>AMC’s Walking Dead was clearly the top program on cable last week with Adults 18-49, with the season finale scoring an impressive 4.7 rating, up from a more typical 3.6 last week and beating the season premiere’s 4.2 rating on February 12. How good is a 4.7 rating? Just look at the broadcast competition last Sunday at 9 pm. The #2 program in the time period was FOX’s Family Guy (not even close at a 2.8 rating), followed by #3 CBS’s Amazing Race (2.7 from 8:44-9:44) and #4 ABC’s Desperate Housewives (2.6). Even the follow-up program at 10:01 pm on AMC, Talking Dead (2.3 rating), beat the competition on the broadcast networks: #2 ABC’s GCB (2.0), #3 CBS’s The Good Wife (1.9 from 9:44-10:44) and #4 NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice (1.8 from 9:00-11:00). Read more about the Walking Dead finale ratings here.
MTV’s Jersey Shore (2.7 rating) was also able to beat the broadcast competition in the Thursday at 10 pm time period: #2 ABC’s Private Practice (2.1), #3 NBC’s Awake (1.6) and #4 CBS’s coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament (1.5).
In the Thursday 9 pm hour, History’s Swamp People was able to finish in fourth place, behind ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (3.0), NBC’s The Office (2.4) and FOX’s Touch (2.2) but ahead of the unusual CBS coverage of the NCAA Tournament (1.5). The other notable program of the week was the season finale of ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars, a 1.6 rating with Adults 18-49 Monday at 8 pm. The finale was up from the more typical weekly rating in the low-1 range and is particularly impressive when you consider the dramas are really aimed at females 12-34 and not a broader Adult 18-49 target.
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