Monday night, Castle earned its highest ratings ever, followed by an early third season renewal on Tuesday.

The show earned the highest rating in its 10 p.m. Monday time slot, 14.5 million viewers compared to a CSI: Miami rerun which earned CBS only 8.1 million viewers and NBC’s Law & Order which garnered only 6 million viewers. Castle’s ratings helped ABC dominated prime time with 19.9 million viewers and a 12.5 rating/20 share in households.

Those ratings were followed up with news that ABC was renewing the show for 22 episodes in  a third season. The slow-but-steady approach seemed to work for the series whose ratings have steadily increased since the show debuted last year.

Castle’s ratings actually seemed lackluster last year, but in a rare move, ABC stuck with the show and ordered a second season despite the slow start. The move clearly paid off, earlier in the season, long before Monday’s rating boom, the show began beating CSI: Miami in the same time slot.