CBS Comedies Kill; Momma's Boys Aches

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CBS Comedies Kill; Momma's Boys Aches

Tue., Dec. 23, 2008 9:52 AM PST by Joal Ryan

NBC Photo: Tyler Golden

Monday TV's Big Winners: Three out of four CBS comedies. Repeats or no, they dominated, led by Two and a Half Men (11.8 million viewers, per Nielsen estimates).

About That Fourth CBS Comedy…: Worst Week (6.9 milion) lost 42 percent of Two and a Half Men's audience, and seemed to funnel 18- to 49-year-olds to NBC's Momma's Boys at 9:30 p.m.

About Momma's Boys... Judged against last week's no-great-shakes premiere, the Ryan Seacrest-produced reality show was down 20 percent in total viewers (5 million), and down 32 percent in the 18-49 demo. From 9 to 11 p.m., it ran distant thirds in both categories.

It Could've Been Worse: In the 8 p.m. hour, NBC's prime-time Today Show special pulled an even lower rating in the demo than Momma's Boys. (It did, however, pull more overall viewers: 6.2 million.)

The Also-Rans: CBS' CSI: Miami (8.5 million), Fox's House (6.2 million) and ABC's Shrek the Halls (7 million) held up OK, as did the ABC offering of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (6.7 million). Fox's Prison Break (5 million) denied Momma's Boys third place in the 9 p.m. hour. The CW's Gossip Girl (1.3 million) and One Tree Hill (922,000) killed airtime. All were reruns.