It was a mixed night for male chauvinistic television last night. The premier ratings of Two and a Half Men were, as Entertainment Weekly puts it "jaw dropping. Stunningly huge" bringing in 27.7 million viewers (that's American Idol caliber) and scoring a massive 10.3 rating for adults 18 to 49, according to Nielsen data. "That’s easily an all-time high for the show, and up 110 percent over last fall’s eighth-season debut with Sheen. Everybody expected the sitcom’s first new episode back would perform strong, but not like this," writes James Hibberd. Maybe creative plotlines like Charlie Sheen getting hit by a train and exploding like a "balloon full of meat" will keep viewers coming back? Regardless, it wasn't a total loss for viewers who don't like male chauvinistic TV. The much-ballyhooed NBC show The Playboy Club completely bombed last night, raking in only 5 million viewers at its 10 p.m. slot with a 1.6 rating. Elsewhere in TV land, ABC's Dancing With the Stars performed well (18.6 million) as did ABC's Castle, (13.6 million), CBS's How I Met Your Mother (11.3 million) and 2 Broke Girls (19.1 million).

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John Hudson