Despite facing repeat competition from CBS and benefitting from a strong lead-in from “House,” “24” suffered a ratings drop from the Monday portion of last week’s season premiere.
The show averaged 10.7 million viewers and a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating, dipping slightly from last week’s showing (which featured CBS’ comedies in first-run) and turning away a sizable portion of “House”‘s 14.2 million viewers (with a 5.2 rating in adults 18-49).
Premiere dips were not exclusive to FOX, however. The CW’s “Life UneXpected” dropped from last week’s passable showing to just a 1.0 with 2.1 million viewers. “One Tree Hill” led in with 2.2 million and a 1.1.
Elsewhere, ABC’s “Castle” made yet another case to return next season, as it rose to a series-high 3.1 rating with 10.5 million viewers. Lead-in “The Bachelor” posted a 3.9 with 11.5 million.
As for NBC, it operated as if CBS had programmed–“Chuck” averaged 6.9 million viewers with a 2.5, “Heroes” posted a terrible 1.9 rating with 4.3 million and “The Jay Leno Show” was poor with a 1.2 and 4.3 million viewers.