Do you believe it? With the odds against them and a hurt Sidney Crosby, the Penguins held on to beat the Wings 2-1 in a dramatic Game #7 for their first Stanley Cup win since 1992. This is great news for Pittsburgh, who can also boast to being Super Bowl Champs this year. (Way to go Angie!) This is even better news for the NHL & NBC. The 7-game play-offs were watched by everyone, 8 million people to be exact, putting them at #17 in the ratings.

Sports took over the ratings chart with the NBA Play-offs taking the first 4 spots on the Nielson list. The LA Lakers, in a 4-1 win over the Orlando Magic, with a final score of 99-86, came out the big winners & ABC garnered 16 million viewers.

CBS repeats once again dominated the ratings this week. FOX's So You Think You Can Dance did manage to squeeze in amongst all these reruns, but didn't make the "Top Ten". I think we can blame that on all the basketball games. ABC's WipeOut & The Bachelorette were the only other original programming to make the list.

Here is Mr. Nielson's "Top Twenty" list for the week of June 8-14:

1. NBA Finals Game #4 ABC 16mil
2. NBA Finals Game #3 ABC 14.2mil
3. NBA Finals Game #5 ABC 14.2mil
4. NBA Trophy Presentation ABC 13.5mil
5. The Mentalist (Tues.) CBS 11.6mil
6. NCIS (r) CBS 11.1mil
7. Two and a Half Men (r) CBS 9.5mil
8. The Mentalist (Thurs.) (r) CBS 8.9mil
9. 48 Hours Mystery (r) CBS 8.8mil
10. CSI (r) CBS 8.7mil
11. So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 8.7mil
12. So You Think You Can Dance (Thurs.) FOX 8.6mil
13. Wipeout ABC 8.5mil
14. Criminal Minds (r) CBS 8.3mil
15. CSI: Miami (r) CBS 8.2mil
16. CSI: NY (r) CBS 8mil
17. Stanley Cup Game #7 NBC 8mil
18. The Big Bang Theory (r) CBS 7.8mil
19. 60 Minutes (r) CBS 7.6mil
20. The Bachelorette ABC 7.2mil

In case you were wondering how some of the other 'summer' shows are doing, here's a few of them.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here (Mon.) NBC 5.2mil
I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here (Thur.) NBC 5.1mil
I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here (Wed.) NBC 4.7mil
Mental FOX 4.7mil
Here Comes the Newlyweds ABC 4.5mil
Listener NBC 4.4mil
Don't Forget the Lyrics FOX 3.8mil
Hitched or Ditched CW 1.4mil

Over at the cable networks, things are looking alot different. This list is usually dominated by Disney shows & Spongebob Squarepants, but that little yellow idiot is nowhere to be found. No Hannah Montana or ICarly either. Does this mean the kids are actually outside playing instead of watching TV? I doubt it. They're out of school so they are busy playing "Guitar Hero" & text-messaging 'tween' boys. Parent have control of the TV once again & it shows. They are all watching NCIS every chance they get. I've never seen so many people obsessed with one show like they are with this one. Just look at the list! I just don't get it. I tried like hell to watch it one night & fell asleep before the credits were done rolling.

A rare occurrence on the list is the appearance of a non-advertised motivated show. The season 2 premiere of HBO's True Blood made the list at #18 with 3.7 million viewers tuning in to see Sookie Stackhouse's tits. I'm a HUGE fan of this show & was so excited to see it finally return but ended up disappointed. Maybe I just expected too much for the season premiere. I know it will get better. It just has to! I don't want to watch NCIS!

A pleasant surprise over the weekend was the airing of the mini-series Lonesome Dove, shown in two parts on AMC in prime time. I wasn't the only one happy to see this epic western re-broadcast. Over 3 million people watched it with me.

Here are the "Top Twenty" Cable shows for the week of June 8-14:

Posted in TV Patrol by Chooch at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Last Comment: Dirty Sanchez on Jun 17, 2009 05:24 PM.