• by Wayne Friedman , September 14, 2006

Picking up on the right foot, ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" debuted to strong numbers, and danced all over some topline network shows. "Star" grabbed a healthy 5.7 rating among adult 18-49 viewers--which is 21 percent higher than last year's seasonal debut.

The "Stars" performance did a little cha-cha-cha on Fox's "House," which sank to a 5.8 rating in its second week--down 18 percent from its first week's big 7.1 rating. "Dancing with the Stars" also outstepped the season finale of CBS' "Big Brother 7: All-Stars," which caved to a 3.1 rating.

"Dancing"'s numbers were in fact "Stars'" third-biggest 18-49 and total audience numbers ever. Unfortunately, this did nothing for the fortunes of new ABC's drama, "Men In Trees," starring Anne Heche, which followed the show at 10 p.m. It posted a decent 3.7 in 18-49 viewers, but couldn't maintain much of "Dancing"'s numbers. Worse still, the show's ratings sank in the second hour from the first--a sign that viewers started watching and then left--from a 4.1 to a 3.3.

CBS perked up a bit with "Rock Star: Supernova," which grew to a 3.5 rating from a 2.9 the week before. Not such good news for Fox's new "Standoff"--which pulled a 3.4, down 24 percent from a 4.5 the week before.

ABC won the night overall in viewers 18-49 with a 5.0 rating/14 share. Fox was next at a 4.6/12. Then came CBS at 2.8/8, followed by NBC at 2.2/6, Univision at 1.9/5, and the WB sixth, at 0.6/2.