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.