'The Following' leads FOX to Monday ratings win, 'Deception' bottoms out

FOX rode its one-two punch of "Bones" and "The Following" to a Monday night win, according to the Nielsen television ratings for Monday, March 4, 2013.

FOX was number one in the ratings (2.5 in the 18-49 year-old target demographic) and first in overall viewers (8.445 million) with new episodes of "Bones" (2.2) and "The Following" (2.8 rating with 8.6 million viewers, both tops on the night).

ABC was second in the ratings (2.3) and also second in total viewers (7.871 million) with a new episode of "The Bachelor" (2.7), followed by a rerun of "Castle" (1.4).

CBS was fourth in ratings (1.6) and third overall with 6.088 millon total viewers. CBS aired a rerun of "How I Met Your Mother" (1.6), followed by a new episode of "Rules of Engagement" (2.2), and reruns of "2 Broke Girls" (1.7), "Mike & Molly" (1.7), and Hawaii Five-O" (1.3). "Rules" was down half a point from last week, but it was the only new show on a night full of reruns for CBS.

NBC finished third in the ratings (1.8) and fourth in overall viewers (4.477 million), with a new episode of "The Biggest Loser" (2.1), followed by a new "Deception" (1.1, tying the show's worst-ever rating).

The CW was fifth in the ratings (0.4) and also in total viewers (0.949 million) with new episodes of "The Carrie Diaries" (0.3) and "90210" (0.3).

Related: CW announces the end of "90210"

-- Reid Kerr thinks there's a lot of Bachelor-Biggest Loser smack talk going on behind the scenes. Follow Reid on Twitter and yell at him.