Image Credit: Greg Gayne/CBS; Adam Larkey/ABC; Neil Jacobs/CBSIt was a great night for TV fans, but a tough one for broadcasters: Last night’s official start of the 2010-11 season offered a myriad of diverse choices for the discerning viewer, but the heavy competition made it awfully hard for promising newcomers (hi, Lone Star!) to attract even a smidgen of interest.

Let’s start with the night’s big winner. Whether it was Sarah Palin’s “public advocate for teen pregnancy prevention” daughter Bristol or the return of The Hoff to primetime, the premiere of Dancing with the Stars attracted a behemoth audience: The two-hour show lured a whopping 20.99 million eyeballs to ABC and was up 22 percent in the key adults 18-49 demographic versus last fall’s debut. The sparkly lead-in worked wonders for the return of Castle, which averaged 11.16 million viewers and scored a 22 percent improvement in the demo. (Though the competition attributes the drama’s inflated performance to Dancing’s overrun. Sour pusses!) No surprise, then, that ABC won the night among adults 18-49 and in viewers with 17.7 million.

CBS’ lineup of comedies and the debut of the much-anticipated Hawaii Five-0 also posted some impressive numbers.  READ FULL STORY »