Ratings News - 20th March 2012 *Full Tables Added*

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Metered Market Monday Ratings
Dancing With the Stars Down, But Far from Out on ABC

Monday 3/19/12
Metered Market Results

Note: San Antonio is not included in the following averages

Household
Rating/Share
ABC 11.7/18
NBC 6.8/11
CBS 6.6/10
Fox 3.5/ 5
CW 0.6/ 1

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-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Monday 3/21/11
NBC: +74, CW: +20, CBS: +10, ABC: -13, Fox: -34

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-Winners:
Dancing With the Stars (ABC), The Voice (NBC), Two and a Half Men (CBS), Castle (ABC)

-Honorable Mention:
How I Met Your Mother (CBS), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), Mike & Molly (CBS)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
House (Fox), Alcatraz (Fox)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
It was the battle of the two-hour reality competitions, with the season-premiere of Dancing With the Stars on ABC (13.4 rating/20 share from 8-10 p.m.) beating The Voice on NBC (#2: 7.6/12) by a significant 76 percent in the overnights. But Dancing With the Stars dipped by 16 percent from its year-ago season opener (16.0/24 on 3/21/11) and The Voice is poised for victory among adults 18-49. Comparatively, The Voice increased by 162 percent over year-ago occupants Chuck and The Event (each with a 2.9/ 4 on 3/21/11).

Here are the half-hour breakdowns:

Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
8:00 p.m.: 12.8/20 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 13.3/20 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 13.8/21 (#1)
9:30 p.m.: 13.6/20 (#1)

The Voice (NBC)
8:00 p.m.: 7.2/11 (#2)
8:30 p.m.: 7.6/11 (#2)
9:00 p.m.: 7.7/12 (#3)
9:30 p.m.: 8.1/12 (#2)

Castle on ABC benefited out of Dancing With the Stars, with a dominant 8.2/14 in the overnights at 10 p.m. Comparably, retention for Castle out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of Dancing With the Stars was 60 percent. Competing Smash out of The Voice, meanwhile, finished third with a 5.0/ 8, and retention out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of The Voice (8.1/12) was 62 percent. So, both Castle and Smash lost about the same percentage from their lead-ins.

Opposite Dancing With the Stars and The Voice, CBS did lose steam. But its sitcom combination of How I Met Your Mother (#3: 5.8/ 9), 2 Broke Girls (#3: 6.6/10), Two and a Half Men (#2: 7.8/12) and Mike & Molly (#3: 6.5/10), which were all renewed for next season, were still on the map. And this means that three networks…ABC, CBS and NBC…all had something positive to say on this third Monday in March.

Capping off the evening for the Eye net was crime solver Hawaii Five-O, which will also be back next season, with a second-place 6.3/10 at 10 p.m. Although competing Smash on NBC finished third in the overnights, it is unlikely to among adults 18-49.

Since something had to give last night, Fox’s combination of soon-to-conclude House (#4: 3.8/ 6 – down 41 percent from one year earlier) and recent entry Alcatraz (#4: 3.3/ 5 – down 21 percent from The Chicago Code) took a hit. The CW ducked, meanwhile, with encore telecasts of America’s Next Top Model: British Invasion (#5: 0.6/ 1) and Hart of Dixie (#5: 0.5/ 1).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights