Eclectic Mix Powers Cable

Wrestling, kid awards, volcanoes and cliquey girls brought the most TV viewers into cable's tent in April, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The top five cable programs for the month were: WWE on Spike (April 4, 10 p.m.) with 5.5 million total viewers, Nick’s Kid’s Choice Awards (April 2, 8 p.m.) with 5.18 million, Discovery’s special, Supervolcano, (April 10, 8 p.m.) with 5.14 million and Lifetime’s movie, Odd Girl Out (April 4, 9 p.m.), with 5.12 million.

TNT, Nick at Night and USA were the most watched networks for the month in prime, averaging 1.82 million, 1.7 million, and 1.67 million viewers, respectively.

Big prime time viewership gainers in April included Spike, which averaged 1.64 million total viewers, a 55% jump from last April’s 1.06 million; Nat Geo, up 45% to 243,000 total viewers; Lifetime Movie network, up 40% to 460,000; Headline News, up 25% to 274,000; BET, up 24% to 657,000, Discovery Health, up 24% to 215,000; and AMC, up 21% to 957,000.

Notable downers in prime time for the month: TLC, down 39% from 1.127 million total viewers to 689,000; CNB, down 39% to 131,000; Bravo, down 24% to 396,000; ESPN, down 17% to 1.27 million; and MTV, down 17% to 1.094 million (music net Fuse saw the month’s biggest drop percentage-wise, down 42% to a mere 21,000).