High School Musical Notes

I knew "High School Musical 2" was going to be huge, but did anybody ever expect the Disney Channel sequel to be this big? Consider this:

--The 17.24 million viewers made it the No. 1 show for last week on cable or broadcast TV. It drew nearly 6.5 million more viewers that the No. 1 broadcast show, NBC's "America's Got Talent" (10.83 million). "HSM2" nearly doubled the ratings of the No. 2 show, CBS' "60 Minutes" (9.9 million).

--"High School Musical 2" became the No. 1 all-time basic cable telecast by beating a North American Free Trade Agreement debate on CNN (16.8 million) on Nov. 9, 1993. Next was the best ever ratings for ESPN’s "Monday Night Football," the Giants-Cowboys game (16 million) on Oct. 23, 2006.

--"High School Musical 2" now is the No. 1 basic cable movie, surpassing TNT's "Crossfire Trail" (12.5 million) on Jan. 21, 2001.

--It's the No. 1 show watched by kids 6-11 (6.1 million) and tweens 9-14 (5.9 million). About 80 percent of all girls 6-11 watched "HSM2."

--Disney’s Friday line-up with 14 million viewers was the largest prime-time audience for any network (excluding sports and Olympics) in nearly 10 years (Sept. 5, 1997, on NBC).

So with "High School Musical 2," "The Closer," "Saving Grace," "Damages," "Mad Men," "Rescue Me," "Burn Notice," "Army Wives," "Greek," "Monk" and other shows, will broadcast TV have a hard time winning you back this fall? What is your favorite summer basic cable drama (and why)?