"Two and a Half Men" lost audience but held onto enough of it to power CBS to its third consecutive Monday ratings win, while "House" returned strong for Fox and its new dino-drama "Terra Nova" held onto all of the audience from its debut last week.
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CBS shows were the night's four top-rated. "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 scored a 4.5/12 in the revered 18-49 demo, making it the night's second highest-rated show, and 10.5 million total viewers. "2 Broke Girls" at 8:30 was third with a 4.4/11 and 11.4 million. "Men" had a 6.1/14, down 18 percent from its second episode last week, but was still higher-rated than last season's average episode. It had 17.3 million total viewers. "Mike & Molly" at 9:30 was the fourth highest-rated show with a 4.3/10 and and 13.2 million total viewers. "Hawaii 5-0" at 10 was sixth with a 3.2/8 and 10.9 million total viewers.
At Fox, "Terra Nova" was on par with last week's series premiere, posting a 3.0/8 in the demo and drawing 8.3 million total viewers. The season premiere of "House" at 9 was down slightly from last fall's season premiere, but still posted a steady 3.9/9 in the demo, with 9.7 million total viewers.
ABC began the evening with "Dancing With the Stars" at 8, which drew a 3.1/7 in the demo and 16.4 million total viewers (making it the evening's second-most watched program). "Castle" closed the night at 10 with a 2.6/6 in the demo and 11.5 million total viewers.
NBC experienced a mixed bag ratings-wise Monday, with "The Sing-Off" enjoying a slight uptick with a 1.8/4 in the demo and 4.9 million total viewers. The network ended the night with the newly canceled "The Playboy Club" at 10, which was down 8 percent from last week with a 1.2/3 in the demo and 3.3 million total viewers.