"Rules of Engagement" kept most of "Men"'s lead-in with 2.8/7, at 9:30 p.m. Early evening comedies did less well--"The Big Bang Theory" (a 2.0/6) and "How I Met Your Mother" (a 2.3/7).
ABC could not compete with its two summer reality series--"Vacation Swap" (a 1.5/4) and "The Bachelorette" (a 2.0/5)--which earned its lowest score to date.
ABC wasn't alone. NBC's 90-minute "American Gladiators" pulled in a 1.9/5, which was up a bit from its 1.7/5 debut a week ago, but still way down versus its premiere this past season. NBC's "Dateline," from 9:30 to 11, was a bit farther south--at 1.6/4.
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Fox was in a similar mode to CBS, running reruns. It went with a repeat of its two-hour season premiere of "So You Think You Can Dance?", which ran the week before and earned a nice 3.5/10. This time around it earned 1.8/5.
A major contribution to some of these declines came from ESPN's NBA playoff game coverage. Final ratings from the cable network were not available at press time.
Preliminary 18-49 ratings for the night were: CBS, 2.4/7; ABC, 1.9/5; Fox, 1.8/5; NBC, 1.7/5; CW, 0.5/1.