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The Fox combo of "American Idol" and "House" proved way too much for its rivals on Tuesday, as the net crushed the competish from 8 to 10, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen. NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" won the evening's final hour.

From 8 to 9, "American Idol" (11.4 rating/29 share in adults 18-49, 28.1 million viewers overall) beat the other five broadcast nets combined in adults 18-49, and was up vs. its perf on the parallel night of a year ago. First-year medical show "House" followed at 9 with the best drama delivery for a Fox drama this season (6.4/16 in adults 18-49, 15.5 million viewers overall), beating ABC's second-place comedies by 6 shares in adults 18-49.

NBC again was a weak fifth at 8 with "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (1.8/5 in adults 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall), but "Scrubs" overcame its ill-matched lead-in to move up to third in demos at 9 o'clock (3.4/8 in adults 18-49, 7.7 million viewers overall). Net then took a step back at 9:30 with comedy "Committed" (2.7/7 in adults 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) but rallied at 10 as usual with "Law & Order: SVU" (5.5/15 in adults 18-49, 14.1 million viewers overall).

Program ratings are murky for ABC's laffers, as "My Wife and Kids," "George Lopez" and "According to Jim" each aired 40-minute segs. From 8 to 9, "Wife" and "George" combined for a 2.6/7 in adults 18-49 and 7 million viewers overall, and the combo of "George" and "Jim" averaged a second-place 4.2/10 in adults 18-49 and 10.3 million viewers overall from 9 to 10. Ratings picked up a bit for "NYPD Blue" (second-place 3.6/10 in adults 18-49, 10.6 million viewers overall), one week from its series finale.

CBS was paced by "NCIS" at 8 (3.1/8 in adults 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall) but didn't do much at 9 with its "One Day at a Time Reunion" spec (2.9/7 in adults 18-49, 9.9 million viewers overall).

Preliminary adults 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 8.9/22; ABC, 3.5/9; NBC, 3.5/9; CBS, 3.0/8; WB, 2.1/5; UPN, 1.0/2.

In total viewers: Fox, 21.8 million; CBS, 11.5 million; ABC, 9.3 million; NBC, 9 million; WB, 4.8 million; UPN, 2.3 million.