Ratings: Dancing Fans Leave Skating in Droves

Skating With the Stars had viewers moving faster than Apolo Anton Ohno — to other channels.

Overnight ratings showed that Dancing with the Stars had 24.6 million viewers (and a leading 5.2 rating among the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic), making it the franchise's strongest Monday finale in six seasons.

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It also was this season's most-watched entertainment program — NBC's Sunday Night Football has scored higher numbers.

But even with the slick move of trying to seamlessly hand viewers over to Skating at 9:13 p.m., the debut of the new show on ice left viewers so cold that by 9:30, it was down to fewer than 11 million viewers (2.7 in the demo) and to 6 million viewers (1.7) by 10:30.

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Skating still managed to beat NBC's The Event and Chase and Fox's Lie to Me, but lost by a wide margin to CBS' Mike & Molly and Hawaii Five-0, this season's most popular new show.

Mike & Molly attracted nearly 13 million viewers (4.0 in the demo) and Five-0 peaked at 12.2 million (3.2).