The WB’s debuting comedic drama “Pepper Dennis” underperformed in its Tuesday night premiere, dropping in the ratings from its lead-in and the time period average.

“Pepper” scored a 1.0 in the adults 18 to 49 demographic, a number that includes live-plus-same-day viewing, according to Nielsen Media Research. That was down 47 percent from its “Gilmore Girls” lead-in (1.9) and 41 percent off the average of the previous time period holder, “Supernatural” (1.7).

In women 18 to 34, “Pepper’s” 1.6 rating dropped by half from “Gilmore’s” performance and was down 24 percent from “Supernatural’s” season-to-date average in the time period.

In its second week NBC’s “Teachers” scored a 2.5 in the demo at 9:30 p.m. (ET), down 24 percent from its debut last week and down 14 percent from its “Scrubs” lead-in (2.9).

ABC’s back-to-back airings of two “Sons & Daughters” episodes during the 9 p.m. block (1.2) gave the network its lowest ratings in the time period for the season.

CBS’s new military drama “The Unit” scored a 4.3 at 9 p.m., helping the network win second place for the night behind Fox, which scored big at 8 p.m. with “American Idol” (11.6) and at 9 p.m. with “House” (9.3).

NBC won the 10 p.m. hour with “Law & Order” (5.4), easily eclipsing CBS’s “CSI: Miami” (3.2) and ABC’s “Boston Legal” (1.8).