Debut Dancing ratings even with last fall, down 14 percent from spring; Bachelor down, too

The first episode of Dancing with the Stars 6 may not have had much drama, but it did draw 20.9 million viewers, making it the night’s most-watched show.

That’s down 14 percent from the show’s fourth season, best-ever debut last spring, but its numbers are about the same as “its fifth-season, 90-minute debut of last fall,” Variety reports.

Also down was the premiere of The Bachelor 12, which was watched by 9.0 million viewers, “down 11%. Still, ‘Dancing’ remained the highest-rated show of the night, and ‘Bachelor’ won the 10 p.m. hour.and according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Speaking of drama, people with better hearing than mine noticed that Adam Carolla said, “oh, bitch” when Carrie Ann Inaba revealed her score, a 5. As he said it just as the audience was awwing and the announcer was saying “Len Goodman,” it was slightly muffled but still pretty obvious (it’s at the 6:40 mark here). It was also less-noticeable because everyone basically ignored it, whereas Tom Bergeron’s strategy is basically to interrupt any kind of talk that wouldn’t work in a Care Bears episode, unless he’s the one making the joke.