On a night when the college bowl action on Fox wasn't especially enticing to viewers, NBC scored a primetime victory among young adults behind two editions of "Law & Order."
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, original episodes of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (4.1 rating/10 share in adults 18-49, 13.4 million viewers overall) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (5.2/14 in 18-49, 15.1 million viewers overall) led in key ratings categories from 9 to 11. "CI" nabbed its best average since early October, taking advantage of Fox benching "House" for football. Also for the Peacock, a firstrun "Dateline" (2.9/8 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall) was competitive in its new slot, as the net won a Tuesday in key demos for just the second time this season.
At Fox, the Orange Bowl matchup between Louisville and Wake Forest averaged a 3.6/9 in adults 18-49 and 10.1 million viewers overall on the net's affils from 8:30 to 11. Numbers could be revised in nationals, but this will easily be the lowest-rated of the four primetime Bowl Championship Series contests on Fox this month.
CBS was paced by a repeat of "NCIS" at 8 (3.0/8 in 18-49, 13.0 million viewers overall), which led its hour in adults 25-54 and total viewers. And leading the way for ABC was a repeat of "America's Funniest Home Videos" at 8 (2.5/7 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall).
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 4.1/10; Fox, 3.4/9; CBS, 2.5/6; ABC, 2.0/5; Univision, 1.6/4; CW, 0.8/2.
In total viewers: NBC, 12.7 million; Fox, 9.7 million; CBS, 9.6 million; ABC, 6.0 million; Univision, 3.9 million; CW, 1.8 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com