'Loser' a ratings winner for NBC

'NCIS' repeat, 'Great Pumpkin' also score

By RICK KISSELL

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" continues to impress, racking up the top demo score on Tuesday and lifting the network to victory among young adults. A repeat of CBS' "NCIS" was the No. 2 program in demos while drawing the night's most viewers overall.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "The Biggest Loser" averaged a 3.7 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 9.7 million viewers overall, winning its 8-10 p.m. time period in the demo and rising about 15% above its score on the same night a year ago. "Loser" led into "The Jay Leno Show" (1.8/5 in 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall), which was on par with last week to tie for second among the broadcasters at 10 o'clock.

ABC was well above average kicking off the night with the Halloween special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (2.7/7 in 18-49, 8.9 million viewers overall), coming in below its performances in recent years and ranking third in 18-49. It was followed by the "Dancing With the Stars" results show (2.9/7 in 18-49, 14.7 million viewers overall), which was down week to week to rank second in 18-49 and first in total viewers, and "The Forgotten" (2.0/5 in 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall), which was up a tick vs. the previous week.

CBS opened nicely with a repeat of "NCIS" (3.2/9 in 18-49, 16.1 million viewers overall), but the net didn't score as well with the first encores of rookie dramas "NCIS: Los Angeles" (2.2/5 in 18-49, 11.1 million viewers overall) and "The Good Wife" (1.8/5 in 18-49, 9.3 million viewers overall).

Fox's two-hour installment of "So You Think You Can Dance" (2.5/6 in 18-49, 6.5 million viewers overall) ran fourth in 18-49 but ran second in adults 18-34 (2.6/7).

CW aired repeats of "90210" (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.4 million viewers overall) and "Melrose Place" (0.4/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 3.1/8; ABC, 2.6/7; Fox, 2.5/6; CBS, 2.4/6; Univision, 1.5/4; CW, 0.5/1.

In total viewers: CBS, 12.1 million; ABC, 10.7 million; NBC, 8.4 million; Fox, 6.5 million; Univision, 3.8 million; CW, 1.1 million.