CBS’ Monday night lineup just keeps getting stronger with all of its comedy series breaking respective ratings records, according to preliminary overnight numbers. Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother both hit 11.4 million during the 8 p.m. hour; that’s Theory’s best ratings ever and HIMYM‘s best audience since January 2006. Two and a Half Men, meanwhile, also had a blockbuster night with a whopping 17.9 million viewers, its best since 2005. And the charming Worst Week benefited from its Men lead-in with its series-best numbers (12.1 million).
Good news for fans of NBC’s Chuck: Last night’s holiday-themed episode (featuring Cliffhanger‘s Michael Rooker!) nabbed a solid 7.6 million viewers. For those keeping track, that’s a 600,000 boost from the previous week’s outing. Heroes closed out its first half of the season with 7.8 million, the same as last week. And the sad My Own Worst Enemy ended the evening with a paltry 4.1 million eyes.
ABC re-aired I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown which only managed 7.4 million viewers, down from last week’s airing of the more iconic A Charlie Brown Christmas, which reached 4 million more fans. At 9 p.m., the two-hour special, Drama High: The Making of a High School Musical, bombed with an average of only 3.7 million.
Over on Fox, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles improved slightly over last week’s 5.2 million with 5.3 million, while Prison Break declined slightly to 5.7 million.
The CW struggled, with repeats of Gossip Girl (1.7 million) and One Tree Hill (1.1) providing no competition.
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Heroes recap
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DVR dilemma: Should I let axed shows go?
Yeah! Go Chuck!
Chuckles rocks!
Ditto! I loved “Chuck” from the start and now my husband is hooked. Glad to see more people are discovering it. Take note NBC-keep promoting this show.
Chuck + Die Hard + Rooker = pure unadulterated awesomeness!
Chuck is one of those rare shows that just keeps getting better. This season has been fantastic and hilarious. Glad more people are watching. I was starting get worried.
Things are really bad on TV when an awful show like Two and a Half Men attracts almost 18 million viewers. Is this what people are really watching? Wow.
Thank goodness for Chuck’s good ratings. I’ve been worried that it might get cancelled. For those of you still not watching, it’s worth your hour on Monday night. Consistently entertaining.
YES CHUCK! AND HIMYM! In the wake of losing my precious Pushing Daisies, it’s nice to know that two of my other favorites are gaining momentum!
It’s funny that the comments I’ve read are pretty much all devoted to Chuck yet there’s never a recap on this site. It’s consistently the best show on television right now and deserves more recognition.
Chuck was enjoyable but makes no sense. Won’t Fulcrom keep coming back now that they know Casey and Sarah are protecting someone at Buymore? Realistically, they would just kidnap all the employees and find out who it is.
Prison Break is the best show on Monday nights hands down. Their twists and double crosses actually make sense and work story wise.
I’m glad to see that the ratings were up for Chuck last night. Too bad the show is now on hiatus until February 2nd, so who knows what will happen with those new viewers. Nice move, NBC.
Chuck is week in and week out the most entertaining hour on television. It’s just a really fun show. Glad to see it improving, sad to see it going on min-hiatus.
Chuck is an awesome show, easily one of the best on TV. Great Die Hard references last night, especially Reginald VelJohnson as Big Mike’s cousin. And I agree that ew needs pay more attention and do a TV Watch for this show.
Awesome.