THE SKED SUNDAY CABLE SCORECARD – 10/21/12

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No surprise what’s gnawing at the top of the ratings.

AMC:  The typical post-premiere decline for a big returning show seems to have been made up by AMC’s settlement of its lawsuit with DISH Network and the network’s resulting return to that service, so this week’s numbers are virtually even with last week’s, an extraordinary 5.1 in 18-49s for the initial 9PM airing (down an insignificant 0.1 from last week), plus another 1.6 for the 10PM rerun.  The total viewership number was around 12.8M, and almost 3/4 of them were under 50.  Like last week, the combined primetime airings tied Sunday Night Football as the highest rated programming of the week, broadcast or cable.  (The fact that the two air directly against each other in most of the country is a testament to how much viewer interest still exists out there for shows people really want to see.)  After the 10PM rebroadcast, TALKING DEAD held on to a 1.0 demo rating and about 1.9M viewers.

SHOWTIME:  Oh me of little faith:  I doubted HOMELAND last week when the show seemed to be going down the wrong path of giving Brody dangerous errands to do each week at the behest of his terrorist masters.  But the newly-renewed show was just biding its time, conserving itself for the massive shock that concluded this week’s episode, an event (only 4 episodes into the season!) that defines the term “game-changing.”  The ratings were also significantly up to new all-time highs, both in 18-49s (a 0.2 increase to 0.8) and total viewers (up 250K to 1.75M).  DEXTER, too, had a good night, in a season that would be just fine if not for its cliched Russian gangster villain, up 0.1 to 1.1 in the 18-49 demo, and about 200K viewers to 2.2M.  Both hours again easily defeated HBO in the demo, with roughly 2/3 of their viewers under 50.

HBO:   Thinking of which, BOARDWALK EMPIRE was even in 18-49s at 0.8, and up a bit in the older-skewing total viewer number to 2.3M.  (And it’s nice to see Julianne Nicholson back again, although the Gretchen Mol storyline is just… icky.)  No one expects TREME to become a mainstream success at this point, and it delivered a 0.2 rating in 18-49s and about 600K viewers.  The majority of the viewers for both shows is over 50.

BBCAMERICA:  Precise numbers for the season finale of COPPER aren’t available, but it had something fewer than 440K total viewers, and considering that the show is quite old-skewing, that probably means a 0.1 (no more than 0.2) in 18-49s.