CBS easily won Monday night, again, with its insanely popular line-up of comedies. During its flagship night, the network defeated ABC and NBC in the 18-49 demographic and demonstrated series highs with The Big Bang Theory and the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother. Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders and Alyson Hannigan, the show netted its best numbers since last spring.

Two and Half Men with Charlie Sheen also had its best 18-49 demo performance since last winter and also its best audience average since December of 2008.

Rival Fox followed CBS with an episode of House and a “special airing” of their sci-fi sensation Fringe. The episode was played against NBC’s Heroes with stellar results. This week’s episode of Heroes was the series’ lowest-rated telecast ever. The airing of Fringe on Monday performed just as well as House’s usual follow-up of Lie To Me, which is off the schedule until the return of 24.

ABC’s Castle improved its performance in the demographic thanks to a strong lead-in from their reality show The Bachelor, which was up 9-percent with adults 18-49. Castle is up 24-percent from its last original airing.

At 8 p.m., the regular-slot season premiere of Chuck (2.6 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall) scored the show’s highest regular-slot results in 18-49 and total viewers since the special 3D telecast on February 2, 2009, the night after the Super Bowl. It was also the biggest total-viewer average for NBC in this time period with regular programming since that Feb. 2 Chuck.  In a time slot that last night included competition from Fox’s House, ABC’s The Bachelor and CBS’s comedies, Chuck generated growth from its first half-hour to its second of 8-percent in adults 18-49 (to a 2.7 from a 2.5) and 16 percent in adults 18-34 (2.2 vs. 1.9).