The Sunday premiere of live-action and CG-animated Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (7:00-8:15 p.m., ET/PT) kicked off a winning week for Cartoon Network, coming in as the number one telecast of the day among all key kids and boys demos, also setting records as the most-watched telecast, most-watched night in prime-time and most-watched day ever in the net’s history.
It brought in between 21% and 33% increases in weekly primetime ratings and delivery over the same 2008 time period across kids and boys demos from two to 11, six to 11 and nine to 14. CN also saw a growth in its weekly total day delivery compared to the same week last year from 3% and 22%.
The kidnet also aired a one-hour season three premiere of Ben 10: Alien Force (Friday, Sept. 11, 8:30-9:30 p.m.), which brought in double and triple-digit delivery and ratings increases among kids and boys two to 11, six to 11 and nine to 14, ranking at the top in its time period on cable and broadcast TV with boys two 11, six to 11 and nine to 14.
Wednesday nights also saw some gains in its live-action block, with Dude What Would Happen (8:30 p.m.) seeing double-digit growth compared to the same time period last year. Kids two to 11 delivery was up by 20%, six to 11 delivery improved by 74% and kids nine to 14 delivery advanced by 69%. The show also performed well with boys across all young demos: two to 11 jumped by 21%, six to 11 delivery was up by 82% and nine to 14s saw an 88% growth.
Over at Nickelodeon, the iCarly ep ‘iThink They Kissed’ (Saturday, Sept. 12, 8 p.m. ET/PT) was top-rated kids’ program on all of TV for the week of September 7, drawing 7.6 million viewers (P2+), averaging a 10.9/3.8 million in kids two to 11 (up 252%), a 14.9/3.2 million in kids six to 11, (up 303%) and a 14.2/3.1 million with tweens nine to 14 (up 344%).
The ep was also basic cable’s number-one series telecast for the week with total viewers and the number-two entertainment program overall. For the week, Nick drew nine out of the top 10 kid-targeted telecasts (iCarly, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Penguins of Madagascar) with total viewers.
As for Disney Channel, it attracted almost two million sets of eyeballs based on a full week of viewing. It’s all thanks to the premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place, The Movie, which was number two scripted telecast of all time in total viewers (13.5 million), as well as cable’s second telecast ever in kids six to 11 and tweens nine to 14, behind High School Musical 2. The Wizards movie also now ranks as TV’s top telecast of 2009 with kids six to 11.