ESPN scored big ratings with the women's final of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and HBO got a solid performance from a heavyweight boxing showdown and its bloody Sunday night dramas and yet viewers favored sponges, fairly odd parents and the animated charms of Nickelodeon's evening offerings.

For the week ending Sunday, April 11, Nickelodeon was cable's most watched network as Nick and Nick at Night combined to averaged 2.18 million viewers per evening in primetime. TNT was second with 1.91 million viewers, barely edging out the 1.91 million for USA. HBO was fourth on the week with 1.71 million and TBS came in fifth with 1.68 million.

The traditional hoops rivalry between UConn and Tennessee drew 5.58 million viewers to ESPN, making it basic cable's most watched program for the week. The postgame coverage drew 3.83 million viewers for No. 10.

A variety of other real and semi-sports made basic cable's Top 15. Spike TV's WWE Entertainment double-bill was No. 4 with 4.41 million viewers and USA's Masters golf coverage drew 3.07 million. Stretching the definition of sports to the extreme, MTV's "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Inferno" drew 3.24 million for No. 13 (MTV also placed "Real World XIV" at No. 9 with 3.88 million).

The History Channel's airing of "Band of Brothers" scored with 4.62 million viewers, followed by the first of several Nickelodeon offerings, an episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" (4.7 million, 4th). Nickelodeon also had two episodes of "Fairly Odd Parents" in the Top 15 at No. 7 with 3.91 million viewers and at No. 8 with 3.9 million.

Comedy Central's Wednesday night yielded "Chappelle's Show" at No. 3 with 4.43 million and "South Park" at No. 6 with 3.96 million.

Over on the premium cable side, HBO's normal weekly sweep was led by "The Sopranos," which pulled in 9.93 million viewers. "Deadwood" had a strong audience of 5.4 million for second. The Klitschko-Brewster bout drew 3.57 million for third, with the prefight at fourth with 3.24 million and the postfight in fifth with 3.09 million.