Season finales highlight Monday

Fox scores with 'House,' 'Bones'

By RICK KISSELL

On a night full of finales, CBS captured the last Monday of the season behind "Two and a Half Men" and "CSI: Miami," while Fox scored with "House" and ABC with "Dancing With the Stars." It was a good night as well for CW, which wrapped "Gossip Girl" and "One Tree Hill."

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, CBS ran a solid second in the tough 9 o'clock hour with "Two and a Half Men" (4.8 rating/12 share in 18-49, 14.8 million viewers overall) and "Rules of Engagement" (4.3/10 in 18-49, 12.6 million viewers overall), with the latter logging some of its best numbers of the season. Net then moved to the lead at 10 o'clock with "CSI: Miami" (4.4/12 in 18-49, 16.1 million viewers overall). Earlier in the evening, comedies "The Big Bang Theory" (2.7/8 in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall) and "How I Met Your Mother" (3.2/9 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall) ended their seasons with scores a bit below their recent levels.

Fox's "House" had a strong finale, earning the night's top 18-49 score (5.7/14) and drawing the largest overall audience for any scripted program on the night (16.2 million, edging out "CSI: Miami"). It had a solid lead-in from "Bones" (3.3/10 in 18-49, 10.2 million viewers overall), which placed second in the 8 o'clock hour and drew its largest overall audience of the season.

At ABC, the final performance show edition of "Dancing With the Stars" should average about a 4.4/12 in 18-49 and 19.4 million viewers overall from 8 to 9:05 p.m., easily winning its time period. From there, the net averaged roughly a 3.0/8 in 18-49 and 8.3 million viewers overall for the premiere of "The Bachelorette," which will run into summer.

CW drew its highest Monday 18-49 rating of the season (1.5/4) for its finales of "Gossip Girl" (1.4/4 in 18-49, 3.0 million viewers overall) and "One Tree Hill" (1.5/4 in 18-49, 3.2 million viewers overall). Both shows delivered a 6 share in the net's target 18-34 demo.

NBC was an afterthought on the night, striking out with a 90-minute episode of "American Gladiators" (1.6/4 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall) before picking up some with a 90-minute "Dateline" (2.0/5 in 18-49, 5.8 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 4.0/11; Fox, 3.8/10; ABC, 3.4/9; NBC, 1.8/5; Univision, 1.7/4; CW, 1.2/3.

In total viewers: CBS, 12.4 million; ABC, 12.1 million; Fox, 11.2 million; NBC, 4.9 million; Univision, 3.9 million; CW, 2.6 million.