CBS won Monday with a 3.1 adult 18-49 rating from 8-11 pm, down from last week’s season high for Monday (3.3) and tied with the second-highest CBS Monday rating (also 3.1 on 11.26, 12.10 and 12.17). How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girls each scored a 3.7, the highest-rated network programs last night. Mike & Molly (3.3), repeat Big Bang Theory (3.2) and Hawaii Five-O (2.2) rounded out the night, with CBS winning each half hour.
FOX debuted The Following starring Kevin Bacon chasing serial killer James Purefoy after weeks of heavy promotion in NFL football. The results were promising, a 3.1 rating from 9-10. The telecast actually built slightly within the hour, starting at a 3.1 from 9:00-9:30 and ending with a 3.2 from 9:30-10:00 (almost catching Mike & Molly in the half hour). At 8 pm, Bones (2.3) was up from last week’s 2.1 rating, giving FOX a second-place 2.7 rating for the night and its best Monday night of the season.
ABC averaged a 2.3 last night, identical to last Monday and slightly higher than the ABC season average on Monday. The Bachelor (2.5 rating from 8-10 pm) matched last week’s rating, while Castle (2.0) was up one tenth of a rating point from last week.
NBC landed in fourth place again with a 2.0 rating, down a tenth from last week. The Biggest Loser is doing fine (2.4 rating from 8-10 pm, matching the previous two weeks), but Deception continues to fall (2.0 premiere, 1.6 last week, 1.3 last night). The bleeding might be starting to end: last night’s Deception was only down nominally in each half hour (from 1.4 at 10:00 to 1.2 at 10:30). As the half-hour drops subside, the weekly rating will stabilize (probably around an unacceptable 1.2 rating in the next week or so).
