USA Releases Summer Programming Schedule

The USA Network announced its summer lineup today, which gets a jump start when it begins on Sunday April 19.  The lineup kicks off with the eighth season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  The 16 episode season will star Jeff Goldblum in the lead role for half of the season, and then Vincent D'Onofrio will return for the last half.

Following Law & Order: CI will be the second season of In Plain Sight, which stars Mary McCormack as a U.S. Marshal in charge of relocating federal witnesses within the witness protection program.

Next, Burn Notice, which wraps up its second season this coming Thursday night, will return for season 3 on it's same night, Thursdays.  Burn Notice will be followed by the brand new series Royal Pains, which stars Mark Feuerstein as a doctor who's constantly on call for the rich and famous.  Sounds interesting.

Finally, the comedy series Monk and Psych will air on Friday nights, however the premiere dates for these two shows have yet to be announced.  In addition, Mondays will continue to be the home of WWE Monday Night Raw.

USA was the #1 network in basic cable prime, delivering more P25-54 (1.33 million, +23% over #2 TNT) and P18-49 (1.30 million, +16% over #2 TBS) than any other network the third straight year. In 2008, USA was also the top network in basic cable prime among total viewers (2.84 million, +19% over #2 Disney Channel) and households (2.11 million, +17% over #2 Disney Channel).

USA's 2008 average for P25-54 (1.33 million), P18-49 (1.30 million), total viewers (2.84 million) and households (2.11 million) is the highest ever for a basic cable network in Primetime. USA delivered more P25-54, P18-49, and total viewers than the CW in prime (Mon-Sun 8P-11P). This is the first time a cable network has beaten a broadcast network.

Source: Variety