'House' tops Tuesday; 'NCIS' hits season high

UPDATED: Despite Election Night pre-emptions last week, Tuesday marked another evening this week of most TV series matching or exceeding their most recent airings.

Fox won the night in the adult demo with "House," Tuesday's highest-rated show with 13.1 million viewers and 5.5 adult 18-49 rating. "House" was up a rung from its previous episode and "Fringe" (8.6 million, 3.8) was on par.

CBS and NBC tied for second, with CBS' "NCIS" (18.8 million, 4.0) leaping to its highest rating in more than a year and its largest total viewer audience ever. Freshman drama "The Mentalist" (16.5 million, 4.0) hit a season-high rating for the second episode in a row and topped "Fringe" for the first time to win the hour. But "Without a Trace" (12.2 million, 2.8) bucked the trend and slipped slightly.

NBC's two-hour "The Biggest Loser" (8.1 million, 3.5) was competitive and up 9%, with "Law & Order: SVU" (9.4 million, 3.6) steady and winning 10 p.m.

In fourth, ABC had a "Dancing With the Stars" recap episode followed by the results show (16.5 million, 3.6) and a slipping "Eli Stone" (7 million, 1.8).

The CW's "90210" (2.7 million, 1.4) and "Privileged" (1.9 million, 0.9) were unchanged in the demo, with the latter up slightly in women 18-34.