Ratings News - 6th December 2011 *Full Tables Added*

Metered Market Monday Ratings
Clean Sweep for CBS

Monday 12/05/11
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
CBS 7.9/12
Fox 4.9/ 7
ABC 4.3/ 7
NBC 2.7/ 4
CW 1.4/ 2

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Monday 12/06/10:
Fox: +36, CBS: +11, ABC: +10, CW: -18, NBC: -46

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-Winners:
How I Met Your Mother (CBS), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), American Country Awards (Fox), Two and a Half Men (CBS), Mike & Molly (CBS), Hawaii Five-O (CBS), Castle (ABC)

-Honorable Mention:
A Charlie Brown Christmas R (ABC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
The Sing Off Holiday Special (NBC), Gossip Girl (CW), You Deserve It (ABC), Hart of Dixie (CW), Rock Center With Brian Williams (NBC)

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Ratings Breakdown:
Minus Dancing With the Stars on ABC, which returns in March, CBS remains the network to beat in the Monday metered markets with a hefty 3.0 rating point advantage this week. Third overall was ABC, followed by NBC and, of course, The CW.

The Eye net finished first in each of the six half-hours with its combination of How I Met Your Mother (7.7 rating/12 share), recent entry 2 Broke Girls (8.3/13), Two and a Half Men (9.6/14), Mike & Molly (8.1/12) and the now sophomore revival of Hawaii Five-O (7.0/11). Growth year-to-year for the four sitcoms is as follows:

How I Met Your Mother: +17 percent
2 Broke Girls: +43 (versus former occupant Rules of Engagement)
Two and a Half Men: + 7
Mike & Molly: +12

Hawaii Five-O was flat from one year earlier. Given the ongoing breakout success of 2 Broke Girls, there is every reason to believe CBS will move the comedy to Thursday next season to build another two-hour comedy block. Stay tuned.

Second-place Fox populated the evening with two-hour special The American Country Awards, which averaged a respectable 4.9/ 7 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Comparably, that built from the 3.6/ 5 on the year-ago evening by a noticeable 36 percent. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

American Country Awards (Fox)
8:00 p.m.: 4.7/ 7 (#2)
8:30 p.m.: 5.0/ 7 (#2)
9:00 p.m.: 4.8/ 7 (#2)
9:30 p.m.: 5.0/ 7 (#2)

Over at ABC, animated holiday special A Charlie Brown Christmas (#2, 5.1/ 8 - repeat) and Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice (#4: 3.8/ 6, which is not so nice) filled the 8 p.m. hour, leading into a mere 2.5/ 4 in the overnights for week three of game show You Deserve It at 9 p.m. Comparably, You Deserve It finished a very distant fourth from 9-10 p.m. At 10 p.m., Castle on ABC perked up to a second-place 5.9/10, building by 136 percent from the 9:30 p.m. portion of You Deserve It (2.5/ 4). Fans of The Bachelor, take note: the upcoming season with Ben Flajnik opens on Monday, Jan. 2.

Elsewhere, The Sing Off Holiday Special on NBC, which was a bust this fall, remained out of the competitive loop with a 2.7/ 4 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Even worse was week six of newsmagazine Rock Center With Brian Williams at a very distant third-place 2.6/ 4 at 10 p.m.

The CW capped off the evening with its low-rated combination of Gossip Girl (#5: 1.2/ 2), which declined by 29 percent from year-ago occupant 90210 (1.7/ 3 on 12/06/10) and Hart of Dixie (#5: 1.5/ 3). While Hart of Dixie does continue to build in the overnights, demographically there is no noticeable improvement.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights