When HBO moved “Six Feet Under” from Sundays to Mondays for the fifth season last month, viewership plunged more than 40 percent from last season.
   Lesson learned, the network switched the show back to its old timeslot last week, insisting that most of its subscribers didn’t realize “Six Feet” had moved to Monday.

   The real story may be that subscribers didn’t care. In its Sunday return over the weekend, “Six Feet” averaged 2.23 million total viewers.

    That’s a mere 8 percent better than its five Monday outings averaged, at 2.06 million. Sunday's viewership was basically even with the show's Monday average for its first four weeks at 2.2 million (the low-rated July 4 show drew just 1.5 million total viewers and brought down its Monday average). 

    HBO put “Six Feet” on Mondays hoping to open a second night to original series programming. It traditionally airs all its original shows on Sunday. With struggling “Entourage” and “The Comeback” on Sunday night, HBO figured people would be more willing to follow an established show to a new timeslot. It was wrong.

   But clearly the Fisher family has more problems than just location. The show about a funeral home business has been bleeding viewers since peaking at 5.6 million average viewers three years ago.

    Last season the show fell to 3.7 million, lacking a “Sex and the City” or “Sopranos” lead-in.
    That’s surely part of the problem. Those shows propped up many others during their run, and all HBO’s originals have struggled without them.

   But “Six Feet” has creative problems as well. The once-critical-favorite has been trashed for its ridiculous plotlines and endlessly morose characters.

   “‘Six Feet Under,’ once brilliant, has grown tired and stale and should not have been renewed for another season,” writes Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel critic Tom Jicha.

The show’s series finale airs Aug. 21.

In other cable ratings for the week ended July 10:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): TBS, TNT, USA, Lifetime, Spike  

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): TNT, USA, TBS, Nick at Nite, Lifetime  

Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “Legally Blonde” (Saturday 8 p.m.) 1.95 million  

Top sporting event (total viewers): Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday 10 p.m.) 3.96 million  

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 10 p.m.)  

Show on the rise: “Mind of Mencia,” Comedy Central, Wednesday 10:30 p.m. The new series featuring comic Carlos Mencia delivered the best premiere so far this year for Comedy Central. The debut episode averaged 1.2 million total viewers, retaining more than 80 percent of lead-in “South Park’s” audience. Its 0.9 18-49 rating was up 6 percent compared to a new episode of “Reno 911” in the same week last year.