ABC's 'Dancing' slips, yet 'Castle' steady

The second week of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" continued the reality competition's Monday night reign. The two-hour show (21.1 million viewers, 5.3 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 14 share) slipped 13% this round, a mild drop considering last week's premiere hit a five-year record high.

Interestingly, the second week of ABC's new drama series "Castle" (11.5 million, 3.1/8) actually went up a tenth in the adult demo despite its lead-in shrinking. The fact that 10 p.m. rival "Medium" aired a repeat almost certainly helped, but a new series not dropping for its second episode is always a welcome surprise.

Coming in second place, Fox's "House" (12.8 million, 4.8/13) matched last week's lowest-in-four-years rating, while "24" (11.3 million, 3.7/9) climbed a peg.

CBS was third, its comedies trending up slightly from last week: "The Big Bang Theory" (9.8 million, 3.7/11), "How I Met Your Mother" (9.2million, 3.8/10), "Two and a Half Men" (14 million, 4.8/12) and "Rulesof Engagement" (11.4 million, 4.0/10). "Rules" had the best bump of the lot, up 8%. "CSI: Miami" was down 12%, however (13.3 million, 3.8/10).

Fourth-place NBC aired repeats, followed by the CW with the return of "Gossip Girl" (2.2 million, 1.1/3) and "One Tree Hill" (2.3 million, 1.2/3). The good news is "Gossip" matched its last episode despite three weeks of repeats. The bad news is that after five weeks of repeats, it matched its last episode -- which was on the low side for the show. "One Tree Hill" was down a tenth.

UPDATE: In the nationals, "Castle" fell a couple tenths due to "Dancing" overrun. Still on par with last week, though now a tenth down instead of a tenth up with a 2.9. "House" grew a tenth, as did "Gossip."