With 8.28 million total viewers, TNT's season-two premiere of The Closer drew the biggest audience ever for an ad-supported cable scripted series telecast on Monday night, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. The previous record was held by the series' first-season premiere last year.
The Closer, which ran at 9 p.m., outdelivered all programs in its time slot on ABC, NBC, Fox, UPN and The WB and helped bring a big audience to TNT's second summer original drama, Saved. The new paramedic series, which ran at 10 p.m., drew 5.1 million total viewers, making it ad-supported cable's top debut of a new scripted original series this year.
Both shows ran ad-free, with Audi sponsoring The Closer and Dodge and Quiznos sponsoring Saved.
