'Dancing' Glides Into Strong Position

Dancing-with-the-Stars

The new season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" lifted the network to an expected big Monday night. But its numbers were down 20% versus its late spring premiere outing.

Still, "Dancing" was at a hefty Nielsen preliminary 5.1 rating/15 share among 18-49 viewers -- a strong result in today's TV market. This was against a 6.4 rating among 18-49 viewers in the March 2010 start.

A two-hour "Dancing" at 8 p.m. gave ABC's "Castle" a big lift at 10 p.m. -- nearly a 20% gain to a season-high 3.3/9 -- and a win in the time period against CBS' "Hawaii Five-O," which took in 2.9/8.

ABC took in a 4.5 rating/13 share for the night, easily winning Monday night overall.

CBS was next with a 2.8/8 average on Monday. Against strong competition from ABC, CBS had a rocky night. "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 p.m. lost 15% to a 2.9/9; "Mike & Molly" gave up a bit of ground -- down over 10% at 9:30 p.m. to a 3.0/8. Good news: "Mad Love" at 8:30 p.m. was up 10%, to solid 2.3/7.

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Fox was right behind CBS with a 2.6/7. "House" lost hardly any ground versus "Dancing," at a 3.4/10, at 8 p.m. "The Chicago Code" at 9 p.m. also maintained the same results versus its last original episode with a 1.9/5.

NBC had another difficult Monday, at 1.4/4 for the night. "Chuck" dipped to a series low at 1.5/4; "The Event" stayed the same at 1.2/3. "Harry's Law" went south over 10% to a 1.6/4.

Univision was a bit better than NBC at a 1.5.4. CW, in reruns with "90210" and "Gossip Girl," averaged a 0.2/1 for both 18-49 viewers and 18-34 viewers.

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