tv engagement

Here are our top cable programming stories for the week of April 11.

A Mad March: Monday night’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship aired for the first time on cable, and it averaged 17.8 million viewers across TBS, TNT and truTV. That’s down 37% from the game on CBS last year. But it was hard to beat last year’s numbers.  Then the next day, March Madness made more news: CBS and Turner scored the rights to air the championship for another 8 years, in a $8.8 billion deal. Plenty more details here.

More Ratings: Speaking of ratings, Starz got some to brag about. Its “Outlander” Season 2 premiere on April 9 raked in 1.46 million Live+SD viewers, which was more than double the ratings that the Season 1 premiere earned (721K). The network’s “The Girlfriend Experience” premiered with about 1.5 million Live+SD viewers. Over at AMC, “The Walking Dead” Season 6 finale got 18.4 million viewers and 11.5 million 18-49s according to Nielsen Live+3 ratings. “Talking Dead” earned 7.4 million in Live+3.

Bye Bye, AJAM: Tuesday was the last night for Al Jazeera America, after two and a half years on the air. There was a special live newscast for three hours that included highlights of its cable coverage since August 2013. It shuttered for economic reasons.

USA Network Brand: There’s a “brand positioning” happening over at USA Network, the channel announced Thursday. “We The Bold” is the tagline and it reflects the network’s programming strategy. It signifies the programming’s characters-driven strategy and evokes “courage, resiliency, risk-taking and authenticity,” according to a release. The new angle is being conveyed to consumers through spots from actors in three of its shows: “Elliot Alderson” (Rami Malek) of “Mr. Robot,” “Katie Bowman” (Sarah Wayne Callies) of “Colony,” and WWE Superstar Roman Reigns. More spots are coming, featuring other lead characters on the network.

Empire Moves to Cable: Ahead of its upfront announcements, TV One announced Thursday that it has acquired the broadcast rights to Fox’s hit drama “Empire.” Marathons of the second season will air on the cable net after the season finale on Fox in May, making the series fully binge-able leading up to the season 3 premiere. Empire’s streaming rights are already on Hulu. More details from Deadline.

 

The Daily

Subscribe
Tuesday–July 8

Doing Good

Following the flooding in central Texas over the weekend, Sinclair and The Salvation Army are launching Sinclair Cares: Texas Tragedy Relief. The national fundraising campaign will support those

Read the Full Issue
The Skinny is delivered on Tuesday and focuses on the cable profession. You'll stay in the know on the headlines, topics and special issues you value most. Sign Up

Calendar

Sep 11
2025 Faxies Awards Faxies Nominations Open! Final deadline: 4/4/25
Full Calendar

Jobs

Seeking an INDUSTRY JOB or hiring for one?
VIEW JOBS

In conjunction with our sister brand, Cynopsis, we are offering hiring managers a deep pool of media-savvy, skilled candidates at a range of experience levels and sectors. The result will be an even more robust industry job board, to help both employers and job seekers.

Contact Carley Ashley, [email protected], for more information about posting a job on the website and our Jobs newsletter, sent twice weekly to 85,000 media professionals.