Cable Ratings: 'Girls' Finale Grows, Showtime Soft, 'Client List' Bests Average

12:15 PM PDT 6/19/2012 by Michael O'Connell

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As basketball and golf chew up much of Sunday's TV audience, one cable series manages to get bump on a night of season-enders.

JoJo Whilden/HBO

For the summer, this past Sunday was hardly a sleepy one for the TV schedule.

TNT's 'Falling Skies' Returns Lower for Season 2

'The Killing' Ratings Dip in Finale, Still Down From First Season

Cable Ratings: Lifetime's 'Client List' Strong, 'Magic City' Soft, Showtime Returning Series Mixed

Although broadcast coverage of the NBA Finals and golf's U.S. Open dominated viewership -- and both were at least partly responsible for softer showings from Falling Skies and The Killing -- one cable series did get a boost.

STORY: 'The Killing' Ratings Dip in Finale, Still Down From First Season

HBO's Girls, which has seen steady growth throughout its freshman season, drew 1 million viewers during its inaugural broadcast at 10 p.m. That was up nearly 200,000 from the previous week's episode and topped April's 872,000-viewer debut. With encores at 10:30 and 11 p.m., the already renewed comedy pulled in 2 million over the course of the night. Girls' gross audience -- including DVR, encores, On Demand and HBO Go views -- is at 4.1 million for the season.

Showtime had three finales with Nurse Jackie, The Big C and The Borgias. The papal drama dropped from April's second-season premiere -- slipping from 604,000 to 517,000 viewers -- while both comedies saw steeper dips. Nurse Jackie, already renewed for a fifth season, was down to 535,000 from its 653,000-strong premiere, and The Big C, which has yet to get a green light for a fourth run, was down nearly 140,000 from its premiere for 445,000 viewers. Season to date, all three have fared considerably stronger, with Nurse Jackie grossing 2.7 million viewers every week, followed by The Borgias with 2.4 million and The Big C with 2.1 million.

PHOTOS: Summer TV Preview

On Lifetime, The Client List bested its freshman average by 8 percent but was still just shy of its April premiere with 2.7 million viewers. The series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt has been renewed for a second season.

The cable victor for the night was True Blood, though the HBO series did see a rather steep drop from its fifth-season opener last week. It pulled 4.4 million viewers and a 2.6 rating among adults 18-49, down from 5.2 million and a 2.9 adults rating the week prior.