How I Met Your Mother Gets Biggest Audience Since January 2009

The Mother of all Robin-centricHow I Met Your Mother episodes brought the series its largest audience in nearly three years, while 2 Broke Girls anted up its biggest viewership since its September premiere in the first hour of prime time, according to Nielsen overnight data. The second half of CBS' two-hour Monday comedy block ran up the numbers too, as Two and a Half Men attracted the night's biggest audience, as well as the highest rating in the industry-coveted 18-to-49 demo.

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Meantime, Fox's broadcast of the American Country Awards improved on its inaugural outing last year by 23 percent in viewership and 33 percent in the demo. In other news, it looks like it's a good thing Chris Harrison has his Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises to fall back on, as a stingy 3.57 million tuned in to the second episode of You Deserve It.

And with such a weak lead-in, ABC's Castle got handcuffed in second place to Hawaii Five-0, which won the 10 o'clock timeslot.

8 p.m.
CBS: How I Met Your Mother11.71 million viewers (4.5 demo rating); 2 Broke Girls12.78 million (4.6)
ABC: A Charlie Brown Christmas9.06 million (2.8); Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice 6.99 million (2.2)
Fox: American Country Awards7.42 million (2.0) {8-10 p.m.}
NBC: The Sing-Off Christmas Special 4.13 million (1.1) {8-10 p.m.}
CW: Gossip Girl 1.28 million (0.6)