RATINGS RECAP: 9/26/11

ABC
8:00 Dancing with the Stars
Viewers: 16.2 million, 18-49 demo: 3.3
10:00 Castle
Viewers: 11.7 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1

CBS
8:00 How I Met Your Mother
Viewers: 10.5 million, 18-49 demo: 4.5
8:30 2 Broke Girls
Viewers: 11.8 million, 18-49 demo: 4.6
9:00 Two and a Half Men
Viewers: 20.5 million, 18-49 demo: 7.4
9:30 Mike & Molly
Viewers: 13.9 million, 18-49 demo: 4.8
10:00 Hawaii Five-0
Viewers: 11.3 million, 18-49 demo: 3.3

NBC
8:00 The Sing Off
Viewers: 4.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.7
10:00 The Playboy Club
Viewers: 4.0 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3

FOX
8:00 Terra Nova
Viewers: 9.2 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1

FOX kicked off the second week of the season with the highly anticipated Terra Nova. The expensive, CGI-filled drama with executive producer Steven Spielberg arrived with solid but not spectacular numbers. It couldn't reach 10 million viewers and was on the low end of the demo on networks not named NBC. This has to be considered a disappointing debut for a show that FOX hoped would be a huge hit, making it the second FOX show in a week to earn that description. If it stayed here, FOX would take it but the likely drops in weeks to come may make the finances not worth it.

Elsewhere, CBS's lineup continues to dominate with huge demo numbers. At 8pm, How I Met Your Mother was down just half a million viewers and two tenths in the demo, staying well above the kind of numbers it was getting last season. At 8:30pm, 2 Broke Girls aired in its regular timeslot for the first time. It was down big from its 9:30pm premiere as to be expected but still built on Mother and got a dominant 4.6 in the demo. At 9pm, week two of post-Charlie Sheen Two and a Half Men was down big from the premiere. But the premiere was mammoth. Being "down big" still gave it 20.5 million viewers and a 7.4 demo which is huge. At 9:30pm, the season premiere of Mike & Molly lost a lot of Men's audience but still easily hit a series high. At 10pm, Hawaii Five-0 was down nine tenths in viewers and just a tenth in the demo, posting a good week-to-week hold and showing that it has its own audience aside from the comedies.

ABC may be looking at a real down season for Dancing with the Stars as the show dropped 2.8 million viewers and seven tenths in the demo from its already down premiere last week. Last year, Dancing's performance episodes never went below a 4.0 in the demo and this is already down to a 3.3 after two weeks. That is a pretty substantial drop. Castle followed and was down 1.6 million viewers but just a tenth in the demo, which is better retention from the Dancing lead-in. It still managed to eke out a total viewer win for the hour but was second to Hawaii Five-0 in the demo.

NBC fell even further from its terrible premiere numbers a week ago signaling that NBC's second week won't be any better than its first. The Sing Off slipped eight tenths in viewers and two tenths in the demo to a very low 1.7 demo. Every other show on the other three networks is getting at least a 3 in the demo while NBC is in the low to mid 1s. New series The Playboy Club fell a million viewers and three tenths in the demo to a very low 1.3. Looks like this show won't be with us long. In fact, it may only have one more airing left if it drops further.