Weekly Cable Ratings: ‘Monday Night Football’ Helps ESPN Score Primetime Win

ESPN, bolstered by Monday Night Football, last week reclaimed the top spot on the cable primetime ratings chart from Fox News Channel.

ESPN averaged 2.6 million viewers in primetime for the week of October 2 to October 8 to finish first among all cable networks, according to Nielsen numbers supplied by Fox News. The sports network was paced by its Oct. 2 Seattle Seahawks-New York Giants Monday Night Football telecast, which drew 6.5 million viewers. The game, won by the Seahawks, also aired live on ABC.

Fox News Channel, after a two-week run at the top of the primetime chart, finished second with 2.0 million viewers, followed by MSNBC’s 1.4 million viewers.

The opening round of the Major League Baseball playoffs bolstered several networks to top 10 primetime finishes, including TBS, which finished fourth with 925,000 viewers; ESPN2, which pulled into sixth place with 825,000 viewers; and FS1, which climbed to 10th place with 625,000 watchers.

Hallmark Channel finished fifth with 826,000 viewers, while HGTV was seventh with 781,000 viewers. CNN (779,000 viewers) and INSP (633,000) rounded out the list.

On a 24-hour basis, Fox News topped all networks with 1.2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (977,000), ESPN (927,000), CNN (610,000) and Hallmark Channel (428,000), reported Nielsen.