TWO AND A HALF MEN DOWN BUT STILL POTENT

(UPDATED) The second week of CBS’s Two and a Half Men with its new star, Ashton Kutcher, lost nearly a third of its audience from its debut last week, but it was nevertheless the highest-rated show Monday night, averaging 20 million viewers. That was enough to beat ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which attracted 16 million viewers at 9:00 p.m., and it amounted to more than twice the number of viewers who tuned in to the series premiere of the much-hyped Steven Spielberg-produced dinosaur drama Terra Nova on Fox (9 million viewers). The debut show reportedly cost more than $20 million to produce, and was originally scheduled to debut last May. (It reportedly was delayed so that the special effects could be polished.) Some 14 million viewers stuck around after Two and a Half Men to watch the season debut of Mike & Molly (both shows are from Chuck Lorre), producing the hit sitcom’s top ratings ever.