Ratings: 'NCIS' hits series high
Nov 12, 2008, 03:46 PM | by Mandi Bierly
Categories: Ratings, TV Biz, TV Ratings
After most Tuesday night shows had a week off thanks to that little thing called the presidential election, some returned to the air with a vengeance. And by that, we mean CBS' NCIS, which not only dominated the 8 p.m. hour -- and the entire night -- with an average 18.8 million viewers, but also scored its highest ratings ever, according to overnight data. That 18.8 million, achieved in the show's sixth season, is up 1.5 million from its last original episode. Equally impressive was last night's growth from 18.1 million to 19.5 million in its second half hour. Presumably, more and more people realized that it was just a Dancing With the Stars recap (10.4 million) on ABC at the time.
When the DWTS results show officially kicked off at 9 p.m., 16.4 million were watching The Alphabet. We'll have to wait for final numbers to see whether that was enough to win the hour. Preliminary data says CBS' burgeoning powerhouse The Mentalist averaged 16.5 million viewers, which would be the freshman drama's highest ratings to date.
Not up for debate, however, is CBS' top spot in the 10 p.m. hour. Without a Trace nabbed 12.2 million fans, while NBC's Law & Order: SVU only captured 9.4 million. (That's up from its two-hour Biggest Loser: Families lead in, which averaged 8 million.) As for ABC's Eli Stone, its 7.4 million average was up roughly 500,000 viewers from its last original episode, but the series continued its trend of bleeding viewers over the course of the 60 minutes. More than two million viewers changed the channel last night.
As for Fox, House finished second in the 8 p.m. hour with 12.9 million viewers, down from 13.5 million in its last airing. Fringe retained only 69 percent of that crowd at 9 p.m., with 8.9 million viewers (which matched what it'd earned with its last original episode).
The CW, which did offer new episodes on Nov. 4, saw the numbers for 90210 dip slightly with the competition's return. Its 2.7 million was down 7 percent week-to-week. Privileged's 1.9 million, however, was a steady hold.
More TV News:
Dancing With the Stars recap
House recap
The Mentalist: Two more reasons to love it!
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