After airing repeats the previous two weeks opposite the Olympics, CBS' Monday lineup prevailed to kick off this week thanks to "CSI: Miami" and "Two and a Half Men," according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen. NBC's "The Appentice," meanwhile, opened to a fourth-place finish on its new night.
"CSI: Miami" (6.0 rating/14 share in adults 18-49, 18 million viewers overall) stood as Monday's top program despite a low-end firstrun score for the series. "Two and a Half Men" was also a winner at 9 (5.8/13 in 18-49, 17.3 million viewers overall), with 9:30 laffer "Courting Alex" (4.7/11 in 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall) slipping to third in 18-49 and second in 25-54.
At NBC, the return of gamer "Deal or No Deal" performed well at 8 (4.5/12 in 18-49, 13.5 million viewers overall), winning in 18-49 with the net's best regular-slot score in more than a year. At 9, though, "The Apprentice 5" (4.0/9 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall) left the net in fourth place for the hour, down 13% from the preem of "Apprentice 4" last September. That led into the lowest firstrun seg to date of 10 o'clock drama "Medium" (3.9/9 in 18-49, 10.4 million viewers overall).
Fox scored at 9 with "24" (5.5/13 in 18-49, 13.8 million viewers overall), winning its hour overall in 18-49 and key male demos. It nearly doubled its weak lead-in from "Skating With Celebrities" (2.8/7 in 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall).
ABC was solid as usual at 8 with "Wife Swap" (second-place 3.8/10 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall) and hit a season high with the two-hour finale of "The Bachelor: Paris" (5.1/12 in 18-49, 11.5 million viewers overall) — the franchise's strongest finale since May 2004.
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 5.0/12; ABC, 4.7/11; Fox, 4.2/10; NBC, 4.1/10; WB, 1.7/4; UPN, 1.6/4.
In total viewers: CBS, 14.7 million; Fox, 11.3 million; NBC, 11.2 million; ABC, 10.8 million; WB, 4.6 million; UPN, 3.6 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com