ESPN’s final college football coverage of the season delivered solid numbers in time-shifted viewership (live+7) differential during the week of Dec 29-Jan 4, as 3 bowl games hit cable’s top 10 in the metric with a 138K average. The contests were no match for the top programs, however, led by Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” (844K) and a pair of WWE content hours on USA that averaged 469K. An “NCIS” ep (281K) on USA and Nick’s “True Jackson” (198K) followed the triumvirate, and 2 “SpongeBob SquarePants” eps on Nick completed the top 10 with a 70K average. For those keeping score, Nick shows defeated ESPN’s pigskin coverage by a 4-3 margin. 

12/29/2008-01/04/2009
TOTAL-12/29/2008
Rank TELECASTS EPISODE TITLE ORIG DAY(S) S TIME R DUR P2+ P2+ P2+ P2+ Absolute Diff
Live US AA% Live+7 US AA% Live AA(000) Live+7 AA(000)
1 ICARLY-01/03/2009 NICK …..S. 8:00 PM 30 1.9 2.2 5579 6423 844
2 WWE ENTERTAINMENT-12/29/2008 WWE RAW USA M…… 9:00 PM 60 1.6 1.8 4690 5160 470
3 WWE ENTERTAINMENT-12/29/2008 WWE RAW USA M…… 10:00 PM 71 1.9 2.1 5510 5977 467
4 NCIS-12/29/2008 USA M…… 7:00 PM 60 1.4 1.5 4186 4467 281
5 TRUE JACKSON, VP-01/03/2009 NICK …..S. 8:30 PM 30 1.5 1.6 4431 4629 198
6 COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L-12/30/2008 OKLAHOMA ST/OREGON ESPN .T….. 8:17 PM 222 2.1 2.2 6050 6238 188
7 COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L-12/31/2008 LSU/GEORGIA TECH ESPN ..W…. 7:30 PM 210 1.9 2 5531 5658 127
8 COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L-12/29/2008 MISSOURI/NORTHWESTERN ESPN M…… 8:00 PM 243 2.1 2.1 5988 6087 99
9 SPONGEBOB-01/03/2009 NICK …..S. 12:00 PM 30 1.4 1.4 4076 4158 82
10 SPONGEBOB-01/04/2009 NICK ……S 12:00 PM 30 1.4 1.4 4083 4141 58

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