TV Ratings: "24" Hits Season-Low; "The Black Donnellys" Suffers Tune-Out

Kiefer Sutherland's heart-pounding FOX thriller "24" lost another head-to-head battle with NBC's "Heroes" hitting a season-low, while NBC's new drama "The Black Donnellys" at 10pm lost over 3 million viewers in the second half hour.

The most watched telecast in America last night did not air on the #1 network CBS, but rather NBC that opened the night on a winning note courtesy of its hit game show "Deal Or No Deal" with 17,35 million viewers.

Then at 9, "Heroes" scored slam-dunk as the drama once again managed to beat out FOX's "24" scoring 14,27 million viewers - up quarter of a million since last week.

"24" pulled in 12,8 million, a season low for the series. The show however grew over 3,5 million viewers out of its lead-in "Prison Break".

The new drama "The Black Donnellys" opened the 10pm hour holding on to almost 10 million viewers from its plum lead-in.

Unfortunately for NBC, over 3 million people abandoned the program in its second half-hour. That means "The Black Donnellys" scored an average of 8,42 million viewers.

Those numbers may very well go down once "Heroes" wraps up its current chapter next Monday.

Although this may indicate there is still hope for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", I personally believe football drama "Friday Night Lights" (which scored season-high ratings in its single airing in the timeslot back in October) or supernatural series "Medium" (which used to air in the timeslot when it premiered in 2005) would be a much better fit out of "Heroes" on Monday nights.

Earlier last night, "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS managed to beat out FOX's "Prison Break" for the second place in the timeslot by a very narrow margin (9,41 vs. 9,39 million viewers). "Prison Break" was however stronger in the 18-49 demo.

CBS's top sitcom "Two and a Half Men" at 9pm nabbed 16,7 million viewers, while its 10pm drama "CSI: Miami" (17,23 million) had to settle for the second place for the evening. The show was however #1 last night in the crucial 18-49 demo.

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