• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2007

One of media critics' favorite shows, the CW's "Veronica Mars" didn't make much of a splash on Tuesday to encourage a fourth season return next year.

"Mars" posted a 1.4 rating among the 18-34 demo, a key viewer group for advertisers, which was pretty even versus numbers of previous original episodes. Other viewer data showed that the program posted a 1.0 rating/3 share among 18-49 viewers, slightly off its seasonal average of a 1.1 rating.

Now the bad news: It was down versus last week's finale of the "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll," which posted a 2.1. Worse still, "Mars" could not keep the pace set by "Gilmore Girls." In the 18-49 race, "Girls" did a 1.8/5, while "Mars" earned a 1.0/3.

On the other end of the spectrum, Fox dominated the night with "American Idol," which recovered from its season low rating to a 10.2/29 this week. Its usual Tuesday night tag team partner, "House," also bullied the competition with an equally strong 8.8/22. All this gave Fox an easy first-place finish, with a 9.5 rating/25 share.

The next two big shows on the list were ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," with a 4.1/10 at 9 p.m., which came in second to "House," and NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which also scored a 4.1/11, winning the 10 p.m. time period.

In the race for a distant second place on the night, CBS, ABC and NBC were all grouped closely together, with CBS edging to victory with a 2.8/7 to ABC's 2.7/7 and NBC's 2.6/7. Next in line was Univision, fifth place at 1.7/5,; the CW, sixth at 1.4/4; and MyNetworkTV, seventh at a 0.4/1.