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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Mon., Sept. 19) -- huge opening for Two and a Half Men while Playboy Club falls flat

By ED BARK
Two and a Half Men's introduction of Ashton Kutcher as Charlie Sheen's replacement went nuts in the D-FW ratings Monday night while NBC was left with peanuts for the premiere of The Playboy Club.

Two and a Half also had roughly two-and-a-half times the audience for any competing program, including ABC's two-hour re-launch of Dancing with the Stars. Airing in its usual 8 to 8:30 p.m. slot, the CBS sitcom amassed 810,307 viewers, a bigger crowd than some of the Dallas Cowboys' pre-season games averaged. In that same half-hour, Dancing drew 318,582 viewers.

Two and a Half also scored big with advertiser-favored 18-to-49-year-olds while Dancing lagged in third place from 7 to 9 p.m. behind CBS' sitcom lineup and Fox's two helpings of Hell's Kitchen. Dancing did beat Hell's in total viewers, but still didn't have enough juice to outdraw CBS.

Monday's second most-watched prime-time attraction, the post-Two and a Half premiere of CBS' 2 Broke Girls, had 588,685 total viewers. CBS' 7 to 8 p.m. double dose of How I Met Your Mother also won across the board.

CBS stumbled a bit at 9 p.m., where the season premiere of Hawaii Five-0 had 360,136 total viewers in running a close second to ABC's new season launch of Castle (373,988 viewers). Castle won by a wider margin with 18-to-49-year-olds.

NBC limped through night one of the new season, with its 7 to 9 p.m. Sing-Off barely in register (69,257 total viewers). Then came the Peacock's much-hyped Playboy Club, which improved to 138,514 viewers to nip Fox4's 9 p.m. local newscast (131,588 viewers). Playboy Club also edged Fox4's news for third place with 18-to-49-year-olds, but in each case was nowhere in the vicinity of the competing dramas on ABC and CBS.

On ESPN, Monday Night Football had more 18-to-49-year-olds from 9 to 10 p.m. than any of the broadcast network hours. The game between the New York Giants and St. Louis Rams had an overall average of 304,731 total viewers.

In Monday's start-of-the-season local news derby results, WFAA8 got off to a nice start with twin wins at 10 p.m. in total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming. Fox4 improved to second in the latter measurement while NBC5 rode a starvation diet lead-in from Playboy Club into a pair of fourth-place finishes.

Fox4 swept the 6 a.m. competitions, doubling the audience of runner-up NBC5 in the 25-to-54 demographic. Fox4 also ran first at 6 p.m. in total viewers while tying WFAA8 for the top spot among 25-to-54-year-olds.

The 5 p.m. race ended in a first-place tie for total viewers between Fox4 and WFAA8. But Fox4 won outright with 25-to-54-year-olds.