Quick Take for Monday, September 29, 2008 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)

ABC Leads its Second Straight Monday in Total Viewers, Beating Second-Place CBS by 4.6 Million Viewers

Monday's Most-Watched TV Show for the Second Week Running , ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" Leads its 2-Hour Time Period in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49

"Boston Legal" Delivers Total Viewer Increases Over its Prior Week's Premiere, Outperforming NBC's Special Preview of "Life" by 2.9 Million Viewers

Monday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

For the second week in a row, ABC stood as the most-watched TV network on Monday, outperforming second-place CBS by 4.6 million viewers (16.1 million vs. 11.5 million). ABC also took the top spot on Monday night among Women 18-49 (5.2/13) and Women 25-54 (6.9/15). ABC finished in a virtual-tie with CBS for first place in Adults 18-49 on Monday, with just one-tenth of a rating point separating the two networks (3.8/10 vs. 3.9/10).

"Dancing with the Stars" (8:00-10:00 p.m.)

Monday's most-watched program for the second week running, ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" dominated in its 2-hour time period, defeating second-place CBS by 9.1 million viewers (19.3 million vs. 10.2 million) and by 22% in Adults 18-49 (4.5/11 vs. 3.7/9). "DWTS" also qualified as Monday's No. 1 show in Adults 25-54 (6.0/14) and Women 18-49 (6.3/15).

"Boston Legal" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

Drawing its largest audience since April (4/22/08), ABC's "Boston Legal" was up over it's week-ago season premiere in Total Viewers (9.8 million vs. 8.8 million), beating NBC's special preview of "Life" (6.9 million) by 2.9 million viewers. In addition, the ABC drama posted a 31% increase over the prior week among Adults 18-34 (1.7/5 vs. 1.3/3).

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 28% currently, from 20% at the same point in 2007. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Source: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 9/29/08.