>AMC’s Walking Dead is locking in on a 3.6 rating with Adults 18-49. The first five weeks of this season for the zombie apocalypse drama: 4.2… 3.6… 3.8… 3.5… 3.6. Once again, it is easily the highest-rated cable program of the week and far and away the #1 show in the Sunday 9 pm time period, including the broadcast entries: #1 Walking Dead AMC (3.6), #2 Family Guy FOX (2.8), #3 Desperate Housewives ABC (2.6).
Without the aid of a tweet imploring people in Nielsen homes to watch, Oprah’s Next Chapter made our weekly ranking of top cable programs, the first entry from OWN. The episode featured an interview with Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
MTV’s Jersey Shore has also stabilized — the first uptick in 10 weeks (to a 2.8 rating this week). The Jersey Shore episode track since January: 4.0… 3.8… 3.5… 3.8… 3.2… 3.0… 2.9… 2.9… 2.7… 2.8. This week, MTV had to settle for a first-place tie Thursday at 10 pm (with The Mentalist on CBS, followed by History’s Swamp People in third place with a 1.9 rating and NBC’s Awake in fourth place with a 1.6 rating).
HBO premiered Game Change (starring Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin) Saturday at 9 pm, drawing 2.1 million viewers 2+. We don’t have an 18-49 rating for the premiere telecast, although it most likely is right around a 1.0 rating. Over the course of the weekend, 3.6 million viewers 2+ saw one of the first four plays of the docudrama about the 2008 McCain-Palin campaign. (That is, 2.1 million saw the premiere Saturday at 9 and an additional 1.5 million watched one of the three repeats of the movie.)
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