Without Britney Spears and Sarah Chalke to pump up the ratings, CBS’ comedy-on-life-support drew only a 3.4 Nielsen this week in an episode with no guest stars for How I Met Your Mother. Still, the show did build on the ratings lead-in from Big Bang Theory, which drew a 2.9.

While those numbers are on Orovo diets compared to what was considered great ratings 20 years ago, the improvment HIMYM is showing off its lead-in may be just enough to show that the show does not require guest stars every week, and that it has enough oomph to build in the ratings bar set by its lead-in.

A brief prayer wouldn’t hurt, but signs are good that HIMYM’s demise might have been diagnosed a bit prematurely. Like, say, by Dr. Elliot of a certain NBC comedy soon destined to appear on ABC, perhaps?