Nielsen Ratings Mon March 17: Dancing is Back

March 18th, 2008 by Robert Seidman

Scoreboard for Mon. March 17, 2008
Total Viewers (million)	14.93	10.61	8.17	6.34	1.68
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	4.4/12	3.9/10	2.5/7	2.0/5	0.7/2

Dancing With the Stars returned and ABC easily won St. Patrick’s Day night in overall viewers and the 18-49 demographic. It wasn’t an American Idol style beatdown, but it wasn’t all that close either with ABC averaging more than 4 million viewers more than second place CBS. But this was the most competitive night of TV, especially in the 18-49 demo in sometime, and the CBS comedies hold up quite well.

Kaley Couco Many are all starry-eyed over The Big Bang Theory. Big Bang is a nice little comedy, and its ratings are exactly in line with what it is. A nice little comedy. Not a great comedy - not Seinfeld, Cheers or even Two and a Half Men. It’s not even anywhere near the quality of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter - which was a great comedy. I love Kaley Couco, and I can certainly understand getting starry eyed over her. But Big Bang is a nice little comedy, not a great comedy.

But even today’s greatest (ratings-wise, anyway) comedy, Two and a Half Men was no match for the return of Dancing With the Stars. Dancing was by far and away the most watched show of the evening, and while no American Idol, it’s still the best ratings workhorse for the Mouse by far.. Last night was an hour and a half of the men dancing, and those who already are pegging Penn Gillette to go are out of their minds - Adam Corrolla will be drawing the short straw. The fans aren’t going to get rid of the magician quickly, even if he does dance like Shrek.

ABC also ran with an hour and a half of The Bachelor, and while I understand airing DWTS as often as possible, the bloom is definitely off the rose for Bachelor which could barely hold onto a third of the DWTS viewers. I’m sure Bachelor fans will be whining about what a bad lead-in DWTS is!

NBC ran with My Dad is Better Than Your Dad (but not better than anything ratings-wise, except a repeat of Gossip Girl), Deal or No Deal (which came in 3^rd behind DWTS and 2.5 Men) and Medium, which couldn’t beat a rerun of CSI: Miami.

FOX needs to make more Prison Break and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicle quickly. Cantebury’s Law is tanking (it lost more than 25% of its viewers since last week)and New Amsterdam was next to last in the 9pm hour, beating out only Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.

OK, I admit it — I’d love to see an episode of Terminator with Kaley C. guest-starring as a terminator alongside Summer Glau…

St. Patrick’s Day Night’s full details:

Time	Network	Show	Viewers (Millons)	18-49 Rating/Share	HH Rating
8:00	ABC	Dancing With The Stars (8p-9:30)	20.9	5.5/15	13.4
	CBS	Big Bang Theory	9.11	3.7/11	5.4
	NBC	My Dad is Better than Your Dad	4.68	1.5/4	2.7
	FOX	Canterburys Law	5.66	1.7/5	4
	CW	Gossip Girl ( R)	1.25	0.6/2	1

8:30	CBS	How I met Your Mother	9.73	4.3/11	5.7

9:00	CBS	Two and a Half Men	14.03	5.4/13	8.7
	CW	Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious	1.57	0.7/2	1.2
	NBC	Deal or No Deal	9.93	2.9/7	5.8
	FOX	New Amsterdam	7.3	2.3/6	4.8

9:30	CBS	New Adv. of Old Christine	11.45	4.3/11	7.7
	ABC	The Bachelor (9:30p-11p)	8.96	3.3/9	5.4

10:00	CBS	CSI: Miami (R )	9.66	3.0/8	6.7
	NBC	Medium	9.89	3.2/9	6.7

Nielsen Ratings Source: Nielsen Media Research. Full night’s results available via Marc Berman/Mediaweek.

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