Ratings: 'Bachelorette' starts solid; '24' weakens

By Nellie Andreeva

CBS won the last Monday of the season, which saw ABC's summer "The Bachelorette" get off to a solid start.

The final performance edition of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" dominated the 8 p.m. hour with 18.7 million viewers and a 4.2 rating/12 share among adults 18-49.

After CBS' "Rules of Engagement" underperformed in the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot last week, the sitcom logged another low-rated performance at 8 p.m., this time on Monday (7.5 million, 2.6/8).

But it rebounded nicely in its regular 9:30 p.m. slot with 12.8 million viewers and a 4.4/11 in 18-49.

The birth-themed season finale of CBS' "Two and a Half Men" at 9 p.m. (16.0 million, 5.2/14) was the top program of the night in the adult demo and had its highest audience since February.

The season wraps of the network's "How I Met Your Mother (8.7 million, 3.7/10) and "CSI: Miami" (14.1 million, 3.8/11) also did solid business.

Following "Dancing," the two-hour premiere of "The Bachelorette" averaged 9 million viewers and a 3.0/8 in 18-49, holding its debut rating from last year. It shed almost 2 million viewers from the first to the second hour, but most of them were in the 50+ demographic.

The two-hour season finale of "24" clocked out at 9.4 million viewers and a 3.0/8 in 18-49, earning its lowest rating to date.

NBC flatlined with "Dead or No Deal" and "Medium," averaging 5.4 million viewers and a 1.5/4 in 18-49, a series low, faring only a little better in the demo that the CW (2.4 million, 1./3), which aired season finales of "Gossip Girl" and "One Tree Hill."

CBS (12.2 million, 3.9/11) won the night, followed by ABC (12.2 million, 3.4/9).