Ratings Chart Attack!

The folks over at Nielsen have put down their copies of “Grand Theft Auto IV” long enough to release Tuesday’s preliminary numbers.

“American Idol” tentatively fell again from last week to an 8.7 rating/24 share in the 18- to 49-year-old demo, off 3%. “Idol,” being live, will see some change once final numbers are released by Nielsen. “Hell’s Kitchen” increased 12% to a 5.5/14. Fox finished first for the night with a 7.1/19.

ABC and CBS tied for second with a 2.4/6. ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars Results Show” (4.0/10) fell 7%. “Women’s Murder Club” (1.9/5), which moved into its new home at 10 p.m., was off the mark by 21% from “Boston Legal’s” season-to-date average in that slot.

“According to Jim” (1.2/3, 1.4/4) was right around average.

CBS’ “NCIS” (3.0/8) stayed flat, while “Shark” (2.2/5) swam into the space vacated by “Big Brother,” down a tick from the time-period average. A special “CSI” filled in “Shark’s” usual slot at 10 p.m.

NBC (2.1/6) felt clip-tastic as “Most Outrageous Moments” (1.2/3) and an “SNL” prime-time special frontloaded the schedule. A new “Law & Order: SVU” (4.1/11) perked up slightly from last week.

The CW (0.9/2) ran “Beauty and the Geek” (0.8/2), which was on par, and “Reaper” (1.1/3), up slightly from last week.

A fun fact on “Reaper”: The show obtains the largest gain in ratings from Live+Same Day numbers (which is used in this blog) and Live+7 data (which factors in DVR views). “Reaper” tends to move the needle about 25% between the two stats, from a 1.2 to a 1.5.