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The force is strong with "Clone Wars." The preem of Cartoon Network's new "Star Wars" skein pulled in 3.96 million total viewers on Friday night, with bumps of 160% and 133%, respectively, in the key demos of boys 6-11 and boys 9-14.

Rating is one of the best in Cartoon's history (first place goes to "Ben 10: Race Against Time") and by far the best for an ongoing series premiere.

"Clone Wars" is Cartoon's highest-profile peg for its new Friday evening lineup of boy-centric action-adventure programs. Skein preemed with two half-hour episodes at 9 p.m. after new segs of "The Secret Saturdays" (which, as a lead-in, also saw a bump).

Show comes just weeks after the Aug. 15 bow of the "Clone Wars" movie, which used many of the same voice actors and was directed by the TV show's supervising director, Dave Filoni.