Ratings News - 20th September 2011 - *Updated*

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Metered Market Ratings Results – Monday 9/19/11
ABC Wins; Mammoth Sampling for Two and a Half Men Season Opener

Monday 9/19/11
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
ABC 12.2/18
CBS 10.6/16
Fox 4.2/ 6
NBC 3.6/ 5
CW 0.7/ 1

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Monday 9/20/10:
CBS: +32, ABC: - 4, Fox: -18, NBC: -33, CW: -50

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-Winners:
Dancing With the Stars (ABC), How I Met Your Mother (CBS), Two and a Half Men (CBS), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), Castle (ABC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
The Sing-Off (NBC), The Playboy Club (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
On your mark, get set…go! ABC led this first evening of the 2011-12 TV season in the overnights, but it was the ninth season-premiere of Two and a Half Men on CBS, as expected, that stood well above anything else. Ashton Kutcher’s debut on Two and a Half Men scored a massive 18.7 rating/26 share at 9 p.m., increasing from the 8:30 p.m. portion of an expanded edition of How I Met Your Mother (#2: 8.3/12) by 125 percent. Comparably, Two and a Half Men built from the year-ago season-opener (9.5/14 on 9/20/10) by 97 percent. While rating results will, of course, cool as the weeks progress, there is every reason to believe Two and a Half Men will at least hold, or improve on, the solid numbers from one year earlier.

Kudos to Chuck Lorre, meanwhile, for the clever Dharma (Jenna Elman) and Greg (Thomas Gibson) cameo.

Two and a Half Men led into the series-premiere of sitcom 2 Broke Girls, which was amply sampled at a second-place 12.7/18 in the overnights at 9:30 p.m. Comparably, that improved on the series-premiere of regularly scheduled occupant Mike & Molly (7.9/11 on 9/20/10) by 61 percent, and retention out of the Two and a Half Man explosion was 68 percent. Next week, 2 Broke Girls moves to 8:30 p.m. (out of How I Met Your Mother) and Mike & Molly returns.

At 10 p.m., the second-season premiere of Hawaii Five-O on CBS finished second with an 8.0/13 in the overnights. Comparably, that was down by 17 percent from its highly anticipated year-ago series-opener (9.7/15 9/20/10). And retention out of 2 Broke Girls was only 63 percent. Earlier in the evening on CBS, the one-hour seventh season-premiere of How I Met Your Mother (time flies) finished a very solid second with an 8.0/12 in the overnights from 8-9 p.m. One year earlier, How I Met Your Mother kicked-off with a 5.8/ 9 on 9/20/10. Do the mat and this is an increase of 38 percent.

Over at ABC, the season-premiere of Dancing With the Stars remained a force to reckon with at a 13.6/20 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. and a first-place finish in three of the four half-hours as follows:

Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
8:00 p.m.: 13.3/20 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 13.9/20 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 13.2/19 (#2)
9:30 p.m.: 14.1/20 (#1)

Once Two and a Half Men settles down, Dancing With the Stars will also dominate in the 9 p.m. half-hour. One year earlier, the dancing competition opened with a 15.1/22 on 9/20/10. My pick to be the first to go on Dancing With the Stars: L.A. Lakers star Metta World Peace (formerly known as Ron Artest). A name change like this is unlikely to bode well for the audience who traditionally watches Dancing With the Stars. Plus, he was not all that good!

At 10 p.m., season four of ABC crime solver Castle opened with a first-place 9.3/15 at 10 p.m., which built by 18 percent from its year-ago season-premiere (7.9/13 on 9/20/10). Comparably, retention for Castle out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of Dancing With the Stars was 66 percent.

In the second series premiere of the evening, The Playboy Club on NBC finished a very distant third in the overnights at 10 p.m. with a weak 3.9/ 6. While that did build by 26 percent from the 9:30 p.m. portion of lead-in The Sing-Off (#4, 3.1/ 4), one year earlier the launch of failed drama Chase was stronger at a 4.7/ 8 on 9/20/10. And The Playboy Club dipped by 10 percent in the second half-hour (4.1/ 6 to 3.7/ 6), which is never a good sign. Considering most new shows drop in the vicinity of 10 to 20 percent in week two, this is a “losing” opening overnight performance for The Playboy Club.

Earlier in the evening on NBC, the new season of The Sing-Off (which never aired in September before) disappointed with a 3.5/ 5 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. As I have personally said all along, NBC might have been better off if it aired The Sing-Off in December only. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

The Sing-Off (NBC)
8:00 p.m.: 3.9/ 6 (#4)
8:30 p.m.: 3.9/ 6 (#4)
9:00 p.m.: 3.0/ 4 (#4)
9:30 p.m.: 3.1/ 4 (#4)

Over at Fox, the two-hour season-finale of summer favorite Hell’s Kitchen scored a 4.2/ 6 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m., beating NBC’s directly competing The Sing-Off by 20 percent. Last-place The CW ducked the heavy competition by populating the evening with repeats of H8R (#5: 0.8/ 1), which was DOA last Wednesday, and Ringer (#5: 0.7/ 1), which airs episode two tonight.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights