THE SKED: Friday-Monday Cable Ratings Scorecard – 4/26-29/13

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FRIDAY

STARZ:  DA VINCI’S DEMONS held steady in Week 3 with 18-49s at 0.2, but it tumbled quite a bit in the older-skewing total viewers metric, falling from 503K viewers to 382K.  (And this, remember, is after Starz swore last week that the only reason the show fell sharply from its premiere–when it had 1M total viewers and an 0.4 in 18-49s– was because of the Boston manhunt news coverage.)  The quick Season 2 order for Da Vinci may not have been wise.

SATURDAY

BBCAMERICA:  ORPHAN BLACK has been one of the tastiest surprises of the season, but it’s not finding much of an audience, with a 0.1 rating in 18-49s (down from 0.2 last week) and 330K total viewers (down from 360K).  Those declines are even worse since its lead-in DOCTOR WHO went up in both measurements, with an 0.5 in the demo (up 0.1) and 1.1M total viewers (up from 1M).

SUNDAY

HBO:  GAME OF THRONES has been having a resoundingly good season both creatively and in the ratings (if the last scene of the previous week’s episode was the show at its epic best, the final scene this week was Games at the top of its intimate form), and its smash-hit status continues to grow, rising in 18-49s from 2.6 to a new record 2.8 this week (plus another 0.6 for the 11PM re-airing) and in total viewers from 4.9M to 5.3M (plus 1.3M at 11PM).  These numbers would be impressive even on a broadcast network, but on a subscription service available in only 1/3 of US households, it’s amazing.  Game is now essentially even with True Blood as HBO’s biggest hit.  The good news spread to VEEP as well, as the comedy rose from 0.6 in the demo and 1.1M total viewers to 0.7/1.3M, its biggest numbers of the season so far.

HISTORY CHANNEL:  The season concluded with a slight dip for VIKINGS, which fell from 1.4 to 1.3 in the demo and from 3.9M to 3.6M in total viewers (plus another 0.4/1.1M for the later re-airing).  Those are still extremely solid numbers.

AMC:  MAD MEN, which this week dealt with the Martin Luther King assassination, slipped 0.1 to 0.8 among 18-49s, while staying steady in total viewers at 2.4M.

LIFETIME:  The suddenly moralistic posturing of THE CLIENT LIST may be dampening the show’s drama, but it’s not hurting the ratings, as the series rose from 0.8 to 0.9 in 18-49s, and was also up in total viewers from 2.1M to 2.4M.  The Brooke Shields storyline on ARMY WIVES is keeping that show rock-steady at 0.9 and 2.8M total viewers (the latter number up from 2.6M).

SHOWTIME:  NURSE JACKIE held steady with 0.3 in the demo and 690K total viewers, while THE BORGIAS rose a bit to 0.2 (up 0.1) in 18-49s and 570K (up 100K) total viewers.

MONDAY

A&E:  BATES MOTEL had no trouble keeping its rooms full, holding at a 1.3 in the demo and with almost 3M total viewers (plus 0.4 and almost a million additional viewers for the rerun).

SYFY:  DEFIANCE held very steady with 0.8 in 18-49s and 2.3M total viewers (plus 0.4 and 1.1M for the rebroadcast) and will almost certainly be renewed, although the show’s creative direction is unclear after the announcement that co-creator Michael Taylor will be leaving before Season 2, while another co-creator, Rockne O’Bannon, is joining the writer/producer staff of Revolution.  The return of WAREHOUSE 13 was greeted indifferently with 0.5 in the demo and 1.5M total viewers.

SHOWTIME:  The network knew there wasn’t going to be much of an audience for THE BIG C: HEREAFTER, which is why the show was limited to 4 1-hour episodes playing alone on Mondays.  Showtime renewed the show for a final season for relationship reasons and to round out the story, and pretty much as expected, the show had to be rounded up to even reach an 0.1 rating in 18-49s, with a nearly invisible total audience of 240K viewers.