ABC won Tuesday night in adults 18 to 49 with a special two-hour edition of reality series “Dancing With the Stars,” but Fox’s medical drama “House” walked away as the most-watched program for the night in the demographic.

At 8 p.m. (ET) an original episode of “House” scored a 5.8 preliminary national rating in adults 18 to 49, a number that includes live viewing plus same-day viewing via digital video recorders, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That outpaced the No. 2 show for the night, “Dancing,” which scored a 5.2 rating in adults 18 to 49. Head to head, “House” was the winner, outpacing “Dancing’s” 8 p.m. average of 4.4. The season premiere of CBS’s procedural drama “NCIS” and NBC’s game show “Deal or No Deal” tied for third place in the time period with a 3.3. A repeat of “Gilmore Girls” on The CW scored a 0.8.

At 9 p.m. the second half of “Dancing” (6.0) was the clear winner, with the season premiere of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” No. 2 in the time period with a 4.0.

“CI” was down 26 percent from the September 2005 time period premiere of “My Name Is Earl” and “The Office” (average 5.4), but was up 29 percent from its own Sunday night premiere last season (3.1). On CBS, the second-season premiere of military drama “The Unit” scored a 3.5, down 20 percent from the premiere of “Amazing Race” last season and down 31 percent from its own series debut in March (5.1). Fox’s hostage drama “Standoff” was fourth in the time period with a 3.3, followed by the special “ET Presents The CW Launch Party” with a 0.4.

At 10 p.m., NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” premiered with a 5.1, down 7 percent from its own season premiere last season but still high enough to eclipse the competition.

ABC’s season premiere of legal drama “Boston Legal” and CBS’s series debut of crime drama “Smith” tied for second place, both with a 3.5. “Legal” was up 3 percent from its season opener last year, while “Smith” was up 6 percent from the October 2005 series debut of “Close to Home” in the time period.

ABC won the night with a 4.6 in adults 18 to 49, followed by Fox (4.5), NBC (4.1), CBS (3.4) and The CW (0.6).