Nickandmore!

via Nickelodeon press release:

NICKELODEON’S BEST PLAYER DRAWS 5.3 MILLION VIEWERS, IS BASIC CABLE’S TOP SCRIPTED TELECAST AND NUMBER-ONE TELECAST WITH KIDS AND TWEENS ON ALL TV FOR THE WEEK

Nickelodeon Closes the Week as Basic Cable’s Number-One Total Day Network

NEW YORK–March 15, 2011–Nickelodeon’s brand-new original TV movie, Best Player, starring iCarly’s dynamic comedy duo Jennette McCurdy and Jerry Trainor premiered Saturday, March 12, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), scoring 5.3 million viewers. The two-hour TV movie is the week’s top scripted telecast on basic cable with total viewers and also ranks as broadcast and basic cable’s number-one telecast with kids and tweens for the week.

Best Player’s primetime premiere posted triple-digit increases over last year and bested its closest competitor by triple-digits, averaging a 8.1/2.9 million K2-11 (+145%), 10.9/2.4 million K6-11 (+179%) and 9.6/2.1 million T9-14 (+200%). Year to date, Best Player ranks as the number-one movie on all TV with kids 6-11, tweens 9-14 and kids 2-11.

The two-hour original follows Quincy (Trainor), a thirty-something Chinese food delivery man by day and online video game master by night. Perfectly happy to live in a tricked-out basement in his parents’ home, Quincy’s world gets turned upside down when his parents decide to sell their house and move to Florida – without him. He enters a tournament introducing a brand-new video game, “Black Hole,” so he can win the prize money to buy his parents’ house. Quincy thinks it’s a done deal until he encounters Prodigy (McCurdy) who threatens to annihilate him.

Nickelodeon closed the week of 3/7/11-3/13/11 as basic cable’s top total day network with total viewers (2.3 million), kids 2-11 and kids 6-11. The net also posted increases across all demos averaging a 3.1/666,000 kids 6-11 (+11%), 3.6/1.3 million kids 2-11 (+9%), 2.1/454,000 T9-14 (+5%) and 4.5/636,000 K2-5 (+7%).

In addition to the solid ratings performance by Best Player, Nick’s weekly win was fueled by SpongeBob SquarePants and T.U.F.F. Puppy, which rank as the week’s top animated telecasts with kids 2-11 and the net’s hit preschool block, which this week boasts the top four preschool telecasts on all TV (#1 Bubble Guppies, #2 Max & Ruby, #3 Go, Diego, Go! and #4 Dora the Explorer).

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 more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 16 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA – News, VIA.B – News).