‘Dancing With the Stars’ cleans up locally and nationally Monday ..

“Dancing With the Stars” was, by far, the favorite series of Central Florida viewers Monday night. The ABC dance contest averaged 299,300 viewers and it was way ahead of No. 2, CBS’ “Two and a Half Men,” with 170,500. The other top programs locally were ABC’s “Castle” with 169,100, CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” with 131,800, CBS’ “Hawaii Five-O” with 127,700, Fox’s “House” with  125,100 and CBS’ “Mike & Molly” with 122,300.“Dancing” was also the most-watched program nationally, averaging 19.3 million viewers over two hours. “Dancing” boosted Disney-owned ABC to victories in total viewers and in the 18-to-49 age group.

ABC averaged 16.7 million viewers in prime time. Here’s how the other networks fared: CBS with 10.2 million, Fox with 7.6 million, NBC with 5.6 million and The CW with 1 million for reruns.  CBS was a close second to ABC in the 18-to-49 age group.At 8, “Dancing” was tops. Fox’s “House” was second with 9.5 million. Then came the CBS comedies “How I Met Your Mother” (8 million) and “Rules of Engagement” (7.9 million). “Chuck” on NBC was the choice of 5.3 million. At 9, “Dancing” still was in front. 

 

 Then came the CBS comedies “Two and a Half Men” (13.4 million) and “Mike & Molly” (11 million). “The Event” on NBC drew 6.4 million. Fox’s “Lie to Me” persuaded 5.7 million. At 10, ABC’s “Castle” entertained 11.6 million and surpassed CBS’ “Hawaii Five-O” with 10.6 million. NBC’s “Chase” was the choice of 5.2 million.