Hit series "Closer" has record opening

By Kimberly Nordyke

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - TNT's hit cop drama "The Closer" opened to big numbers for its third-season premiere Monday.

The Kyra Sedgwick vehicle averaged more than 8.8 million total viewers at 9 p.m., breaking its own record set with last year's Season 2 premiere as basic cable's most-watched series telecast ever, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The Season 3 opener, which premiered commercial-free, was up 6 percent over last season's premiere (8.3 million) in total viewers and also grew 11% in the adults 18-49 demo (2.9 million vs. 2.6 million) and 6 percent in adults 25-54 (3.8 million vs. 3.6 million). It also beat all broadcast programming in its time period in total viewers Monday night.

Following "Closer" at 10 p.m. was the new drama "Heartland," which averaged 4.3 million viewers, slightly less than half its lead-in. "Heartland," set in the world of organ donors and starring Treat Williams and Kari Matchett as a recently divorced couple, still ranked as basic cable's No. 2 new original series for the year. The drama also averaged 1.2 million in 18-49 and 1.6 million in 25-54.

Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin said "Heartland" was up against broadcast competition like NBC's "Dateline," the top program of the night, which featured exclusive interviews with Princes William and Harry.

"With the competition, we're very pleased with 'Heartland,' and we think as the show continues, it will get better and better ratings," he said.

Elsewhere in cable ratings news, HBO saw some viewer drop-offs for a few of its series, including the new show "John From Cincinnati," which fared poorly in its second week. The second episode of the surf-noir drama averaged 1.2 million viewers at 9 p.m., meaning that it lost nearly two-thirds of its viewership from last week's episode (3.4 million), which followed the series finale of "The Sopranos."

Following "John," HBO's "Entourage" had its fourth-season bow at 10 p.m., averaging 2.2 million. That's off from the 3.4 million the third-season finale averaged just two weeks earlier.

At 10:30 p.m., the new series "Flight of the Conchords" debuted on HBO. The show, starring the New Zealand music-comedy duo of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, averaged 1.2 million, keeping 55% of its lead-in audience.

On Monday night, the second episode of Season 2 of HBO's drama "Big Love" averaged 1.5 million at 9 p.m., down from last week's 2.2 million.

Elsewhere, the Friday episode of Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild" at 9 p.m. averaged nearly 2 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode ever for the series, which debuted in November. It also was the No. 2 basic cable program of the night among men 18-49 and men 25-54.

At VH1, the fifth-season finale of "Celebrity Fit Club" averaged 2.7 million viewers at 9 p.m., the most in the series' history. A clip show of "Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School" at 10 p.m. averaged 2.6 million viewers.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter