Kid Power Powers HSM2

It's becoming quite clear what elementary schoolers did on their summer vacations: They watched High School Musical 2.

According to the Disney Channel, four out of every five girls aged 6-11 who watched TV on Friday night watched the record-setting premiere of HSM2.

Sorry, Friday Night Smackdown.

The alliance of children—and, yes, the numbers suggest even boys tuned in to the singing-dancing extravaganza—helped HSM2 establish itself as the most-watched show in cable TV history.

Arguably more eye-popping than the record were the demographic stats released Monday by the network.

Two out of every three TV watchers aged 6-11 and 9-14 tuned in to the tuneful tale, per the Disney Channel.

Overall, H2M2 averaged 17.2 million viewers. Of that, more than one-third were fun-size, with 6.1 million viewers culled from the age 6-11 ranks. The tween demo was just as locked in, accounting for 34 percent (5.9 million) of the show's legions.

And when the children were done watching Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens seal their deal with a kiss, they watched them do it again.

Replays of HSM2 on Saturday and Sunday nights averaged a combined 15.9 million. In its own right, each repeat telecast typically would have topped the week's cable rankings.

Add in 9.8 million viewers for two more airings of the oft-aired HSM, the 2006 original, and another 29.6 million for the two Hannah Montanas and the Phineas & Ferb preview that played after the HSM2 premiere, and the High School Musical franchise contributed a whopping 72.5 million measured viewers to the Disney Channel.

It was not known how many of those viewers were repeat customers. But it presumably wasn't for the uninitiated that Disney Channel aired HSM2's sing-along version on Sunday night.

Next up for the HSM2 juggernaut: the HD version, coming to DirecTV on Friday. So, you know, all the kids can clearly see all the stuff they didn't quite see the first three or four times.

Other ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

• TNT's The Closer (7.4 million) was the most-watched cable show that didn't (1) star Zac Efron, (2) air after HSM2 and (3) champion improvised capri pants for boys.
• The season finale of Ice Road Truckers (4.8 million) was the History Channel's most-watched show ever, and presumably cable's most-watched show among people who don't know a Sharpay from a Sharpie, and don't care to, either.
• Sure, rich people are fun to watch, but rich people who yell at each other are even more fun to watch, as evidenced by the frisky numbers for the catfightin' third-season premiere of MTV's The Hills (3.5 million for the first episode; 3.8 million for the second).
• TNT's Saving Grace (4.7 million) and USA's Monk (4.5 million) did their things, teenagers and ice-road truckers or no. 
• It's not that Americans didn't want to relive the Pussycat Dolls' Search for the Next Doll (963,000 on Sunday night) on the CW, it's just that ESPN's baseball rain delay (1.4 million for the first hour on Sunday night) was pretty compelling stuff.
• NBC's America's Got Talent (10.8 million) may be winding down, but it's still winding up with the most viewers—for broadcast TV, anyway.  
• To sum up the other broadcast network standouts in three words: singing (NBC's The Singing Bee—third place, 9.7 million), cooking (Fox's Hell's Kitchen season finale—fourth place, 9.68 million) and dancing (Fox's So You Think You Can Dance finale—fifth place, 9.6 million). 
• As of this week, CBS' Drew Carey-hosted Power of 10 (16th place, 7.7 million) will be aired to the power of two, as in twice weekly.

In the network primetime races, CBS was the most-watched broadcast network (averaging 6.7 million); Disney Channel was the most-watched cable network (5.9 million), and, thanks to HSM2, a more watched TV network than either NBC (5.3 million) or big-brother ABC (4.4 million).

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

1. America's Got Talent, NBC, 10.8 million viewers
2. 60 Minutes, CBS, 9.9 million
3. The Singing Bee, NBC, 9.7 million
4. Hell's Kitchen, Fox, 9.68 million
5. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 9.6 million
6. CSI, CBS, 9.5 million
7. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9.2 million
8. Without a Trace, CBS, 9.1 million
9. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 8.7 million
10. NCIS, CBS, 8.5 million