Bolstered by workhouse acquisition Law & Order, Turner Network
Television held the top spot among last week's primetime household ratings.
With five episodes of Law & Order ranking among the top 20 shows
for the week, TNT led the way June 16-22 with a 2.1 household rating average,
while Disney Channel trailed closely behind with a 2.0, according to an ABC
Cable Networks Group analysis of Nielsen Media Research data.
Disney's position was aided by a longtime kids' favorite, theatrical Willy
Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which pulled a 3.2 rating June 22 to rank
fourth among last week's top 20 programs. An encore of The Even Stevens
Movie also helped the cause, as the original film drew a 2.8 June 18.
Lifetime Television and Nickelodeon tied for third place with 1.7 averages,
while USA Network and Cartoon Network, both with scores of 1.6, were knotted in
fifth.
USA was boosted by the surge of the second-season premiere of original series
Monk, which placed second among last week's top programs with a 4.1, the
series' highest ever. It also marked basic-cable's best-ever second-season debut
for an original series, according to USA executives,
Rounding out last week's top 10: TBS Superstation with a 1.4; Fox News
Channel at a 1.3; ESPN earning a 1.2; and both A&E Network and The Learning
Channel with averages of 1.1.
Measured on a total-day basis, youth-appeal networks Nick, Cartoon and Disney
ranked first, second and third, respectively. The former averaged a 1.5, while
the latter pair both earned a 1.3. Lifetime and TNT followed with a 1.1 apiece
on a 24-hour basis, according to the ABC Cable analysis.
MTV: Music Television -- attracting young-adult viewers with episodes of
Real World XIII, The Osbournes and Making the Band 2 -- sat
atop the ranks for the 18-34 set, averaging 538,000 primetime viewers, according
to a Turner Entertainment Research analysis of Nielsen data.
TNT was first with the other key adult demos, averaging 976,000 viewers aged
18-49 and nearly 1.07 million 25-54-watchers.
The second hour of TNN's presentation of World Wrestling Entertainment's
Raw June 16 placed first among last week's programs with a 4.3
average.
