(NEW YORK) -- The 16th season of Dancing with the Stars is off to a better start in the ratings than the all-star edition of the ABC competition that aired last fall.

Dancing with the Stars returned Monday night to an audience of 16.8 million viewers, an increase of 19 percent from the all-star season premiere.

The most-watched primetime program for the week ending Sunday was the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, which pulled in 15.9 million viewers.

CBS won the network ratings race for last week, followed by Fox, ABC, NBC, Univision, Telemundo, the CW and ION Television.

Here are the top 10 primetime network and cable programs for the week of March 11-17, according to the Nielsen Company:

1. The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 15.9 million.
2. Person of Interest, CBS, 14.34 million.
3. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 13.44 million.
4. NCIS, CBS, 13.18 million.
5. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 12.18 million.
6. NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 11.95 million.
7. American Idol (Thursday), Fox, 11.93 million.
8. Elementary, CBS, 11.33 million.
9. The Bible, History, 10.87 million.
10. The Walking Dead, AMC, 10.84 million.

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