'Idol,' 'House' take Tuesday

Dynamic duo lead Fox to ratings victory

By RICK KISSELL

The unstoppable combo of "American Idol" and "House" carried Fox to an easy ratings victory on Tuesday night, although "Idol" again came in about 10% below last year's ratings levels. NBC, meanwhile, held tough with "Biggest Loser" and "Law & Order: SVU."

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "American Idol" dominated the night's opening hour with an 11.7 rating/29 share in adults 18-49 and 29.1 million viewers overall. It beat its combined ABC-CBS-NBC competition by 13 shares in the demo despite coming in a bit more than 10% below its scores on the same night a year ago. Fox remained on top at 9 o'clock with a repeat of "House" (5.1/12 in 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall).

Over at NBC, a two-hour episode of "Biggest Loser" (3.7/9 in 18-49, 8.9 million viewers overall) was up vs. last week, when it aired opposite the two-hour "Idol" premiere, and ran second to Fox in both hours. From 8 to 9, its 2.9 rating among 18-49ers reps the best for NBC in the hour opposite "Idol" in nearly two years. The Peacock then stormed to the lead at 10 p.m. with a new episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (4.6/12 in 18-49, 13.0 million viewers overall).

CBS didn't do much on the night, delivering about the same demo score each hour with repeats of "NCIS" (2.1/5 in 18-49, 12.2 million viewers overall) and "The Unit" (1.9/5 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall) and a new edition of newsmag "48 Hours Mystery" (2.0/5 in 18-49, 6.9 million viewers overall).

ABC struggled too with its lineup of "Just For Laughs" (1.4/4 in 18-49, 4.8 million viewers overall), 9 o'clock hour comedies "According to Jim" (2.2/5 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) and "Carpoolers" (1.7/4 in 18-49, 4.9 million viewers overall) and 10 o'clock drama "Boston Legal" (2.2/6 in 18-49, 8.2 million viewers overall).

CW did nothing at 8 o'clock opposite "Idol" with a repeat of "Reaper" (0.6/1 in 18-49, 1.5 million viewers overall) but shot up at 9 o'clock with "One Tree Hill" (1.3/3 in 18-49, 3.1 million viewers overall), which ranked third for its hour among persons 12-34 (1.9/5) and females 12-34 (2.6/7).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 8.4/20; NBC, 4.0/10; CBS, 2.0/5; ABC, 1.8/5; Univision, 1.8/4; CW, 1.0/2.

In total viewers: Fox, 21.5 million; NBC, 10.3 million; CBS, 9.0 million; ABC, 6.2 million; Univision, 4.1 million; CW, 2.3 million.