Cable Ratings: Holidays Are Hot for ABC Family

Holiday movies led ABC Family to a ratings win for the week of December 4th.  With three of the week's top ten most-watched telecasts on basic cable - two airings of 2004's feature film Polar Express and the original movie premiere of Santa Baby, the network averaged 2.81 million total viewers in prime, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Polar on December 8 at 8 p.m. pulled in 4.03 million viewers and on December 9 at 7 p.m. averaged 5.06 million. Santa Baby averaged 4.73 million on December 10 between 8 and 10 p.m.
Family was followed for the week by USA, which averaged 2.76 million viewers in prime and ESPN with averaged 2.28 million. ESPN's Panthers/Eagles game on Dec. 4 at 8:30 p.m. ranked as the week's most viewed program with 10.5 million total viewers.

It was followed by TNT's Dec. 4 two-hour installment of original drama The Closer, which averaged 5.44 million viewers.