Nielsen Top Cable TV Show Ratings, Week Ending March 22

For the week ending on March 22, USA’s WWE Entertainment attracted more than 5 million viewers, making it the nation’s most-watched cable TV program. Nickelodeon’s Hannah Montana landed third place, with more than 4.5 million viewers. Lifetime’s rendition of Nora Roberts’ Northern Lights took fourth place with 4.5 million viewers, making it Lifetime’s most-watched movie of 2009.

Nickelodeon’s iCarly landed fourteenth place, and the remaining slots were filled with broadcasts of SpongeBob SquarePants and NCIS. Nickelodeon’s hit show SpongeBob SquarePants occupied eight of the top 20 positions for the week. USA’s NCIS filled seven slots.

According to Nielsen Media, cable TV ratings for the week ending on March 22 were as follows:

1. WWE Entertainment - USA
2. WWE Entertainment - USA
3. Hannah Montana - NICK
4. Northern Lights - LIFE
5. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
6. NCIS - USA
7. NCIS - USA
8. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
9. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
10. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
11. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
12. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
13. NCIS - USA
14. iCarly - NICK
15. NCIS - USA
16. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
17. NCIS - USA
18. SpongeBob SquarePants - NICK
19. NCIS - USA
20. NCIS - USA

After briefly losing its no. 1 ranking to the Disney Channel, USA has regained its position as the top cable network for prime-time viewership. The network delivered an average of 3.1 million viewers during its prime-time broadcasts for the week March 16-22. Averaging more than 2.1 million viewers, Nickelodeon attracted the most total-day cable viewers.

In season finale news, Battlestar Galactica attracted more than 2.3 million viewers, while the series finale of Kyle XY delivered approximately 1.6 million. The season finale of HBO’s Big Love attracted an average of 2.7 million viewers, and the finale of Flight of the Concords delivered a mere 678,000 viewers.