Fox's "House" returned from its baseball-dictated hiatus to stand as the top broadcast program on Monday in key demos, but CBS dominated the rest of the night behind "Two and a Half Men," "The Big Bang Theory" and "CSI: Miami."
ESPN's "Monday Night Football" contest between Pittsburgh and Denver, meanwhile, figures to rate as the evening's top program among adults 18-49, but its audience estimates won't be available until this afternoon.
According to preliminary Nielsen nationals, Fox edged past CBS for the broadcast lead in adults 18-49 behind "House" (5.1 rating/13 share in adults 18-49, 12.8 million viewers overall), which aired an original episode for the first time in three weeks and easily led the 8 o'clock hour in all key demos. It was followed by the return of "Lie to Me" (3.0/7 in 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall), which ran third among the broadcasters in the 9 o'clock hour but logged its second best score of the season.
At CBS, "How I Met Your Mother" kicked off the night with a solid second-place demo finish (3.5/9 in 18-49, 9.0 million viewers overall), but then fell off some at 8:30 p.m. with "Accidentally on Purpose" (3.0/7 in 18-49, 8.2 million viewers overall), which seemed affected by the return of "House." The Eye net then assumed the broadcast lead in demos with its popular comedy combo of "Two and a Half Men" (4.4/11 in 18-49, 14.1 million viewers overall) and "The Big Bang Theory" (4.5/11 in 18-49, 12.4 million viewers overall). And "CSI: Miami" (4.0/11 in 18-49, 13.8 million viewers overall) rolled over its broadcast competition at 10 p.m., up vs. recent weeks with the first of a three-night "CSI" crossover event.
ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" (roughly 3.6/9 in 18-49, 17.7 million viewers overall from 8 to 10:02 p.m.) and "Castle" (2.5/7 in 18-49, 10.3 million viewers overall) were up slightly week to week, although these averages could come down since the preliminaries include football coverage on the net's Pittsburgh affiliate. Not expected to change, however, is that "Dancing" will once again rule as the night's most-watched entertainment series.
NBC's "Heroes" (2.3/6 in 18-49, 5.3 million viewers overall), "Trauma" (1.8/4 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall) and "The Jay Leno Show" (1.2/3 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall) combined for their lowest nightly 18-49 score of the season. "Leno" matched the lowest demo score it has delivered on any night to date.
And at CW, "One Tree Hill" (1.2/3 in 18-49, 2.7 million viewers overall) was a bit above average at 8 p.m. despite the return of Fox's "House," while "Gossip Girl" (1.2/3, in 18-49, 2.3 million viewers overall) was in line with its season averages at 9 o'clock.
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.0/10; CBS, 3.9/10; ABC, 3.2/8; NBC, 1.8/4; Univision, 1.4/4; CW, 1.2/3.
In total viewers: ABC, 15.3 million; CBS, 11.9 million; Fox, 10.1 million; NBC, 4.9 million; Univision, 3.6 million; CW, 2.5 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com