Nellie Andreeva

UPDATE 3 PM: Ouch! The final Monday ratings came in, and Part 1 of the Skating with the Stars finale was adjusted down, way down, to a .5 in the 18-49 demo from 1.0 in the fast nationals that were inflated by NFL pre-emptions on ABC. That is down almost 40% from Skating‘s underwhelming ratings performance for the past couple of weeks. Also adjusted down was ABC’s Castle rerun (.7 for the 9-11 PM block.) And more bad news for new NBC comedy Perfect Couples. Its preview behind the Sing-Off finale also slipped down in the finals, to a 1.3. Overall, ESPN topped Monday night in all key measures for a fifth time this season, with its coverage of the Bears-Vikings game drawing 17.1 million viewers.

PREVIOUS 10 AM: After a very impressive sophomore run of NBC’s limited reality series The Sing-off leading into the finale last night, the two-hour closer (2.7/7 in adults 18-49) surprisingly posted a 18% week-to-week drop to rank as Sing-off‘s lowest-rated Monday telecast this cycle and tied as the lowest-rated overall. It still was the top-rated broadcast program on Monday night by a mile and was up 17% from the show’s finale last year. Immediately following the Sing-off finale, NBC aired a preview of new Thursday comedy series Perfect Couples (1.4/4), which held onto roughly half of its demo lead-in, not a promising sign heading into the series’ Jan. 20 debut at 8:30 PM on Thursday when NBC will also officially introduce comedies in the 10 PM hour. The dropoff for Sing-off was even more puzzling given the weak competition. Fox’s new game show Million Dollar Money Drop had a very slow start, drawing a 1.9/5 for its first hourlong episode at 8 PM and 2.0/5 for the 9 PM episode. ABC’s flop Skating with the Stars posted a 1.0/3 in 18-49 for Part 1 of its finale but that number was probably inflated by NFL pre-emptions of ABC programming in 4.5% of the country. (Skating has averaged a 0.8 demo rating for the past couple of weeks.) The reality series was followed by back-to-back Castle reruns (1.2/3 and 1.7/5), whose numbers will also probably go down in the finals. CBS aired wall-to-wall reruns led by Two and a Half Men (2.4/6) and How I Met Your Mother (2.0/6). NBC (2.2/6, 6.7 million) won the night in 18-49, while CBS (1.9/5, 7.4 million) was No.1 in total viewers and tied with Fox for second in the demo.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.