Prime Time Preliminary Tuesday Ratings

Fox's "Fringe" rebounded greatly from last week's so-so start, increasing 63% in its ratings. "House" premiered at 8 p.m. for its fifth season, slipping 30% from last year's start at 9 p.m. Despite that, Fox took home the night with a 5.3/14 in the adults 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

	8	9	9:30	10
2.0 / 5	Wipeout 2.0 / 6 5.9 mil		Primetime: UFOs...Seeing is Believing 1.9 / 5 5.5 mil
2.0 / 6	NCIS 1.8 / 5 9.6 mil	Big Brother 2.7 / 7 7.6 mil		Without a Trace 1.6 / 4 6.3 mil
5.3 / 14	House 5.5 / 16 14.4 mil	Fringe 5.2 / 13 13.4 mil		No Programming
2.4 / 6	The Biggest Loser: Families 3.1 / 8 7.8 mil			Law & Order: SVU 2.0 / 6 5.7 mil
1.5 / 4	90210 1.7 / 5 3.3 mil	Privileged 1.1 / 3 2.4 mil		No Programming

Source: Nielsen Media Research

*Ratings are specified in the 18-to 49-year-old demographic and viewership in P2+.

A note about ratings: Ratings are expressed as percentages of Nielsen's estimated 112.8 million U.S. television households. The first number, the rating, is a percentage of households tuned into a specific program at a specific time.

The second number, the share, is a percentage of households with televisions in use tuned into that same program. For example, if a show obtains a 10.2/16, this means that 10.2% of all U.S. households tuned into the program at some point during the broadcast. Meanwhile, 16% of all households watching television during the time period viewed the program at some point. Ratings are broken down further by demographic, as networks sell advertising time based on the makeup of the audience.