Cable ratings: 'Tara,' 'Trust,' SAG Awards

>> The debut of TNT's "Trust Me" (3.4 million viewers, 1.0 adults 18-49 rating) lost 50% of its "Closer" lead-in. The middling-reviewed new drama got off to a disappointing start Monday night, while the winter premiere of "The Closer" (6.2 million, 1.5) was the most-watched cable program for the evening.

>> Week 2 of HBO and Showtime's Sunday lineup was marked by some mild viewer drains in most shows: "Big Love" (1.4 million, 0.7), "Flight of the Conchords" (500,000, 0.3) and "United States of Tara" (830,000, 0.4) were not quite as strong as last week's season openers. But Showtime's "The L Word" (500,000, 0.3) went up slightly.

>> Seems viewers for the Screen Actors Guild Awards went on strike. Airing on TNT and TBS, the combined telecasts (5.4 million) were the least-watched outing since both networks started airing the show in 2006.

>> MTV's "The City" (1.5 million, 0.9) slipped from last week's season high Monday after a couple weeks of gains. But struggling "Bromance" (700,000. 0.4) didn't help its case for a renewal. 

Comments

[smokeybear]

I couldn't shake the feeling that Trust Me is attempting to ride the success of Mad Men. Although Trust Me seems to be more of a comedy. I like Thomas Cavanagh (JD's brother) from Scrubs, but the rest of the cast sucks.

[RE]

I realize that, like most procedurals, The Closer skews to an older audience, but does it really get four times as many viewers as The City but only barely better in the 18-49 demo?

[James Hibberd]

fixed, thx

[Hal Mendel]

thats not right Closer did 2mm in 18-49 double The City.

[James Hibberd]

The format is "total viewers/18-49 rating" -- you sure you're not confusing the viewer number with the rating? According to the numbers I have above, Closer is a 1.5 rating and City a 0.9 (so, yeah, nearly double).

[Bryan Bennett]

In a recent survey of the TVLoop community (we have 16 million registered users over 200+ Facebook applications), we saw that very few viewers were aware of the new shows this season and even fewer we're planning on watching. But of the new shows, Lie to Me and Trust Me we're the two that received the most intent to watch. Lie to Me appears to have started out strong, but maybe not so much for Trust Me. Speaking of which, I like Cavanagh and am still annoyed that Love Monkey was canceled...I liked that show.

[Marenamoo]

How are Leverage's numbers doing expectation wise vs. Trust Me? I know it premiered higher after the Librarian but its weekly numbers are coming in around three million total. What is the expected drop off after the premiere airing? I am really enjoying Leverage and I am trying to get a sense of its strength on TNT' lineup.