Big week for cable in primetime

"Phineas and Ferb"Season finale of "Falling Skies," above, and a "Phineas and Ferb" telepic saw impressive ratings on basic cable. The first week of August was a noisy one for cable, including a strong return for MTV's "Jersey Shore," a big tune-in for a "Phineas and Ferb" movie on Disney Channel and an impressive first-season finale for TNT's "Falling Skies."The TNT drama starring Noah Wyle has emerged as the summer's top-rated scripted program in both adults 18-49 and 25-54, according to Nielsen, and has seen its numbers jump by more than 50% when all same-week DVR playback is included. Its finale Sunday, the second of back-to-back episodes, averaged a 1.9 rating/6 share in adults 18-49 and 5.54 million viewers overall.At MTV, "Jersey Shore" showed no signs of slowing down as it kicked off its fourth season in Italy and racked up the week's No. 1 score in 18-49 (4.3/13) while drawing a record overall audience of 8.79 million. In its core demo of femmes 12-34, the reality show drew a huge 8.9/25.Disney Channel's "Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension" averaged 7.64 million viewers Friday, rating as TV's No. 1 program for the week in kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 and cable's most-watched scripted telecast.Overall for the week of Aug. 1-7, unscripted fare accounted for the week's top 16 ad-supported primetime programs in adults 18-49. NBC's two-hour Tuesday seg of "America's Got Talent" ranked second in 18-49 (3.1/9) and first in total viewers (11.92 million).In the battle for network supremacy, Fox led in adults 18-49 with a 1.5 rating/5 share, followed by ABC (1.4/5) and Univision (1.4/4), CBS (1.3/4) and top cabler USA (1.0/3).ABC and CBS tied in adults 25-54 (1.8/5), while Univision posted a rare triumph in adults 18-34 (1.4/5 to 1.3/5 for Fox) and the Eye had it in total viewers for a fifth straight week (5.9 million). Fox's victory was paced by culinary contests "Hell's Kitchen" and "MasterChef," with two editions of each ranking among the week's top 15 in 18-49.Net's Sunday's telecast of "The Teen Choice Awards" (1.1/3 in 18-49, 3.22m) hit a low in 18-49 but had its best score in three years among teens 12-17 (2.9/11).ABC, which had its top-rated summer week since the end of the NBA Finals in mid-June, was led by the finale of "The Bachelorette" (2.8/8, 9.75m) and postgame "After the Final Rose" spec (2.8/8, 9.31m). Though down markedly from last year's especially strong showing, this season was the second highest-rated "Bachelorette" summer edition to date. Also, the net's new "Take the Money and Run" had a pretty good bow on Tuesday (1.9/5, 5.28m).It was more of the same at CBS, where "Big Brother" placed all three of its hours in the top 10, including Sunday's edition (2.9/9. 7.84m), which was tied for third. Net also saw gains for the new show that follows "Brother" on Sunday, "Same Name" (1.6/4, 5.00m), which led among broadcasters in its timeslot.NBC's weekly average was dragged down by low-rated originals like "It's Worth What" (1.2/4, 4.87m) and "Marriage Ref" (1.0/3, 2.72m). And burnoff Friday comedy "Friends With Benefits" opened to predictably weak results (0.7/3, 2.34m).Other cable highlights included ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" drawing the net's largest audience for a baseball game (4.72 million) in four years with its Red Sox-Yankees matchup; Sunday also saw E!'s "Ice Loves Coco" hit a series high with its second-season finale (2.05 million) while Oxygen's "The Glee Project" hit a high as well (912,000 viewers). Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com