USA Scores Big With Royal Pains; Sets Psych & Monk For August

USA continued on its path to cable domination with the best original series with last week's premiere of Royal Pains, staring Mark Feuerstein.  The new series, about a concierge doctor working in the Hamptons, whether he likes it or not, scored USA their best premiere to date, even beating out the series premiere's of Burn Notice and In Plain Sight, the other heavy hitters from the cable network.  Pains brought in 5.6 million viewers for its two-hour pilot episode, 2.3 million of that in the all-important 18 – 49 demographic, AND they managed to retain 90% of the lead-in Burn Notice audience (which isn't that much of a surprise, considering the similarities between the two series).  Royal Pains even managed to surpass the ratings of NBC's premiere for The Listener, a Canadian import, which got 5.3 million viewers overall, but only 1.8 million viewers in the 18 – 49 demographics.

Burn Notice's third season premiere also did well, bringing in 6 million viewers and beating out their season 2 debut by 11%.  USA's ratings last Thursday are made all the more extraordinary by the fact that they were opposite of game 1 of the NBA Finals on ABC.  Sounds like Burn Notice and Royal Pains are going to stick around for a while.

Meanwhile, USA has announced that Monk and Psych will launch their new season on August 7, a bit later than last year's July 18 start date.  This will be the final season for Monk and the fourth season for Psych.  USA also confirmed that Burn Notice will wrap the first half of its third season on August 6 and that Royal Pains will wrap its first season up on August 27.  Burn Notice will return for the remainder of it's third season in early 2010, similar to how they broke up season 2 of the series, which worked very well for them in the ratings.

And finally, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "In Plain Sight" will their seasons on Sunday, August 9.

Source: Variety