ESPN Monday Night Football (Steelers/Ravens), as it will likely through December, led all cable shows for the week with 11.8 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel's airing of the Vice Presidential debate with 11.1 million. The pre-debate and post-debate analysis as well as the VP debate on other networks and ancillary news programs were all over the top twenty this week. Major League Baseball playoff games put 6 games in the top 20 at numbers 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, and 19.
The Force was strong with the two premiere episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars finishing at #27 (the top non-sports, non-news show for the week) and #30 with 3.992 million and 3.924 million viewers. There were only three SpongeBob airings in this week's top forty - the best at # 35 with 3.739 million. For at least this one week, Yoda > SpongeBob.
WWE Raw took the 15th and 17th spots with over 4.4 million viewers in each case. The Wizards of Waverly Place put an episode at #29 with 3.933 million. Suite Life on Deck pulled in 3.822 million at #32 and Army Wives was #39 with 3.319 million.
Full Top 20 Cable Results for the week ending 10/5/2008:
| Rank | Programs | Network | Day | Viewers (Live+SD) |
| 1 | NFL (RAVENS/STEELERS) | ESPN | MONDAY | 11,783 |
| 2 | VP DEBATE(S)-10/02/2008 | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 11,098 |
| 3 | SR/VICE PRES DEBATE 2008(S)-10/02/2008 | CNN | THURSDAY | 10,685 |
| 4 | ON THE RECORD W/GRETA | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 9,801 |
| 5 | Anderson Cooper 360 | CNN | THURSDAY | 7,961 |
| 6 | VP DEBATE CVG(S)-10/02/2008 | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 7,372 |
| 7 | VP DEBATE ANALYSIS(S)-10/02/2008 | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 6,977 |
| 8 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (Angels-RED SOX 3) | TBSC | SUNDAY | 6,199 |
| 9 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 5,624 |
| 10 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (DODGERS-CUBS 1) | TBSC | WEDNESDAY | 5,381 |
| 11 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (RED SOX-Angels 2) | TBSC | FRIDAY | 5,268 |
| 12 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (CUBS-DODGERS 3) | TBSC | SATURDAY | 5,224 |
| 13 | Hannity & COLMES | FOXNC | THURSDAY | 4,935 |
| 14 | THE OREILLY FACTOR | FOXNC | MONDAY | 4,650 |
| 15 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 4,586 |
| 16 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (PHILLIES-BREWERS 3) | TBSC | SATURDAY | 4,573 |
| 17 | WWE Entertainment (WWE Raw) | USA | MONDAY | 4,493 |
| 18 | Anderson Cooper 360 | CNN | THURSDAY | 4,477 |
| 19 | MLB DIVISION SERIES (RED SOX-Angels 1) | TBSC | WEDNESDAY | 4,442 |
| 20 | DEBATE | MSNBC | THURSDAY | 4,412 |
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Update: More cable ratings from commenter Wyatt:
Last Week
09/29/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.5/2; A18-49: 0.7/2
10/05/08 True Blood HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 1.0/2
10/05/08 Entourage HH: 1.0/2; A18-49: 0.9/2
10/05/08 Dexter HH: 0.5/1; A18-49: 0.3/1
10/05/08 Little Britain USA HH: 0.4/1; A18-49: 0.4/1
10/05/08 Californication HH: 0.3/0; A18-49: 0.2/1
Last Monday
10/06/08 Monday Night Football HH: 7.1/12; A18-49: 4.6/12
10/06/08 The Hills HH: 2.2/3; A18-49: 1.9/5
10/06/08 Raising the Bar HH: 1.6/3; A18-49: 0.7/2
- Dexter: 0.786 million viewers
- Little Britain USA: 0.657 million viewers
- Californication: 0.442 million viewers
- The Life & Times of Tim: 0.275 million viewers
Baseball playoff ratings:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/cable-tv/e3i05c8198f5eab4cda85121f7582eedaad
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved
