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‘House’ Calls Tuesday Victory for Fox

Nov 29, 2006  •  Post A Comment

A Tuesday night without ABC’s powerhouse “Dancing With the Stars” left the ratings race wide open last night, allowing Fox to step up and claim a mid-week win.

“Dancing” had its finale last week, which took some of the pressure off competitors last night. At 9 p.m, Fox’s “House” drew its best rating since its premiere-a 6.8 among adults 18 to 49, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research figures. Its lead-in, “Standoff” (2.3), earned its highest rating yet at 8 p.m. but continues to underperform overall.

NBC was second for the night, starting with “Friday Night Lights” (2.4), then “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: SVU,” performances for all of which were about average.

Third-place ABC actually won the 8 p.m. hour with the 41-year-old special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (4.6). The good news stopped at 9 p.m. with the premiere of “Big Day” (2.8), which was ranked fourth in the hour, followed by the lowest-rated episode to date of “Help Me Help You” (1.8). “Boston Legal’s” (3.0) performance was average.

CBS’s procedural block included an above-par performance of “NCIS” (4.1) and “The Unit” (3.4), followed by “3 Lbs” (2.4), which continues to decline.

The CW had a stellar night. At 8 p.m., “Gilmore Girls” (2.2) hit a season high, followed by “Veronica Mars” (1.6) achieving its best performance ever across several key demos. “Mars” matched its season best among adults 18 to 49 and set a new record among adult 18 to 34.