MONK, THE CLOSER, Are Top TV Draws This Summer

Cable Tv programming has taken great advantage of relatively weak summer network programming to offer ratings strong cable original programming. Last week, THE CLOSER, drew an audience of 6.9 million. A huge draw for a cable original series program. Professional wrestling, WWE RAW, drew 5.4 million viewers. The quirky and funny detective dramamedy, MONK, drew 5.3 million viewers. And other favorites such as USA's ,PSYCH, is a quick new favorite at 4.7 million viewers. TNTs, SAVED, garners 3.6 million a week. And the Disney children's comedy, SUITE LIFE OF ZACK & CODY, starring two twin brothers living in a hotel with their single mother has perhaps some of the funniest comedy writing material on TV that I've seen. This program is up to usual Disney quality standards of programming excellence by all means.

With the exception of two strong NBC summer series, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT and LAST COMIC STANDING, network summer replacements have tended to be very weak, and the cable series have been able to take good advantage of this weakness. During the fall, cable will return to reruns for a while, while many new network programs will be given a chance to succed or fail with the public. But for this summer, cable has drawn some of the best ratings ever for original series.