Ratings: TV's Worst Night Delivers Better Numbers

Is TV's best night also now its Worst? OK, I'm having too much funny with that confluence of show names. On with the ratings! 8 pm/ET Dancing with the Stars this week averaged 17.68 million total viewers, dipping six percent week-to-week. CBS' comedy combo of Big Bang (9.36 mil, up a hair) and the not-quite-as-funny-as-it-used-to-be Mother (9.14 mil, up 200K) placed second — and nipped at Dancing's heels in the demos. Trailing the first hour of Fox's baseball coverage, Chuck did six mil, showing a slight increase, while Gossip Girl slipped 200 thou, to 3.34 mil. 9 pm CBS' Men topped DWTS in the demos, and delivered 14.57 million viewers, a 630 thou increase. Come 9:30, Samantha Who? seized the lead, returning to an audience of 11.7 mil (up six percent from its last original episode). That bested the Eye's Worst Week, which at 9.78 mil was actually up 11 percent. Heroes (8.6 mil) rebounded from its slide with a 420K bump, while Tree Hill held steady at 3.43 mil. 10 pm Despite Worst Week's betterment, CSI: Miami still seems handicapped, dropping 620K (to 13 million). Similarly, losing Dancing as a lead-in cost Boston Legal (8.18 mil) 12 percent of its audience. NBC's My Own Worst Enemy premiered to 7.3 million viewers, a 1.5 mil improvement on Life's last Monday audience. (And it bested Boston in the demos).