Yesterday’s premiere of Surviving Suburbia did well despite NCAA competition. The program had the best numbers for a comedy debut since the opener of Samantha Who? in October 2007. (A Dancing with the Stars lead-in being the common denominator.)

8pm

• Dancing with the Stars (19.6 million, 4.5/11 in 18-49) was down by 600,000.
• Approximately 13 million watched the shocker on House (5.0/13).
• The Big Bang Theory* (8.9 million, 3.2/9) gave up 900,000; How I Met Your Mother* (8.5 million, 3.3/9) lost 700,000.
• Chuck (6 million, 2.1/6) picked up 400,000.
• Gossip Girl* (1.1 million, 0.5/1) shrunk by 1.4 million.

9pm

• The NCAA basketball championship (5.8/14 in 18-49) scored 16.3 million in the first two hours.
• Surviving Suburbia (3.2/8) pulled in 12.2 million.
• 24 (11 million, 3.8/9) slipped by 200,000.
• Heroes (6.1 million, 2.6/6) hit another low.
• One Tree Hill* (0.5/1) registered 1.1 million.

10pm

• Castle (9.2 million, 2.4/6 in 18-49) fell by 600,000.
• Medium (7.2 million, 2.2/5) did about the same.

*denotes repeat

(You can review last Monday’s ratings here.)