Terra Nova's ratings still good for Fox

Ratings for Terra Nova remained good for Fox last night escaping the expected big drop some had predicted. Elsewhere Two and a Half Men once again performed strongly for CBS but lost more viewers while The CW dramas Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie held steady and Playboy Club edged nearer to cancellation.

Monday night ratings produced few surprises though perhaps the only real surprise was Terra Nova didn’t shed viewers as many expected. The Fox drama, from Steven Spielberg, has a reported budge of $4 million per episode. It opened last week with a two-part episode that had 9.2 million viewers. This week’s third episode did lose some viewers but not as many as some would have thought. According to overnight figures an audience of 8.3 million tuned in with a 3.0 18-49 rating. Not bad but still not the big ratings for Fox were hoping to get for Terra Nova considering the amount of money is has spent on it. The broadcaster can take comfort though in the UK premier of Terra Nova, also last night, on Sky One which dented ratings for Big Brother (which airs on Channel Five in the UK) and had 1 million viewers – read more here >>

Elsewhere last night Hugh Laurie drama House returned to Fox for its 8th season which some have tipped to be its last. The opening episode, Twenty Vicodin, had 9.8 million viewers with a 3.9 18-49 demo. That’s only down a tad on last year’s seventh season opener Now What? which had 10.5 million viewers. However, it is House‘ lowest season launch since the pilot episode in 2004. Over on CBS Two and a Half Men continued to command big audiences but was once again down on last week. The third episode of the ninth season had 17.2 million viewers, a 6.1 18-49 demo, but that’s down several million on last week’s 20.5 million viewers.

Over on ABC Dancing with the Stars had 16.4 million viewers with Castle pulling in 11.6 million viewers. The CW dramas Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie pretty much held steady attracting 1.4 million and 1.8 million respectively. Meanwhile NBC drama Playboy Club edged even closer to cancellation with 3.4 million viewers – it’s hard to see how the series will avoid the axe.