• by Wayne Friedman , March 27, 2008

USA Network registered another win in the first quarter as cable's best-rated prime-time network among many key demographic groups.

USA was up 8% in adults 18-49 to an average 1.27 million. TBS was not far behind at about 1.18 million, 19% higher than in the first quarter of 2007. Its sister network, TNT, was 12% improved to 1.01 million.

USA was also the leader in adults 25-54 and total viewers--improving 8% to 1.3 million viewers and 7% to 2.9 million, respectively. TNT came in second in both categories, with TBS in third place.

TBS had massive gains against young demographics 18-34, where it grew 33%.

The greatest gainers in the first quarter among the most established networks included Nick at Nite, WE, Investigation Discovery, and ESPN, which all climbed 40%. Other big climbers in the 35% of more gains with viewers were the Military Channel, Versus, Bravo, and ESPN.

The biggest losers: ESPN Classic, dropping 47%; SoapNet, off 15%; Discovery, down 12%; and Great American Country, slipping 10%.

In terms of total viewers on a total day basis, Nickelodeon continued to dominate--almost doubling that of the second-place Nick at Nite. Nickelodeon averaged 2.3 million viewers to Nick at Nite's 1.4 million. USA Network was third at 1.3 million; then TNT at 1.25 million and TBS at 1.03 million.

The best-rated returning original series among 18-49 viewers was led by Bravo's "Project Runway a 2.75 million viewers, which was up 14% versus a year ago; FX's "Nip/Tuck," at 2.73 million, down 3%; VH1's "Rock of Love" at 2.17 million, a big 53% higher; MTV's 15-year-old show, "Real World/Road Rules" at 2 million viewers, growing 74%; and VH1's "Flavor of Love" at 1.66 million, down 16%.