ABC's Castle Outdraws CBS' CSI: Miami at 10pm

Some early points for ABC's Monday, ahead of the regular press release.

ABC qualified as the most-watched TV network on the opening Monday of the May Sweep (15.0 million), ranking #1 on the night the 7th week in a row. In fact it was the 4th straight year for ABC to register as the most-watched network on the first Monday of May. ABC placed a strong second during prime in Adults 18-49 to Fox, as it beat Fox by 6% in head-to-head competition from 8-10pm.

ABC's Dancing with the Stars took first-place its time period for the 7th week running in both Total Viewers (19.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (4.0/11), beating out stiff original Sweep competition from 8-9:30pm on CBS (How I Met Your Mother/Rules of Engagement/Big Bang Theory = 8.7 million and 3.4/10) and Fox (House/24 = 9.8 million and 3.5/10). DWTS qualified as Monday's most-watched television series for the 7th week in a row.

ABC freshman Romantically Challenged ranked #1 in 9:30pm half-hour in Total Viewers (preliminary 10.6 million) and took second-place for the 3rd week running among key Women demos (W18-49/W25-54). In fact the new ABC comedy outdrew the final half-hour of Fox's 24 by in Total Viewers (24 = 9.0 million). Romantically Challenged built its overall audience week to week by 16%.

Building on its lead-in with viewers and young adults, ABC's original Castle outdrew CBS' original CSI: Miami for #1 at 10pm by 1.2 million viewers (10.8 million vs. 9.6 million) and finished in a near-tie for first-place in Adults 18-49 (2.6/7 vs. 2.7/8). In fact ABC's sophomore Castle stood as the most-watched TV show in Monday's 10 o'clock hour for the 5th time in 7 telecasts. Impressively, Castle still managed grow its overall audience year to year by 8% (10.8 million vs. 10.0 million on 5/4/09), even though it had the added advantage of a direct lead-in from a 2-hour DWTS on the year-ago night.