In the very early metered market ratings, Dancing With the Stars again danced ABC to the top of the broadcast network pyramid with a 12.0/18 (household rating/share). That led into the season premiere of Samantha Who with an 8.1/12, and Boston Legal capped off the ABC night on a down note with a 5.3/9.

CBS was in second place with its Monday night comedies and CSI: Miami and the biggest question for CBS will be what to do with the 9:30-10:00p half hour. Worst Week got a 6.2/9 sandwiched in between Two and a Half Men’s 8.8/13 and CSI: Miami’s 8.8/14.

The peacocks at NBC will surely find something to strut about (probably the demo numbers for Heroes), but they can’t crow about the early metered market household ratings. The 10pm premiere of My Own Worst Enemy with a 5.2/8 was easily eclipsed by the aforementioned CSI: Miami. But Heroes wasn’t exactly a huge lead-in with a 5.7/8 so at least Enemy kept most of the lead-in, though the half hourly data seemed to indicate viewers started bailing in the second half hour. We’ll know more when we see the fast affiliate data. It seems like NBC’s own worst enemy may be itself. Ben Silverman may have outlasted Nikki Finke’s prediction for his continued employment, but the clock on his tenure will start ticking at some point if NBC continues its typical fourth place ways.

Sadly, Chuck too was in fourth place with a 4.1/6. My love for Chuck grows and grows, but it’s hard to paint a pretty picture with these numbers. On the plus side the show has already gotten a full order of shows for the season (though that’s no guarantee production wouldn’t be shut down). Also, the whole show is pretty much an advertisement for Best Buy, and opportunities for product placement abound; like last night’s focus on the Madden videogame, including a cameo by recently retired New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan.

Strahan was always one of my favorite guests on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption and with his super-sized personality, it’s no surprise at all he wound up on TV. But he seemed more natural and comfortable in his role as the leader of a pack of Madden gamers who chronically abuse the Buy More’s videogame system as if it was their own recreation room than he has as part of Fox’s NFL studio ensemble.

Over on Fox the NLCS game scored a 5.1/8 between 8pm-10pm. Kinda eh for the playoffs and though MLB is touting that the combined playoff ratings for this round are up, but that’s not doing Fox any good since the growth is all being driven by huge growth over last year on TBS (last year it had the Diamonbacks/Rockies NLCS, this year TBS has the Red Sox).

Gossip Girl (2.6/4) and One Tree Hill (2.4/4) seem poised to be in line with how they have performed so far this season.

Check back later for the full overnight post with viewer numbers and demographic ratings.

Definitions:

Metered Market Overnight Ratings: This is normally the first available ratings information, and is based on the electronic measurement service that Nielsen provides in 56 of the nation’s largest markets. In each market a sample of homes is selected to represent that individual market. Often, networks or syndicators provide metered market information as an early indicator of a program’s performance. In aggregate, the 56 metered markets represent 79,890,610 homes, or 70% of all U.S. TV households. Preliminary metered market data are available as early as 8:00AM (ET). Final metered market information, reflecting line-up changes, pre-emptions and runovers, are normally available by 3:30PM (ET).