Did Marie Osmond's doll routine scare off the customers?

Make no mistake, Dancing with the Stars' ballroom finals show was big—it averaged a season-high 24.7 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research estimates show.

But when stacked against last fall's Emmitt Smith-Mario Lopez dance-off, which averaged 26.8 million, Monday's episode actually came up short.

The show was marked by solid but arguably underwhelming performances by Spice Girl Mel B and race-car champ Helio Castroneves and one baby-doll-styled freestyle by Osmond that judge Bruno Tonioli, apparently unfamiliar with Karen Black's Trilogy of Terror, deigned "the loopiest thing I've ever seen."

The winning celebrity-led dance team will be announced in Tuesday's two-hour finale.

Overall, Dancing's fifth season has been its biggest. On Monday, it was especially dominating. In the 8-9 p.m. hour, it outdrew its nearest competition, NBC's Chuck (estimated 8.4 million), by nearly three times. The episode goes down, for now, as the second most watched show of the fall, behind the season premiere of CBS' CSI (25.2 million).

In order to top last fall's Smith-crowning finale, Tuesday night's episode will have to top a whopping 27.5 million.

Those who can't wait, or can't keep their eyes open until 11 p.m. Tuesday, have probably already peeked at dialidol.com, where the busy signals say the team of Mel B and Maksim Chmerkovskiy is the likely lead vote-getter, with Helio and Julianne second and Marie and Jonathan third.

Win or lose, Osmond will go down as the first Dancing contestant to faint onstage (after her samba, in week five) and to invite a comparison, courtesy Toniolo, to Bride of Chucky (after her doll dance, natch).

Monday's—and Tuesday's—Dancing numbers will be reflected in next week's Nielsen rankings.

Meanwhile, here are the ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:

• Brad Womack's unprecedented commitment issues were good for Bachelor business. The bar owner's blanket rejection of the final two matrimonial contestants boosted the ABC finale (25th place, 11.2 million) by more than 1 million viewers over last fall's. The night-after special, The Bachelor: After the Final Rose (18th place, 12.3 million), scored a record number of curiosity seekers. And that was before guest star and ex-Bachelor contestant Mary Delgado was arrested for allegedly punching a man presumed to be ex-Bachelor Byron Velvick.    
• The undefeated New England Patriots are so powerful, they can even lift NBC. A Patriots-graced Sunday Night Football game placed second in the total-viewer rankings (21.8 million) and first in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic.
• Outside of football, NBC didn't land a single show in the top 20. And among 18- to 49-year-olds, the network came up with only one non-pigskin-related top 20 hit: Heroes, which ranked fifth in the demo and 27th overall (10.8 million).
• ABC's Desperate Housewives (fourth place, 18.6 million) was the week's most watched scripted show.
• ABC's Samantha Who? (13th place, 14.4 million) hit a season high, and topped CBS' Two and a Half Men (15th place, 13.9 million) for modest half-hour comedy bragging rights.
• Charlie Brown's battle with a young miscreant, as seen in He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (29th place, 10.4 million) registered with more viewers than the round-headed one's servitude to a demanding Peppermint Patty, as seen in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (35th place, 9.9 million). The latter, however, did post its biggest audience since moving to ABC in 2001, the network said.  
• Holiday-week viewing was so light that ABC's Pushing Daisies (51st place) won its Wednesday time slot with fewer than 7.5 million viewers.  
• Chuck (44th place, 7.8 million) has been renewed through the end of a season that could still be shortened should the ongoing writers' talks end poorly. NBC also bought nine new episodes of Life, which did not air last week. 
• NBC, which praised Chuck and Life for being "smart, well-produced series," kept its own counsel on Bionic Woman, which, like Life, had the week off.  
• A tale of two networks: The CW is getting smaller; MyNetwork TV, with no place to go but up, is getting bigger. A handful of MyNetwork shows, led by Breaking the Magicians Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed (109th place, 1.8 million), even outdrew some CW fare, including an all-new Aliens in America (116th place, 1.4 million).

Overall, it was, as Fox delicately put it, "a quiet holiday week for all the networks." Translation: CBS won the bountiful Thanksgiving week by averaging a paltry 11.7 million viewers.

Led by Dancing with the Stars' semifinal rounds, ABC was the highest-rated network in the 18-49 demo. The network placed second in total viewers, with 11.6 million.

NBC (9.1 million) managed a second-place finish in the demo. Fourth-place Fox (6.6 million) had the quietest Thanksgiving of all. Not including the CW (2.2 million).

Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 22.8 million viewers
2. Sunday Night Football, NBC, 21.8 million viewers
3. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 21 million viewers
4. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 18.6 million viewers
5. NCIS, CBS, 17.3 million viewers
6. House, Fox, 16.9 million viewers
7. 60 Minutes, CBS, 16.1 million viewers
8. Criminal Minds, CBS, 15.9 million viewers
9. CSI: Miami, CBS, 15.8 million viewers
10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC, 15 million viewers