June 2012 Cable Ratings Guide, Part 2

I'm back with another monthly look at the cable TV landscape! As always, I'll note that I mostly traffic in adults 18-49 ratings below. (That's always what I mean by "demo.") However, these should be taken with some grain of salt. I use A18-49 ratings because of availability and because they're a reasonable way of making comparisons across networks, but be advised that it is not necessarily the be-all-end-all number it is on broadcast. Not all of these networks target that demographic specifically. In this edition, all these numbers are up to date through Monday, July 2. I'm putting all shows that just started a season (in other words, weren't on last month's guide) in blue.

Since I've got fifty shows in this edition, more than twice as many shows as last month, I split this into two parts to try to make it somewhat feasible to get through each part in one sitting. HERE'S PART ONE FROM TUESDAY.

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Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime): Lifetime brought back its always decent performer Drop Dead Diva with a 0.8 demo for its June 3 premiere. As is usually the case, the show has dropped a good bit since then, getting as low as a 0.6 last week. It's averaging a 0.70 through five episodes, down by 12% from the first four of last summer.

Army Wives (Lifetime): Lifetime sent its Sunday staple Army Wives onto a one-month hiatus so The Client List could finish its season. Army Wives returned on June 24 in decent fashion, as its 0.97 and 0.93 demos the last two weeks were about on par with the 0.96 average of the spring run. The season as a whole remains down a significant 18% from last year's season, but it's still about as good a scripted option as Lifetime can offer.

The Client List (Lifetime): Promising new show The Client List dropped off a bit when it lost the compatible lead-in from Army Wives, posting a below-average 0.8 demo in the first two weeks that Drop Dead Diva was on the air. But the show had a pretty nice spike to a 1.0 in its season finale on June 17. That left the season with a 0.93 demo average. It was probably Lifetime's most promising young scripted show since Army Wives debuted in 2007.

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Teen Wolf (MTV): Season two of MTV's Teen Wolf started off on the downside with its 0.8 demo premiere on June 3 after the MTV Movie Awards. That was 0.1 weaker than its premiere last year. But it's since held up a little better in its Monday timeslot and has steadied at around a 0.7 demo for the last three weeks. The 0.68 average through six episodes is up by 1% year-to-year.

Awkward. (MTV): MTV has shifted its promising comedy Awkward. over to Thursday for its second season, and it certainly looks like it will not have nearly as big a lead-in as it did on Tuesday with Teen Mom. Still, the show premiered to 2.15 million viewers and a 0.9 demo rating last Thursday, which was up a tenth from its series premiere last season. Season one really took off in the last couple months of the season, so the question for Awkward. now is whether it can do that again without the help of Teen Mom.

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Eureka (Syfy): Long-running Syfy drama Eureka continues its soft-rated march toward the finish. It's averaging a 0.53 demo through eleven episodes, which is down 25% from last season's numbers. The series finale airs on July 16.

Lost Girl (Syfy): Syfy immediately started airing season two of Canadian import Lost Girl after they finished with season one. The show has pulled almost exactly the same ratings after Eureka as after Being Human. The 0.43 average through eleven episodes is down just a bit from the 0.45 average for the whole of season one. The 22-episode second season is slated to move to Friday in July to make way for Alphas.

WWE Friday Night Smackdown! (Syfy): Syfy's wrestling franchise averaged a 0.78 demo in June. That was a bit weaker than its May average (0.83) but a little stronger than what the show was doing at this time last year.

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Men at Work (TBS): After a couple tough weeks against the NBA playoffs, it looks like the new TBS comedy has now pretty much stabilized at right around a 1.0 demo. It's averaging a 1.02 through seven episodes. It's still doing a little bit worse than the Big Bang Theory repeats that lead into it, but not enough to make the show a clear liability. TBS picked the show up for a 10-episode second season last month.

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Rizzoli & Isles: The TNT crime drama has done a pretty respectable job in leading off its own night for the first time, especially considering it had to face the NBA Finals a couple times. The first four episodes have averaged a 1.08 demo, which is down 12% from the first four of last season when it was still paired with The Closer. The show picked up a fourth-season renewal last week.

Franklin & Bash: This lawyer dramedy was seemingly one of TV's most-damaged shows against the NBA Finals, dropping down to a 0.7 demo on both of those Tuesdays and then spiking all the way up to a 1.0 last week with the Finals gone. That 1.0 represented a new series high and held nearly all the Rizzoli & Isles lead-in. Overall, though, the 0.81 demo average through four episodes is down 11% year-to-year. That has to be a bit of a disappointment since it actually has a good lead-in this year, but let's see if it can continue its post-Finals momentum.

Dallas: While Dallas looks like it could be a successful show for TNT, it also doesn't look like the game-changer that fans of the original 1980s series might have expected. Its two-hour premiere averaged 6.86 million viewers and a 1.5 demo, and it's then shed a chunk of that audience in each of the next two weeks. Last week saw just a 1.1 demo, and last night's 4th of July airing could get even worse. The show is averaging a 1.34 demo thus far and has been renewed for a second season.

Falling Skies: Season two of Falling Skies has been somewhat disappointing thus far, posting demo ratings almost identical to those of Dallas. It started with a 1.5 for the two-hour premiere on June 17 and has since dropped to a 1.3 and then a 1.2. That leaves it with a 1.34 demo average, which is down a substantial 22% from the first four episodes of the series in 2011.

The Great Escape: TNT has tried an Amazing Race-esque reality show with the Falling Skies lead-in this year. It premiered to 1.62 million viewers and a 0.65 demo on June 24, holding only about half of the Falling Skies audience. The good news is it held up pretty well in week two, dropping to a 0.62 demo.

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Retired at 35: It became clear that this second-year show was not high on TV Land's priority list when they bumped its scheduled spring run to keep airing Happily Divorced. Its summer run on Tuesday felt like something of a burn-off, and it's certainly getting burn-off numbers. It found just 606,000 viewers and just 140,000 adults 18-49 (a 0.11 rating!) in its premiere last week. That's down about 80% from the 0.5 demo with which it premiered last year!

Hot in Cleveland: I've reported in the past several of these about the tough sledding the last few months for Hot In Cleveland, but this time there's actually some good news. The June 6 finale had a significant spike, back up to nearly two million viewers and a 0.5 demo. The 24-episode season averaged a 0.34 demo, down 32% year-to-year.

Happily Divorced: Like Hot In Cleveland, Happily Divorced saw a big bump on its June 6 finale night to 1.40 million viewers and a 0.4 demo. The season averaged a 0.29 demo and was down 30%.

The Soul Man: It looked like TV Land may finally be back on the ratings upswing when they premiered Cedric the Entertainer's The Soul Man in impressive fashion. It scored nearly two million viewers and a 0.57 demo in its June 20 premiere. Then came week two. Cedric and company dropped nearly 40% of that total audience and demo audience, leaving it at 1.20 million and a 0.35 demo, both fairly average Hot in Cleveland type results.

The Exes: The summer run of The Exes has taken a dip from its The Soul Man lead-in each of the first two weeks. It's averaging a 0.33 demo through two weeks, but it's actually doing noticeably better than its first run in the winter thanks to the bigger lead-in.

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WWE Raw: The USA Network wrestling program remains its network's top original option, averaging a 1.66 demo over the last five weeks. That's a small step up from the average in May and the average from the year-ago period. The show is preparing for a permanent expansion to three hours on July 23. That will also mark its 1000th episode.

Royal Pains: It's been a pretty stormy summer in the Hamptons thus far, as last summer's top drama on USA Royal Pains is averaging just a 1.04 demo through four episodes. That's down a substantial 27% year-to-year.

Necessary Roughness: But despite its struggles, Royal Pains isn't even the biggest problem on its own night. Necessary Roughness has taken significant dips out of Royal Pains and is averaging just a 0.78 demo through four episodes. For a show that pulled low 1's last summer and might have hoped for a little second season momentum, that's really a disappointment. It's down 37% from the first four eps of summer 2011.

Burn Notice: The long-running USA spy drama has averaged a consistent 1.20 demo in its first three episodes this season. That's down by 17% year-to-year.

Suits: Probably the best story this summer on the mostly troubled USA is sophomore legal drama Suits. It premiered to a 1.10 demo against the NBA Finals but has built each of the last two weeks and passed Burn Notice to become USA's top drama last week. The 1.21 demo average is down 11% year-to-year.

Fairly Legal: Fairly Legal finished its second season with a 0.60 average. It aired on Friday night and was down 35% from season one on Thursday night. It seems this show is on the bubble right now, and it (plus Common Law) should help give us some sense of what USA's expectations are for Friday night.

Common Law: The new Friday night cop drama typically built on its Fairly Legal lead-in when the two were paired. Now it's on its own on USA Friday, but it's held up OK in its first three airings since Fairly Legal ended. It's averaging a 0.65 demo through seven episodes.

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Here's the link to part one, covering shows on A&E, ABC Family, AMC, BET, Comedy Central, FX and HBO.

For more, check out the previous cable guides here at SpoilerTV:
September/October | November | December | January | February | March | April | May

For more in-depth TV ratings coverage every day, check out my blog at SpottedRatings.com or follow me on Twitter: @spotupj.