USA Rides Monk

The fourth-season premiere of Monk was a strong one July 8, helping to push USA Network to within two-tenths of a share point of the weekly primetime basic-cable ratings.

The quirky detective show, starring Tony Shalhoub and featuring Jason Alexander, notched a 4.8 household rating and grabbed 6.4 million viewers, topping ad-supported cable’s list for the week, according to a Disney ABC Cable Networks Group analysis of Nielsen Media Research data.

USA averaged a 2.0 household mark for the week of July 4-10, trailing only Turner Network Television’s 2.2. There was a logjam for the third spot among Disney Channel, Lifetime Television, Nick at Nite and TBS, all of which averaged 1.7 ratings in primetime.

Fox News Channel was next with a 1.6, followed by a 1.5 for regional network Turner South. Cartoon Network pulled a 1.4 average to finish ninth, while Spike TV scored a 1.2 to round out the top 10.

On a total-programming-day basis, Nickelodeon was first with a 1.8, ahead of sister network and channel sharer NAN’s 1.6. Cartoon and its late-night spinoff, Adult Swim, were tied with a 1.3, ahead of the 1.2 racked up by both TNT and Disney.

According to USA officials, Monk notched a 3.0 rating against adults 25-54, making it the top basic-cable original-series telecast of the year against that demo. Monk drove USA to the top of all key cable measures Friday night: households (3.1 average), adults 18-49 (1.3), adults 25-54 (1.6) and total viewers (3.8 million).

The episode outpaced the show’s third-season premiere in ratings by 8%, 19% among adults 18-49, 5% with adults 25-54 and by 15% in total viewers, according to USA officials.