'Marriage Ref' Hangs In, Cable's 'Skies' Fall

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Network prime-time television was generally pretty lackluster on the last Sunday in June; cable shows weren't exactly stellar either.

The highest-rated prime-time broadcast show was a rerun of NBC's "America's Got Talent" during the 9 p.m. hour, which earned a 1.8/5. Running opposite "Talent" from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., a rerun of Fox's "Family Guy" scored a 1.7 rating/5 share, the second-best TV rating result of the night.

One new startup for the summer, a new season debut of NBC's "The Marriage Ref," hit a low-ish 1.7/4 rating. This is down from its 2010 finale, when it earned a 2.0 rating. Other new offerings for the night -- CBS' "60 minutes" and NBC's "Dateline NBC," both at 8 p.m. -- each registered a 0.8/3.

Some highly promoted cable shows posted decent -- but not great -- numbers. The second episode of TNT's "Falling Skies" dropped 25% lower to a 1.5 rating among 18-49 viewers (4.2 million viewers overall), down from a 2.0 rating for its two-hour launch a week ago. The drop in ratings was expected.

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The "Skies" lead-in was returning TNT show "Leverage," which got to a 1.0 rating among 18-49 viewers (up 10% versus its year-ago ratings premiere) and 3.4 million viewers.

NBC won the night with a Nielsen 1.4 rating/4 share among 18-49 viewers, down from a 1.8 rating a week ago. Fox was at a 1.3/4 (it earned a 1.3 a week ago); Univision, a 1.1/3 (down two-tenths from its 1.3 rating a week ago; CBS, at a 0.9/3, was up two-tenths; and ABC, at a 0.8/3, was up one-tenth of a rating point.

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