Nathan Fillion

Maybe Bachelor jiltee Melissa Rycroft brought the ratings momentum with her, or maybe America is as obsessed with jailbird Lil’ Kim’s ballroom dancing as I am.

But for whatever reason, ABC’s Dancing With the Stars quickstepped up to its highest season-premiere ratings ever Monday night with 22.5 million viewers — that’s 10.8 million more than second-place Fox garnered in the same two-hour period.

Those stellar numbers boosted the series premiere of lead-out Castle, which charmed 11.6 million viewers (though note that that means only about half of Dancing’s audience stuck around for the Nathan Fillion dramedy).

All that ABC excitement left CBS unusually strapped for viewers, with Big Bang Theory (9.5 million), How I Met Your Mother (8.5 million), and Two and a Half Men (13.3 million) all dipping.