'Once Upon a Time' has worked ratings magic for ABC. The fairy tale drama from the writers of 'Lost' debuted to 12.8 million viewers with a strong 3.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

'Big Love' star Ginnifer Goodwin and 'House' veteran Jennifer Morrison star in 'Once Upon a Time,' a drama where fairy tale characters exist, but are trapped in the real world. As always, the real test is to see how the show does in week 2.

'Desperate Housewives' got a boost thanks to 'Once' and pulled in 9.2 million viewers and a 3.0 in the 18-49 demographic. 'Pan Am' was steady at 5.8 million total viewers and a 1.8 rating.

On 'Boardwalk Empire,' the dominoes have started to fall in the aftermath of the Commodore's stroke. Having blindly followed the old man over the precipice, his co-conspirators are squirming and getting desperate now that he's incapacitated. In this week's 'Gimcrack and Bunkum,' they scrambled to save their hides, and the desperation manifested itself in the form of two brutal, head-mutilating murders.

Meanwhile, Jimmy continued to prove that he may be the only one with the smarts and toughness to make it on his own, while the women of 'Boardwalk' showed they can be just as violent and conniving as the men.

To keep track of the deals, deception and death, AOL TV is continuing our weekly 'Boardwalk Empire' gangster index, a guide to who's up and who's down among HBO's organized criminals.

Check out the index to find out how your favorite liquor-slinging sociopath fared this week ...

['The Good Wife' - 'Marthas and Caitlins']

Donna Brazile is worried about Alicia Florrick? Aren't we all, Donna, aren't we all.

The real-life political strategist guest starred as herself on 'The Good Wife' to let Eli Gold know he's got the bring the Florricks back together if Peter wants more of a political career. Plus, Dylan Baker returned and was awesome, the cast got even bigger with the addition of Anna Camp and I finally understand why people are obsessed with Lisa Edelstein.

Tonight's episode of 'Dexter' was visually disgusting, and in true 'Dexter' fashion, surprisingly fun. There's a unique viewing pleasure in watching the Miami Metro Homicide Unit clicking like a well-oiled investigative machine, uncovering leads and consulting religious texts to track a serial killer. Eventually, of course, Dexter will work just as hard to figure out a way to throw his colleagues off the scent so he can serial kill the serial killers at the final moment, but for now, the Doomsday Killers have been nicknamed and the hunt to crack their bizarre mythology is on.

'A Horse of a Different Color' opened in the aftermath of the chilling chopped-up jogger horse-corpse parade, with the crime scene looking like a demented petting zoo on the Island of Dr. Moreau. Fortunately, new detective Mike Anderson seems well versed in 'The Da Vinci Code' and quickly cracked the biblical code, connecting the religious imagery to the four horsemen of the apocalypse from the Book of Revelations.

['The Walking Dead' - 'Secrets']

So ... for as much as I enjoyed the slow pace of last week's episode, especially when contrasted to the ridiculousness of the end of last season, I have to say: OK, I get it. This isn't last season. We're taking it slow!

So, yes, Sophia is still lost in the woods. And the group is still looking for her. There's your recap, folks! Hope you enjoyed it!

Kidding. And that's not to say that I don't like what's going on. I mean, yes, Carl was shot, so now we have a missing child and an injured child. It's all about the children! (Also, is it wrong that I keep wanting to refer to Carl as Bran?)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24

'How I Met Your Mother' (8PM ET, CBS)
The gang begins to realize their romantic partner reminds them of one of their parents. Meanwhile, Barney and Nora's planned romantic evening is ruined by a string of bad events. Wayne Brady guest-stars as Barney's brother and Frances Conroy guests as their mother.

'2 Broke Girls' (8.30PM ET, CBS)
Caroline tries to build a Murphy bed for herself in Max's apartment, and the chemistry between Max and Johnny (Nick Zano) heats up.

'Hart of Dixie' (9PM ET, The CW)
Zoe discovers something shocking about the local minister (guest star Peter MacKenzie) and his wife (guest star Kerry O'Malley), causing quite a stir among the residents of Bluebell. Lemon is determined to find the funds to renovate the town's historic bridge that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but first she is put in the extremely awkward position of having to convince Lavon to choose her proposal over so many other worthwhile submissions.

Kelsey Grammer's new Starz series 'Boss' just premiered last night, and there are already big shake-ups behind the scenes.

According to Deadline, 'Boss' co-showrunners and executive producers Richard Levine and Lyn Greene are exiting the drama series, which was already renewed for a second season (yes, before it even premiered) last month.

Levine and Greene, formerly of 'Nip/Tuck,' were on board for the entire eight-episode first season to oversee things with first-time series creator and executive producer Farhad Safinia. Deadline's sources implied that Safinia was a quick study, but confirmed that the series is searching for a new writer/executive producer to join the team -- which also includes star Grammer, director Gus Van Sant, Brian Sher and Stella Bulochnikov -- for Season 2.

['Nikita' - 'Looking Glass']

This week's episode of 'Nikita' was arguably the most anticipated of the series to date, though perhaps not for the right reasons. Practically from the moment last season ended, fans started hearing ominous rumblings about obstacles on the horizon for Michael and Nikita; most notably, a woman from Michael's past who would come back to haunt him.

In episode 5, we finally met that woman. Cassandra Ovechkin is undeniably beautiful, but we know that Michael is far from shallow. No mere physical lust would lure him away from Nikita, not after all the years he spent pining for her. But past lovers (even fake ones) often come with present baggage, and initially, Cassandra's heaviest baggage seemed to be the unstable "husband" that Division provided after assassinating her real one.

The Ovechkin double apparently developed delusions of grandeur during his time impersonating an evil dictator (we'll call it method acting), and after Percy's deposition and Amanda's ascent to power, yet another Division asset decided to go rogue.

Never underestimate the power of David Spade.

CBS's 'Rules of Engagement' debuted in the former timeslot of 'How to Be a Gentleman' to almost 3 million more viewers than the now-canceled freshman comedy.

The Thurs., Oct. 20 Season 6 premiere of 'Rules' was watched by 11.5 million viewers. The series premiere of 'How to Be a Gentleman' brought in about 9 million viewers. 'Gentleman' had a 2.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 'Rules' got a 3.7.

You can always count on 'The Office' and 'Community' for fun Halloween episodes and this year 'Parks and Recreation' and 'Whitney' are getting in on the fun.

'Community' (Thurs., Oct. 27, 8PM ET) kicks off the Halloween festivities off with 'Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps.' The study group has a pre-Halloween party to share their favorite horror stories and while at the party, Britta and Jeff attempt to figure out which member of the group is "deeply disturbed" according to a psychology test.

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz joined the 'Lost' writing staff midway through season 1 and stayed with the landmark ABC drama until it ended in 2010. Along the way, they penned island favorites like 'Tricia Tanaka Is Dead' and 'Everybody Hates Hugo,' just a couple of their many Hurley-centric outings (and with the Nikki and Paulo kiss-off 'Expose,' they helped win back many wavering fans during the dark days of season 3).

Once the show wrapped for good, they knew what they didn't want to do. "We weren't going to write the cheesy [procedural, i.e.], 'Young D.A. balancing her life and work, here is the case of the week,'" Kitsis said in an interview in the pair's Los Angeles office two months ago. "We don't think that way."

Instead of going that route, they revisited a fairy-tale script that they had first shopped around many years earlier, way back when they were staff writers on 'Felicity.' Nobody wanted it then, but ABC eagerly bought their revised pitch for 'Once Upon a Time,' which premieres 8PM ET Sunday, despite the fact that, as Horowitz joked, the pilot script is a compendium of elements that often make network executives freak out.

Amy Sedaris vs. Alan Cumming? We're so there! The 'Strangers With Candy' star is joining CBS's 'The Good Wife' as a nemesis for Cumming's character Eli Gold.

According to TVLine, Sedaris will play Stacie Hall, a lobbyist who starts poaching Eli Gold's clients.

"We love Amy. We sometimes have dreams of switching all the actors from 'The Wire' and 'Strangers With Candy,'" Robert and Michelle King, 'Good Wife' co-creators and executive producers, said in a statement to TVLine. "The next best thing is to have Amy playing Eli Gold's nemesis."

In other casting news ...

It's time to really say goodbye to 'How to Be a Gentleman.' CBS has pulled the fledgling comedy from its Saturday schedule after only one airing.

Originally airing on Thursdays after ratings hit 'The Big Bang Theory,' the freshman comedy was shuffled off to Saturdays and production was shut down. Now after one Saturday show, it looks like this is truly the end for 'How to Be a Gentleman.'

['The X Factor' - 'Season 1, Episode 9']

You've got to admire the tenacity of 'The X Factor' producers, attempting to milk two hours of TV from what basically amounts to a ten-minute announcement. I doubt that any self-respecting audience member actually appreciates these wasteful episodes (I can't recall if 'The Voice' devoted two hours to who the judges picked to advance to the voting rounds, but 'Idol' has been guilty of it for years) -- let's face it, they're the reality equivalent of a clip show and reduce most of us to teeth-gnashing, garment-rending frustration about fifteen minutes through.

All you really want to know is who the judges chose for their respective final fours, right?

In that case, I'll delay you no longer -- hit the jump and save yourselves two hours of boredom, or, if you were unfortunate enough to sit through last night's episode, hit the jump so that you can vent your frustrations about Simon Cowell's baffling life choices.

The CW is giving viewers quite a few chances to check out 'Ringer.'

Like NBC is doing with 'Prime Suspect,' CW is putting the new Sarah Michelle Gellar drama on multiple times next week. That's a whole lot of SMG.

On Tues., Oct. 25 The CW will air 'She's Ruining Everything' and 'If You Ever Want a French Lesson.' Then, on Mon., Oct. 31, 'A Whole New Kind of Bitch' and 'The Poor Kids Do It Everyday' will air.