• by Wayne Friedman , December 13, 2012

Top-rated cable shows had a major shakeup this year, with AMC"s "The Walking Dead" easily posting the best results over usual winners from TNT and USA.

"Walking Dead" posted an 11.8 million viewer average when looking at Nielsen live-plus-seven-day results and some recent live-same-day numbers.

It was also tops in two other key viewer categories: 18-49 and 25-54 viewers. In 18-49 it grabbed nearly 8 million, almost doubling the numbers of second-place "Jersey Shore" from MTV, which pulled in 4.3 million. Even with older viewers, the spooky drama pulled in a dominant 6.9 million viewers.

But TNT and USA continued to stake their claim.

Among all viewers, TNT had six of the top 15 shows; USA had three of the top 15. (USA also won the overall daily viewing crown when it came to the average prime-time viewership, as well as that of 18-49 and 25-54 viewers.)

After "Walking Dead,"  the top 10 list includes TNT's "The Closer" at 8.7 million; TNT's "Rizzoli & Isles" at 7.4 million; TNT's "Major Crimes" at 7.0 million; History's "Pawn Stars" at 6.3 million; TNT's "Perception" at 6.2 million; TNT's "Dallas" at 6.1 million; FX's "Sons of Anarchy" at 6.05 million; USA's "Suits" at 5.99 million; and MTV's "Jersey Shore" at 5.91 million.

Looking at the top 20 shows, TNT had six shows: "Closer," "Rizzoli," "Crimes," "Dallas," "Perception," and "Falling Skies." USA had five: "Suits," "Royal Pains," "Burn Notice," "Covert Affairs," and "In Plain Sight." History had three: "Pawn Stars," "American Pickers," and "Swamp People." A&E registered two, "Storage Wars" and "Longmire," while AMC's "Dead," Discovery's "Gold Rush," FX's "Sons of Anarchy" and MTV's "Jersey Shore" each had one.

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