TV Ratings: 'House' Return Declines, 'Playboy Club' Continues to Dip

Ray Mickshaw/FOX

"House"

CBS topped the ratings slugfest on Monday, but it was the return of Fox's veteran medical drama House that piqued interest.

House (9.8 million, 3.9) returned for its eighth season, this time without series regular Lisa Edelstein (she'll be debuting on CBS' The Good Wife next week) and introducing Odette Annable and Charlyne Yi to the mix, and was down among the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demo compared to last fall's premiere (3.9 vs. 4.2). Fox's heavily-hyped, big-budget family adventure Terra Nova (8.3 million, 3.0) served as a solid lead-in, retaining a strong 97 percent in the demo from its series debut.

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CBS' comedies were either flat or down, but still it was enough to overpower its competitors to take the nightly win in the demo, where the network averaged a 4.3 rating. 2 Broke Girls (11.4 million, 4.4); Two and a Half Men (17.3 million, 6.1), plunging 18 percent, and Mike & Molly (13.2 million, 4.3) all saw dips, but Men was still the night's most-watched and highest-rated program of the night -- narrowly topping Dancing With the Stars in its 9 p.m. slot in tune-in.

How I Met Your Mother (10.5 million, 4.5) and Hawaii Five-0 (10.9 million, 3.2) remained healthy. Notably, CBS won every hour in the demo by a healthy margin.

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Meanwhile, NBC continued to struggle, though the newest two-hour installment of The Sing-Off (4.9 million, 1.8) saw a 6 percent improvement. But The Playboy Club (3.4 million, 1.2), in its third week, had trouble expanding, dipping 8 percent at 10 p.m.

With the help of Dancing With the Stars (16.5 million, 3.1), ABC was the night's most-watched network, averaging 14.9 million in primetime, but the DWTS performance show was its lowest-rated one to date. Castle (11.6 million, 2.6) saw a 7-percent dip.

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The CW's Hart of Dixie (1.8 million, 0.8) held 100 percent of its audience among women 18-34 (1.4) and adults 18-49 from its premiere, up 13 percent in the younger adults 18-34 demo. Gossip Girl (1.4 million, 0.7) rose 6 percent in total viewers and remained steady among adults 18-49.