• by Wayne Friedman , October 22, 2008

Fox's tag team of "House" and "Fringe" again crushed their network competitors on Tuesday night. "House" had a Nielsen preliminary 5.6 rating/15 share among 18-49 viewers and rookie drama "Fringe" added in a 4.0/10, making them the top two shows of the night.

This gave Fox a 4.8/13 for Tuesday, way ahead of second-place CBS, which posted a 3.2/9.

"House" was up from a 5.3/15 the week before, while "Fringe" remained at the same 4.0/10 level. Fox's two shows also posted the best numbers among younger viewers, with "House" at a 5.5/17 among 18-34 viewers and "Fringe" earning a 3.6/10.

CBS was virtually the same versus a week ago, with a 3.2/9 versus a 3.3/9. Its new show "The Mentalist" stayed solid, moving up a bit to a 3.5/9 from a 3.4/9.

NBC came in third for the night with a 3.1/8--down slightly from the week before, when it was at a 3.3/9. "Bigger Loser: Families" earned a 2.9/8, and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" was at a 3.5/10.

ABC added another "Dancing with the Stars" show--a recap edition at 8 p.m--to fill in for the canceled "Opportunity Knocks." It did better--with a 2.1/6 versus the "Knocks" 1.3/4 rating of the week before. At 9 p.m., "Stars" improved to a 3.8/9 from a 3.3/8 last week. But its second-year 10 p.m. drama "Eli Stone" stayed at its low-ish 2.2/6, the same numbers as its previous outing. Week to week, ABC was up to a 2.7/7 from a 2.3/6.

CW had an off night--a rerun of "90201" at a 0.6/2 and an original episode of a "Privileged," which didn't do much better at a 0.7/2. Earlier in the week, CW gave the go-ahead for more "Privileged" scripts.