Last night, How I Met Your Mother‘s casting experiment paid off nicely for the comedy.  The show - which is not yet on the network’s renewal list - earned its best demo performance ever.  By night’s end, CBS was tops in the 18-49 group while ABC was #1 in total viewers.

8pm

• Week 2 of Dancing with the Stars (20.5 million, 5.0/13 in 18-49) was the evening’s most-watched program.
• Approximately 10.6 million watched Britney Spears’ cameo on How I Met Your Mother (4.5/12).
• The Big Bang Theory (8.6 million, 3.4/10) was down a half million from last week.
• A House* repeat (7.6 million, 2.7/7) fared better than the replaced Canterbury’s Law.
• My Dad is Better Than Your Dad (4.2 million, 1.2/3) continues to die a slow death.
• Gossip Girl* (1.1 million, 0.5/1) was off just a tad.