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‘Dancing’ Gains on ‘The Voice’ Monday; CBS’ ‘Friends With Better Lives’ Sluggish

NBC’s “The Voice” was again the top-rated Monday series in key demos last night, though it hit a low on the night for this cycle and ABC’s competing “Dancing With the Stars” closed the gap. CBS, meanwhile, began its post-”How I Met Your Mother” life with a nothing-special timeslot premiere for new half-hour “Friends With Better Lives.”

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, “The Voice” averaged a 3.3 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 11.7 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., down 6% (0.2) from last week’s national average and the lowest Monday score for this edition; still, it comfortably won all four of its half-hours in 18-49 and 25-54. A repeat of “The Blacklist” did pretty well closing out the night for NBC (1.6/5 in 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall) — delivering a larger young-adult audience than either of Fox’s firstrun dramas on the night and achieving the top demo rating for a repeat of an NBC drama in more than two years (since “Law & Order: SVU” in February 2012).

At ABC, “Dancing With the Stars” (2.3/7 in 18-49, 14.2 million viewers overall) was the night’s most-watched program overall and pulled to within 1 ratings point of “The Voice” in both 18-49 and 25-54 — its closest finish this season. During the same mid-April week a year ago (when “The Voice” was about a month earlier in its season), the NBC show more than doubled “Dancing” in 18-49 (5.2 to 2.2).

The net aired a repeat “Castle” at 10 (1.2/4 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall).

CBS kicked off its night with the time-period premiere of “2 Broke Girls” (2.2/7 in 18-49, 7.2 million viewers overall), which was in line with its prior original (at 8:30 p.m.) but down sharply from what “How I Met Your Mother” averaged in the timeslot with originals this season (3.4 same-night rating). It was followed by “Friends With Better Lives” (1.8/5 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall), which made its regular-timeslot premiere two weeks after getting good sampling (2.6 in 18-49, 7.6 million total viewers) behind the “How I Met Your Mother” finale; “Friends” placed third in its timeslot in 18-49.

“Mike & Molly” (2.1/6 in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall) was up a tick from its most recent original, and “Mom” (1.9/5 in 18-49, 6.7 million viewers overall) closed its first season down 14% from its prior original (1.9), which was the night of the highly rated “How I Met Your Mother” finale. At 10, the Eye went with a special repeat of “Person of Interest” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall).

At Fox, “Bones” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall) was down x% (0.2) from last week, and “The Following” held steady (1.4/4 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall). Both placed fourth in their timeslots.

CW’s “Star-Crossed” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall) matched last week’s score, and “The Tomorrow People” (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.1 million viewers overall) was down a tenth from its prior original, though it was able to build on its lead-in.

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 2.7/8; ABC, 1.9/6; CBS, 1.7/5; Fox, 1.4/4; Univision, 1.1/3; Telemundo, 0.5/1; CW, 0.4/1.

In total viewers: ABC, 12.2 million; NBC, 9.8 million; CBS, 6.1 million; Fox, 5.0 million; Univision, 2.7 million; Telemundo, 1.1 million; CW, 0.9 million.

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