• by Wayne Friedman , December 7, 2006

TV viewers--especially men--are seemingly less interested in women in lingerie, according to the most recent "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" on CBS, where the ratings are down about 30% to a 2.7 Nielsen preliminary rating versus a year ago.

The show ended a distant third at 10 p.m., up against an NBC "Law & Order: SVU" re-run, which won the time period. "Secret" was probably hurt by the absence of big-name models like Tyra Banks, who was on the show last year. The highest rating of the evening was another rerun, a 4.7 score from Fox's "House."

In the show's favor: "Victoria's Secret" targets young women 18-34, and those numbers remain stable. The program has lost just about half of its total viewers since its 2001 debut year, when it ran on ABC. Back then, it had 12.4 million viewers. On Tuesday night, it drew just 6.8 million viewers.

For the night, which was scheduled with a number of reruns, Fox won the battle for viewers 18-49 with a 3.5 average rating and a 9 share. ABC was second at 3.0/8, NBC third at 2.7/7, CBS fourth at 2.5/7 and Univision and the CW tied for fifth at 1.5/4.

ABC's second-place finish didn't get much support from its comedies, which were airing new episodes. "Big Day" took in a 2.3/6 at 9 p.m. and "Help Me Help You" dipped again below the 2 rating line, with a 1.8/5 among 18-49 viewers at 9:30 p.m. ABC did better earlier in the evening, with a special "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," which earned a 3.9/11 among 18-49 viewers.

CBS could be thankful that its procedural crime dramas continue to do well in repeats--as well as against other networks' originals. For example, at 8 p.m., a CBS repeat "NCIS" put up a respectable 2.5/7 in 18-49. Those were exactly the same numbers that an NBC original of "Friday Night Lights" earned. "NCIS" also won the hour in total viewers; "Friday" was the highest among men 18-34.