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Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Tues., Sept. 25) -- a CBS sweep in total viewers but fall-offs with 18-to-49-year-olds

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
CBS returned to the living in a big way Tuesday night -- at least in the total viewers universe.

All it took were the season premieres of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles followed by the launch of Vegas with Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis squaring off.

NCIS opened with 461,241 D-FW viewers, the biggest audience of the night. NCIS: Los Angeles had 406,168 viewers before Vegas held 100 percent of its lead-in with the identical audience at 9 p.m.

All three crime dramas were runaway winners in their time slots. NBC's 7 to 8 p.m. edition of The Voice offered the most resistance, with 316,673 viewers. ABC's two-hour Dancing with the Stars results show (Pamela Anderson is done) had 220,294 viewers before the 9 p.m. season of Private Practice fell to 178,989 in drawing less than half the audience for Vegas.

Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, though, The Voice, DWTS, ABC's The Practice and Fox's double-barreled Season 2 premiere of New Girl put some limps in CBS' victory march.

The Voice won the entire 7 to 8 p.m. hour in this key demographic with 162,659 viewers. Fox's 7 p.m. episode of New Girl ran second, with NCIS holding off DWTS for third place.

New Girl's second new episode, at 8 p.m., won its half-hour slot before the closing half-hour of DWTS ran first from 8:30 to 9 p.m. ABC's season premiere of Private Practice had the most 18-to-49-year-olds in the 9 p.m. hour, with Vegas second.

Fox's launches of freshman comedies Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project dug ratings valleys in both measurements.

Ben and Kate had 96,379 total viewers off a lead-in of 192,758 from New Girl.

The 8 p.m. episode of New Girl built back up to 151,452 viewers before Mindy Project dropped less dramatically to 123,916 viewers.

The newcomers had sharper fall-offs among 18-to-49-year-olds, particularly Ben & Kate. It had 57,409 viewers in this age range after New Girl pulled in 133,955.

NBC's first-year The New Normal continued to slump. Its 8:30 p.m. episode ran fourth across the board among the Big Four broadcast networks.

The Texas Rangers' 3-2 loss to the Oakland A's, with reliever Mark Lowe serving up another extra-inning home run ball, averaged a nice-sized 289,136 total viewers on Fox Sports Southwest. Its 10 to 10:30 p.m. portion had 330,442 viewers in denting the audiences for late night local newscasts.

NBC5 had an unusually miserable night at 10 p.m., drawing a scant 20,653 viewers for its late night edition. CBS11 topped that field with 240,947 viewers, profiting from a bounteous Vegas lead-in to inch past runner-up WFAA8 (227,179 viewers).

But WFAA8 easily won at 10 p.m. among 25-to-54-year-olds, the main advertiser target audience for news programming.

In the other local news derby results, Fox4 and NBC5 shared the total viewers lead at 6 a.m., with WFAA8 close behind. Fox4 won outright with 25-to-54-year-olds, though.

The 6 p.m. golds went to WFAA8 in total viewers and Fox4 in the 25-to-54 demographic. At 5 p.m. the Peacock and CBS11 tied for the total viewers lead, with NBC5 alone on top with 25-to-54-year-olds.