"Broken Trail" and broken records
It's official: AMC is back. Part one of its "Broken Trail" aired on the final night of Nielsen's 2nd quarter and pulled the highest number, by far, of any cable show. Just under 10 million viewers watched the Western with Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church. In fact, it was the No. 6 show on all of television last week, and would've ranked even higher had it been carried on a broadcast network (since, according to Nielsen, there are 110 million TV homes and AMC is in only 86 million of them).
Cable's top 10 also included TNT's "The Closer," the NBA playoffs and the "Kids Choice 06 Awards" alongside the usual suspects (WWE, NASCAR, SpongeBob).
| P2+ | P2+ | |||||
| Rank | Network | Program | Date | Time | Cvg Rtg | (000) |
| 1 | AMC | AMC ORIGINAL MOVIE | 25-Jun | 8:00 PM | 4.4 | 9,904 |
| 2 | TNT | CLOSER, THE | 12-Jun | 9:00 PM | 3.6 | 8,278 |
| 3 | TNT | NBA PLAYOFFS | 22-May | 8:00 PM | 3.0 | 7,071 |
| 4 | ESPN | NBA PLAYOFFS-CONF FNLS L | 31-May | 8:00 PM | 2.8 | 6,602 |
| 4 | ESPN | NBA PLAYOFFS-CONF FNLS L | 2-Jun | 8:09 PM | 2.8 | 6,455 |
| 6 | TNT | NBA PLAYOFFS | 1-Jun | 8:49 PM | 2.7 | 6,201 |
| 7 | TNT | CLOSER, THE | 19-Jun | 9:00 PM | 2.6 | 6,110 |
| 7 | FX | NEXTEL CUP RACE | 4-Jun | 2:11 PM | 2.6 | 5,969 |
| 7 | NICK | S KIDS CHOICE 06 | 1-Apr | 8:00 PM | 2.6 | 5,942 |
| 10 | TNT | NBA PLAYOFFS | 3-Jun | 8:34 PM | 2.5 | 5,894 |
| 10 | NICK | SPONGEBOB | 1-Apr | 7:30 PM | 2.5 | 5,836 |
| 10 | TNT | NBA PLAYOFFS | 22-May | 11:10 PM | 2.5 | 5,826 |
| 10 | USA | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | 19-Jun | 10:00 PM | 2.5 | 5,800 |
| 10 | USA | WWE ENTERTAINMENT | 12-Jun | 10:00 PM | 2.5 | 5,798 |
| 10 | ESPN | NBA PLAYOFFS-CONF FNLS L | 25-May | 8:00 PM | 2.5 | 5,751 |
| 10 | TNT | NBA PLAYOFFS | 30-May | 9:02 PM | 2.5 | 5,750 |
| 10 | FX | NEXTEL CUP RACE | 6-May | 7:32 PM | 2.5 | 5,633 |
