Monday ratings: 'Enemy' falls; 'One Tree' grows

UPDATED: The second weeks of the ABC comedy "Samantha Who?" and NBC's Christian Slater action-drama "My Own Worst Enemy" fell in the Monday ratings.

Starting with the top of the ticket, CBS easily won the night, though some shows dropped week-to-week: "The Big Bang Theory" (9.3 million, 3.5 national adults 18-49 rating and 9 share, according to Nielsen Media Research) and "Two and a Half Men" (14.6 million, 5.1/12 and the night's highest-rated show) were down slightly. "How I Met Your Mother" (9.5 million, 4.0/10) was up a tick. "Worst Week" (9.9 million, 3.2/7) held steady as the network’s lowest-rated show, determined to not give CBS a stronger reason to yank it.

The ratings for the comedy block tend to waver from week to week, but "CSI: Miami" (13.5 million, 3.8/10) is demonstrating a more worrisome trend -- falling for the fifth week in a row. Everybody's noticed "Heroes" dropping, but this is an important show for CBS, and five weeks of decline is a concern.

In second, ABC was up slightly, with "Dancing With the Stars" (18.5 million, 4.1/10) rising a notch, followed by "Samantha" declining 10% from its premiere (9.6 million, 2.7/6 -- note: "Who" matched its premiere in preliminaries and dropped in nationals), then "Boston Legal" (8.1 million, 2.1/5).

Third-place NBC's "Chuck" (6.9 million, 2.7/7) rose 8% this week, but that's where the network's good news ended. Last week, "Heroes" (8.5 million, 3.9/9) seemed to finally halt its descent last week, bouncing 8%. But on Monday the show dropped 9% to a series low. The second episode of "Enemy" (5.7 million, 2.5/6) fell even more, 17%.

Some "Terminator" (5.0 million, 2.0/5) fans rewarded Fox's full-season order for the show by tuning out -- the series dropped 13% from its previous airing. "Prison Break" (5.5 million, 2.2/5) was on par.

On the CW, the ratings showed some soap opera-like dramatics. Relative newcomer "Gossip Girl" (3 million, 1.4/4) came back strong this year and has since wallowed down to this season low. While veteran series "One Tree Hill" (3.7 million, 1.9/4), despite the softer "Gossip" lead-in this week, jumped to a season high -- matching a series high, in fact, among adults 18-34. Clearly these two just do their own thing.

UPDATE: The CW is protesting the "Gossip" overnight rating to Nielsen, saying the metered markets indicate the show's ratings should be higher. Though the adults 18-49 rating has softened somewhat since its first couple weeks, the "Gossip" W18-34 target has been on a general upward trend. Update for the update: Nationals are out. Nielsen says the 1.4 rating stands, tho the 18-34 rating went up a tenth. CW is still asking for an investigation.   

Comments

[DramaX]

Is the total viewers for Boston Legal wrong? It doesn't seem to match the household and the share.

[EL]

Are you sure that the Adults 18-34 rating for One Tree Hill was a series high? The show averaged more viewers on The WB than it ever has on The CW, so it would be likely a series high on The CW, not a series high in general.

[JAMES HIBBERD]

Thanks, had duplicated "Dancing" viewership in "Boston."

As for "One Tree Hill," the CW says their track on the show says this does indeed tie its highest 18-34 rating ever, from a 10/5/2004 WB episode.

[Julie]

Thanks James. I have to say that if the roles were reversed and Gossip Girl had been reported at 3.6 million and OTH at 3 million, The CW would have never questioned it. In fact, they would have sent a press release out touting it. Favoritism runs rampant at The CW.

[DerekJ]

Glad Chuck is finally getting its due. I didn't want to like it season 1 since it was in direct competition with Terminator SCC. However, season 2 of Chuck has been amazing thus far(knock on wood), while Terminator has slightly faultered. I still watch both, but would love for Chuck to stick around for a additional seasons provided it keeps up its stellar weekly production.