• by Wayne Friedman , September 22, 2009

Starting the new season, Fox's "House" picked up right where it left off -- and then some.

On the first night of the new season, a special two-hour "House" on Monday rocketed to a Nielsen preliminary 6.6 rating/16 share among 18-49 viewers, up 14% from a year ago -- easily the top-performing show of the night. 

This carried Fox to an opening-night win among all 18-49 viewers, with a 6.5/16.

CBS came next with its strong comedy lineup, earning a 4.0/10 among 18-49 viewers for the night -- now featuring "The Big Bang Theory" as its best performer, on this particular Monday. It earned a 4.6/10 at 9:30 p.m., its new time period, up 28% from a year ago.

This bested usual comedy leader "Two and a Half Men," which earned a 4.4/10. At 8:30 p.m., new CBS comedy "Accidentally on Purpose" did a decent, but not stellar, 3.2/8.

Another heavy hitter of the night, ABC's "Dancing With The Stars," posted a decent 4.1 rating/10 share -- but it was down a sizable 24% from its fall premiere of a year ago.

The real 10 p.m. hour began to show its colors after the "Leno" premiere week. The season premiere on this Monday of "CSI: Miami" posted a 4.3/11 rating, winning the frame (although down versus last season's starting episode), with ABC's "Castle" scoring a low-ish 2.3/6.

NBC's "The Jay Leno Show" sank to a 1.8/5, down two-thirds from its big start a week ago. That said, most analysts -- including those at NBC -- were figuring on a 1.7 rating or so for the show to be a success. NBC says the 1.8 rating was over the 1.4 average rating that "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" received for a 2008-2009 season.

While the "Leno" numbers were expected, what happened to NBC's "Heroes" was not. It dropped a massive 46% at 9 p.m. versus last year's debut; it's now at a middling 2.7 rating/6 share among 18-49 viewers.

CW's "One Tree Hill" and "Gossip Girl" mostly survived under all the fresh competition -- earning a 1.2/3 and a 1.1/3 among 18-49 viewers. For its key women 18-34 viewers, both shows each earned a decent, but not great, 2.4/6.

Source: Nielsen Media Research