Tuesday ratings: 'Mentalist,' 'Fringe,' 'Eli' steady

Freshman shows held steady Tuesday night as Fox's "Fringe" and CBS' "The Mentalist" maintained their course and heading, as did the second week of ABC's "Eli Stone."

Fox continued to win the night, with "House" up a couple notches this week to post its best rating since its premiere (12.9 million viewers, 5.5 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and a 15 share, according to Nielsen) and "Fringe" unchanged (9.1 million, 4.0/10), both topping their respective hours.

CBS placed second as "NCIS" slipped 8% (17.1 million, 3.6/10) from last week's season high, yet "The Mentalist" was flat (15.3 million, 3.4/9) and "Without a Trace" climbed a rung (11.6 million, 2.6/7).

In third, NBC declined a couple tenths across the board, with a two-hour "Biggest Loser: Families" (7.3 million, 2.9/10) followed by 10 p.m.-winner "Law & Order: SVU" (9.4 million, 3.5/10).

Fourth-place ABC replaced "Opportunity Knocks" with a "Dancing with the Stars" performance recap show (9.3 million, 2.0/6) that performed stronger at 8 p.m. The actual "Dancing" results show (16 million, 3.8/9) was also up 15% from last week, though "Stone" continued to rank last at 10 p.m. (8.5 million, 2.2/6).

Without "90210" a repeat this week, The CW's "Privileged" fell 36% (1.5 million, 0.7/2) from its last original airing, an episode that went up against the presidential debates and had the time period to itself.

Hey look, a chart!

TUESDAY Oct. 21, 2008 Rate/share 8-8:30 8:30-9 9-9:30 9:30-10 10-10:30 10:30-11 2.7/7 Dancing With the Stars (recap) 9.3 mil, 2.0/6 Dancing with the Stars: Results 16 mil, 3.8/9 Eli Stone 8.5 mil, 2.2/6 3.2/9 NCIS 17.1 mil, 3.6/10 The Mentalist 15.3 mil, 3.4/9 Without a Trace 11.6 mil, 2.6/7 3.1/8 The Biggest Loser 7.3 mil, 4.6/7 Law & Order: SVU 9.4 mil, 3.5/11 4.7/13 House 12.9 mil, 5.5/15 Fringe 9.1 mil, 4.0/10 No programming 0.7/2 90210 - R 1.3 mil, 0.6/2 Privileged 1.5 mil, 1.1/2 No programming