Tops on Cable: Football and 'American Horror Story'

Premiere-week ratings made it clear that, on cable TV, there's no beating football. Of the top seven highest-rated programs on cable last week, five were either football games or football-related programming. Only two scripted series managed to elbow their way into the top five, and both of those series put up ratings that were unimpressive compared to their previous performance.

For the week of September 19-25, Monday Night Football on ESPN was by far the most watched cable program, more than doubling the ratings of any other program. Thursday Night Football on the NFL Network was the week's fourth-highest-rated program, and two college games on ESPN secured a tie for fifth place, along with an episode of Sportscenter, also on ESPN.

American Horror Story was the top scripted series, but the ratings for this week's episode were down by more than a third from its ratings the previous week. Fear The Walking Dead was in the third place for the week, with a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 age demographic. That series seems to have stabilized after experiencing a steady ratings decline through its second season, but its current ratings are hovering around series lows.