Led By “Monday Night Raw,” USA Network Wins Month Of January

USA Network during the month of January finished first among ad-supported cable nets in total primetime viewers and adults 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54. Seven of episodes of WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” on USA finished in the top ten among all cable programming; “Monk” episodes placed sixth and tenth. The only non-USA show in the top ten was ESPN’s Outback Bowl on January 1. TNT finished the month in second, followed by TBS (DAILY VARIETY, 1/31).

DUST BOWL: Audiences for the three college football bowl games that moved from ESPN to NFL Network, which is in fewer households, “declined dramatically” from the previous season. The Senior Bowl last Saturday drew about 307,000 HHs, down from 1.3 million HHs on ESPN last year. The Insight Bowl drew 390,000, down from three million. The Texas Bowl, which descended from the Houston Bowl on ESPN last year, drew 526,000 HHs, down from 1.92 million (USA TODAY, 1/31).

LAX ATTITUDE: Saturday night's NLL N.Y. Titans-Rochester Knighthawks game on SportsNet N.Y. registered a higher Nielsen rating than its head-to-head competition, Islanders-Sabres on FSNY and Devils-Panthers on MSG. The NLL game earned a .14 rating from 8:00-10:15pm ET; Islanders-Sabres from 7:00-9:45pm earned a .11 rating; Devils-Panthers from 7:30-10:00pm earned a .01 (Titans).

ONE-TWO PUNCH: Spike TV’s season debut of “Pros vs. Joes” on January 25 drew 2.4 million viewers, making it the third most-watched original series premiere in the network’s history. The show earned a 1.89 cable Nielsen rating. The 3.3 rating in men 18-34 won the timeslot among cable and broadcast nets. “UFC Fight Night,” which led into the telecast, drew 2.3 million viewers, the second highest ever for the program behind the third fight between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock last October (Spike).