Cable's Women of Summer Are Hot

It's a summer for modern women. Less so for mad men.

Led by TNT's The Closer, cable series featuring female cops and lawyers are enjoying steamy ratings, while cable series featuring bad boys are feeling the chill.

Per usual, The Closer (7.3 million viewers) was the most watched cable series for the week ended Sunday, per the latest Nielsen rankings. The Emmy-nominated Kyra Sedgwick drama about an offbeat police interrogator, which TNT just renewed for a 15-episode fourth season,  has largely led the cable class since its summer of 2005 premiere—and, along the way, inspired a host of series about offbeat females.

The formula appears to be working for Saving Grace, TNT's latest new drama starring Holly Hunter as an offbeat detective (in Oklahoma City, not Los Angeles, like The Closer). In its second week, ratings edged up from the premiere to 6.6 million viewers.

Glenn Close isn't offbeat in FX's new lawyer show Damages, so much as she is scary. But viewers took to her anyway. With an average audience of 3.7 million for its premiere, Damages was its network's most watched show.

Among the FX series topped by Damages was Rescue Me (2.1 million), which stars Denis Leary as a troubled firefighter who's a guy, and, thus, ineligible for a wider audience.

Also suffering from an incurable case of maleness: Mad Men (1 million, down from its 1.6 million premiere), AMC's critically acclaimed retro series about ad guys behaving badly; and, Scott Baio Is 45...and Single (1.4 million), the new VH1 reality series about a Romeo trying to right his love life.

All is not lost, though, for men on cable. USA's Monk (5 million), the drama about Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub's offbeat male detective, was the week's third-most watched cable series, while USA's Psych (4.2 million) the History Channel's Ice Road Truckers (3.3 million) and old-fashioned, scripted pro wrestling, as seen on USA, continued to loom large.

Even the ultra-dude who is former Poison frontman Bret Michaels got some love via Rock of Love (1.9 million), which distinguished itself as VH1's most watched series (but won't soon make its network forget the one, the only, the far-better-rated Flava of Love.)

So, no, it's not necessarily a fatal decision to cast a man in your cable series. Why, if you're AMC, you can even keep successfully running The Godfather movies until the tapes break. (But just imagine the numbers if Diane Keaton were a little more prominently featured. And, of course, a little more offbeat.)

Other ratings highlights:

• Lili Taylor isn't enjoying the benefits of the we-are-women, hear-us-roar summer. Her new Lifetime series, State of Mind, slipped to 1.7 million viewers, down 26 percent from its premiere. By comparison, Lifetime's top series, Army Wives, averaged 3.6 million.
• By any other name, BET's We Got to Do Better averaged a not-bad 1.1 million.
• The broadcast networks aired shows, too, but, relatively speaking, few noticed. Not a single series topped 10 million. But NBC's America's Got Talent (first place, 9.8 million) will take its victory anyway.
• Other things we sort-of watched on free TV: NBC's Singing Bee (second place, 9.5 million); Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (fourth place, 9.1 million for Thursday's episode; 15th place, 7.9 million for Wednesday's); Fox's Hell's Kitchen (fifth place, 8.9 million); Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics (sixth place, 8.8 million for Thursday's episode—a summer high; 17th place, 7.4 million for Wednesday's); and CBS' Why Bother Making New Singing, Dancing and Cooking Shows When We Can Just Roll Out a Pre-Viewed Shark.
• Is an Elvis impersonator winning a celebrity-impersonator contest, à la ABC's The Next Best Thing (18th place, 7.1 million), an inevitability, or a letdown?
• CBS Evening News update: Still in last place (5.9 million viewers, compared to 7.5 million for ABC's and 7.2 million for NBC's); Katie Couric presumably still wondering why she ever took the gig. 

Overall, CBS won a weak network race, averaging 6.3 million to Fox's 5.8 million, NBC's 5.4 million, ABC's 5 million and the CW's 1.9 million.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. America's Got Talent, NBC, 9.8 million viewers
2. The Singing Bee, NBC, 9.5 million viewers
3. CSI, CBS, 9.3 million viewers
4. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 9.1 million viewers
5. Hell's Kitchen, Fox, 8.9 million viewers
6. Don't Forget the Lyrics (Thursday), Fox, 8.8 million viewers
7. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 8.79 million viewers
8. 60 Minutes, CBS, 8.7 million viewers
9. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Fox, 8.6 million viewers
10. Shark, CBS, 8.2 million viewers