers Monday night across the three networks, said executives.
As was the case on Sunday, History drew the most watchers for the Public Enemy-era program, averaging 2.8 million watchers. Lifetime and A&E both averageg 2.3 million with the finale of Bonnie & Clyde on Dec. 9.
