'Men' preems to record 27.8 million for CBS

Ashton Kutcher's debut on CBS laffer 'Two and a Half Men' drew a whopping 27.8 million viewers Monday night.Ashton Kutcher's debut on CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men" drew the show's largest audience ever - 27.8 million, according to preliminary Nielsen estimates - and a mammoth 10.3 rating in adults 18-49 as the Eye won the opening night of the season in all key demo categories.The previous highs for the long-running show came in May 2005, when it followed the "Everybody Loves Raymond" series finale with an 8.1 demo rating and 24.2 million viewers overall. Last season, a truncated one for the series due to the exit of Charlie Sheen, "Men" peaked with a 4.9 rating in 18-49 and 17.9 million viewers overall.Monday's demo score is the best for any primetime entertainment telecast since the Academy Awards in February, and tops the 9.2 for May's finale of Fox's "American Idol." And both the demo and total-viewer count are the best for the season/series premiere of an entertainment series since ABC's second-season opener of "Desperate Housewives" in September 2005.The big showing at 9 p.m. for CBS provided substantial sampling for the premiere of half-hour "Two Broke Girls" (7.0/16 in 18-49, 19.2 million viewers overall) at its special 9:30 p.m. time before moving to 8:30 next week. "Broke Girls" beat ABC's "Dancing" by 7 shares in adults 18-49 and gave CBS its best showing in the timeslot since "Men" in May 2005; it also drew the largest overall audience for the series premiere of a fall comedy since NBC's "Inside Schwartz" (airing behind "Friends") in 2001.Also impressing Monday in its cliffhanger return was ABC drama "Castle" (3.3/8 in 18-49, 13.6 million viewers overall), which was up nicely over last year. The mystery series and the second-season premiere of CBS' "Hawaii Five-0" (3.4/8 in 18-49, 12.0 million viewers overall) made life difficult for competing 10 p.m. NBC drama "The Playboy Club" (1.6/4 in 18-49, 5.0 million viewers overall), which had a modest premiere on what has been a tough night for the net. One year ago, the series opener of "Chase" did better for NBC (2.3/6 in 18-49).Elsewhere Monday, ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" (3.9/10 in 18-49, 18.6 million viewers overall) was down more than 20% from its premiere of last fall but teamed with "Castle" to put ABC ahead for the night in total viewers.CBS opened with the best premieres score yet for "How I Met Your Mother" (4.7/13 in 18-49, 11.3 million viewers overall in its regular 8 p.m. slot and 5.1/13 in 18-49 and 12.2 million in a special airing at 8:30), which easily led its hour among young adults and provided the net with roughly 45% time-period improvement over last year's openers of "Mother" and "Rules of Engagement." For the night, CBS prevailed over runner-up ABC by 5 shares in adults 18-49 and by 4 shares in 25-54.Fox went with the season finale of summer series "Hell's Kitchen" (2.5/6 in 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall) and finished third among the broadcasters for the night in 18-49. The net bows dinosaur drama "Terra Nova" next week, and veteran drama "House" returns the following week. At NBC, "The Sing-Off" opened to a 1.9/5 in 18-49 and 5.2 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m. - lagging the competition but the best non-sports demo delivery in the time period for the net since mid-January. Compared to last year's opening night, when it was boosted by good series premiere scores for "The Event," NBC's combo of "Sing-Off" and "Playboy Club" was down about 30% in 18-49 rating (1.8 vs. 2.6 for the night). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 5.7/14; ABC, 3.7/9; Fox, 2.5/6; NBC, 1.8/4; Univision, 1.74/; CW, 0.4/1.In total viewers: ABC, 16.9 million; CBS, 15.7 million; NBC and Fox, 5.1 million; Univision, 3.8 million; CW, 1.1 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

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