'Heroes' rises: NBC's best Monday in weeks

UPDATE: Heroes climbed to 3.3 in the nationals, extending its "best since" claim to six weeks. Also, Fox ended up tying CBS for the win.

PREVIOUS: NBC's Monday night lineup had its strongest performance in weeks, with Chuck, Heroes and Medium posting their best numbers since at least early March.

Heroes (6.8 million viewers, 3.2 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had its largest overnight number in five weeks, Chuck (6.2 million, 2.3) rose a couple tenths to earn its best number in six weeks, and Medium (7.6 million, 2.7) had its biggest rating in eight weeks. The NBC numbers are not breakout spikes, but better represent a return to levels that were pretty common for the shows after the start of the year. And Chuck and Heroes still ranked last in their hours among the major broadcasters, with Medium in second place at 10 p.m.

CBS edged out a victory Monday night, its overall rating identical to the last time it aired its full regular lineup two weeks ago with Big Bang Theory (10.1 million, 3.8), How I Met Your Mother (9.6 million, 4.0), Two and a Half Men (14.8 million, 5.2), Rules of Engagement (11.6 million, 4.0) and CSI: Miami (13.3 million, 3.8). Should be noted that midseason addition Rules has really solidified in its 9:30 p.m. slot, even with ABC putting its own comedy in the time period.

Fox was a very close second with House (11.8 million, 4.5) and 24 (10.8 million, 3.6) slipping a bit from last week's gain.

ABC's Dancing With the Stars (19.1 million, 4.4) continued to fall, with the second week of Surviving Surburbia (10.7 million, 2.8) down in tandem a couple tenths. The sixth episode of Castle (7.6 million, 2.0) fell 13% to a season low. ABC's overall Monday night average has declined nearly every week since Dancing returned with the past five weeks the network going from a 4.6 to 4.2 average to a 4.1, 3.6 and last night a 3.4. The CW aired its repeats.