• by Wayne Friedman , March 10, 2009

ABC's veteran reality shows are getting new life on Mondays this year.

On the heels of its strong numbers for "The Bachelor" a week ago on Monday, the "Dancing with the Stars" two-hour debut of its eighth edition had an 11% gain among 18-49 viewers, winning a Nielsen preliminary 5.9 rating/15 share. That's up from its September 2008 debut, which earned a 5.4 rating. It was also higher than the 5.6 rating for March 2008's sixth-edition debut.

Who took the blow? In the 8 p.m. hour, "House" dipped to a 4.8/13 among 18-49 viewers, under its season average--although the show easily won the 18-34 viewer race against "Dancing" with a 4.6/14 to a 3.8/12 win. (Once "House" was out of the way, "Dancing" grabbed all those young viewers, earning a 4.8/13 in the 9 p.m. hour.)

In the 9 p.m. hour--the second hour of "Dancing"--it was time for NBC's "Heroes" to take it on the chin with a 3.2/8, its lowest rating for an original episode. Its previous low was a week ago against the big "Bachelor" finale.

But ABC could not maintain these levels for the entire evening. Its new 10 p.m. crime drama, "Castle"--in which a novelist helps solve crimes--only grabbed a 3.3/9 for its series debut. It lost exactly half of the "Dancing" 9 p.m. audience, which earned a 6.6/16 for the time period.

While ABC won the night overall--a 5.1/13--Fox and CBS put up respectable numbers. Fox just edged out CBS with a 4.2/11 to CBS' 4.0/10.

Fox's improvement week to week--up from a 3.3/8--came entirely from a special two-hour "24."

CBS virtually maintained its numbers from the week before, with a 4.1/10. While its comedies lost a bit overall, "CSI: Miami" regained the top spot at 10 p.m. with a 4.3/11, besting ABC's "Castle" (3.3/9) and NBC's "Medium" (2.5/7).

NBC was on the low end of the charts all night. Not only did "Heroes" suffer, but "Chuck" lost ground to a 2.0/5, its lowest numbers for an original episode. "Medium" performed at around the same level at a week ago, a 2.5/7, good for third place at 10 p.m.

CW sat out the big Monday fight with "Gossip Girl" and "One Tree Hill" in reruns, earning a 0.5/1 among 18-49 viewers--slightly better among its more core 18-34 with a 0.6/2.

The fight for younger viewers 18-34 had Fox just topping ABC--at a 3.9/11 versus a 3.8/11. CBS was next, about a full rating point behind--at 2.8/8. NBC was next with 2.2/6, followed by Univision at 1.9/6.