Fox's 'Fringe' Outpaces Rivals, 'NCIS' Sturdy

FOX's FringeFox keeps cruising through the big May sweeps period -- by blowing away the competition. Its Tuesday night tandem of "American Idol" and "Fringe" put up nearly identical numbers to a week ago.

Fox landed with a Nielsen preliminary 6.1 rating/16 share among 18-49 viewers for the night, almost two and a half points better than second-place NBC at a 3.8/10.

Week to week, CBS had the biggest gain -- rising to a 3.2/8 from a 2.4/6 -- all this coming from fresh episodes of its sturdy drama "NCIS," "The Mentalist" and "Without a Trace."

Nearly at its season-ending conclusion, "Idol" posted a 7.8/22 -- virtually identical to the week before, easily keeping its top-rating status for all Tuesday shows. "Fringe" earned a 4.3/11, up a bit from a week ago, and won the 9 p.m. hour.

NBC also made gains week-to-week, rising to a 3.8/10 from a 3.4/9. Its "Biggest Loser: Couples" slipped a bit, but the network made gains with a new episode of "Law & Order SVU," which earned a 3.9/10 and won the 10 p.m. time period.

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ABC was on par with the week before: a 2.0/5. "Dancing with the Stars: Results" was still no match for "Fringe" or "Bigger Loser," coming in at third place with a 3.2/8. The net's new midseason drama, "Cupid," is still hovering below the 2 rating mark at 1.7/5, although somewhat better than ABC's other drama "The Unusuals," which a week ago took in a 1.5/5 in the time period.

Univision was also at the same level a week ago: a 1.7/4. Its best showing came from its new show "Mañana Es Para Siempre," which earned a 2.0/5 at the 9 p.m. time period.

CW moved down two-tenths of rating point among 18-49 viewers and among 18-34 viewers to a 0.8/2 and a 1.0/3, respectively, for the night. Both "Reaper" and "90210" were noticeably down versus the week before.

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