ABC/BOB D'AMICOOn Monday's Dancing With the Stars, Melissa Gilbert gave until it hurt so badly she required a trip to the hospital for treatment of a concussion.
Too bad for her DWTS fans were about as impressed as DWTS judges.
Gilbert's head-banging paso doble with Maksim Chmerkovskiy, which pulled a weak 22 out of 30 on the judges' scorecard, drew the two-hour episode's second-smallest half-hour audience, the early TV ratings show.
Oddly enough, it was an overall blah Nielsen night for a newsworthy DWTS.
The show prevailed as Monday's most-watched show, but was flat when compared to last week and dropped to 16.1 million viewers.
If you'll pardon the expression, Ms. Gilbert.
Here's a look at some of the other TV ratings winners—and losers, per the just-released broadcast and cable rankings:
• The Voice (10.4 million estimated viewers): Another week, another decline.
• Game of Thrones (3.8 million viewers): Solid performance for the HBO show's third-season opener, which was down a touch from its season-two premiere (3.8 million).
• Community (3 million viewers):The Dan Harmon-Chevy Chase feud made for better headlines than a ratings draw.
• Bent (2.1 million viewers for back-to-back episodes): How much lower can it go? We'll probably never know: It's six-episode run is over.
• Betty White's Off Their Rockers (7.2 million viewers): Leave it to the nonagenarian to give NBC one of its better performances in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic.
• Best Friends Forever (3.9 million viewers): Another new NBC sitcom, another sad premiere (made somewhat less sad by its big Betty White lead-in).
• One Tree Hill (1.4 million viewers): Fun factoid: The White show, which aired opposite this leave-taking CW series, drew a bigger number among women aged 18 to 34 years old!
• Scandal (7.3 million viewers): Not a bad start, not a great start. Private Practice's 10 p.m. Thursday time slot is still definitely up for grabs.
Here's a complete look at the top 10 most-watched broadcast shows, per the latest Nielsen rankings:
- NCAA men's basketball championship (Kansas vs. Kentucky), 20.9 million viewers
- American Idol (Wednesday), 17.1 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), 16.9 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), 15.6 million viewers
- American Idol (Thursday), 14.3 million viewers
- Person of Interest, 13.7 million viewers
- The Big Bang Theory, 13.3 million viewers
- The Mentalist, 12.6 million viewers
- CSI, 12.1 million viewers
- 60 Minutes, 11.7 million viewers