Nickelodeon's Victorious Tops Basic Cable With Total Viewers In Time Slot

Victorious, Nickelodeon's latest live-action hit, claimed victory with its Sunday (April 11) premiere in its regular time slot (8-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), topping all basic cable programming in its time period with total viewers (3.5 million, +26%). The new prime-time series also bested all broadcast and basic cable programming in its time period with kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14. Starring Victoria Justice, Victorious earned a 6.4/1.4 million K6-11, 6.2/1.3 million, tweens 9-14 and 3.5 million total viewers, and posted double-digit gains of +42% (K6-11), +68% (T9-14) and +26% (P2+) over last year.

The Victorious website on Nick.com also boasted a strong performance, earning its highest number of unique visitors on April 11, and boasting the number-one message board during the week leading up to the new episode. Victorious follows Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) a teen who unexpectedly finds herself navigating life at an elite performing arts high school. The series features original music performed by Victoria Justice and the ensemble cast.

Fresh from its most-watched quarter ever, Nickelodeon closed the week (4/5/10-4/11/10) as basic cable's number-one network in total day with double-digit gains in delivery of +10% among kids 6-11 (3.1/676,000 million) and +20% with tweens (2.4/511,000). Nick averaged 2.2 million total viewers and 3.4/1.2 million kids 2-11 for the week.

Nickelodeon, now in its 31st year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 15 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA - News, VIA.B - News).