LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- An expanded, three-hour edition of USA's "WWE Raw" - 8:00 (4.3 million, #3), 9:00 (5.7 million, #2) and 10:00 (6.3 million, #1) - reigned over its cable competition last week.
Also making the leaderboard were new episodes of Lifetime's "Army Wives" (3.8 million, #6), USA's "The Starter Wife" (3.6 million, #T7), Discovery's "The Deadliest Catch" (3.5 million, #9), TBS's "House of Payne" (9:30 - 3.5 million, #T9) and the premiere of "Ice Road Truckers" on the History Channel (3.4 million, #T12).
Rounding out the top 15 then were ESPN's coverage of the Mets/Yankees game on Sunday (3.6 million, #T7), TBS's broadcast of the feature "Hitch" on Sunday (3.5 million, #T9) and a pair of "Law & Order" repeats on TNT - Monday at 9:00 (3.4 million, #T12) and Monday at 10:00 (3.2 million, #14).
Meanwhile, HBO saw its new Sunday lineup - "John From Cincinnati" (1.2 million), "Entourage" (2.2 million) and "Flight of the Conchords" (1.2 million) - stumble out of the gate. "John" was down a whopping 65% from its post-"Sopranos" bow last week while "Entourage" was off 35% from third season finale just three weeks ago (3.4 million). The news wasn't any better for fellow returnee "Big Love," which saw its audience drop to 2.2 million for its second season opener on Monday - less than half of its freshman bow (4.6 million).
Also returning last week were FX's "Rescue Me" (2.8 million on Wednesday; 1.8 million adults 18-49), ABC Family's "Kyle XY" (2.2 million on Monday), Bravo's "Top Chef" (2.0 million on Wednesday; 1.4 million adults 18-49) as well as USA's Sunday series "The 4400" (2.5 million) and "The Dead Zone" (2.1 million). All except for "Chef" were down from their previous season openers.
On the newcomer front, just 184,000 viewers tuned into the launch of Showtime's "Meadowlands" on Sunday while a solid 2.1 million (1.2 million adults 18-49) caught the premiere of Comedy Central's "Lil' Bush" on Wednesday.
And finally, VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club" wrapped its fifth season on Sunday with a series-high 2.7 million viewers. A "Charm School" clip show on the same night also fared well, drawing 2.6 million viewers.
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