In one of the most hotly contested nights of the season, CBS hit procedural “NCIS” enjoyed its best numbers since its season premiere, but it was ABC that won the night with its best overall ratings performance since the fall began.
ABC was driven by a two-hour finale of “Dancing with the Stars,” with an average of 19.2 million viewers tuning in to see the fleet feet of Donny Osmond win the grand prize.
With the previously struggling sci-fi series “V” finally stabilizing at 9.3 million viewers – roughly flat with last week – and new Christian Slater series “The Forgotten” pre-empted by “Dancing,” ABC won the night in terms of both total viewers and adults 18-49, according to Nielsen.
For its part, “NCIS” averaged 20.2 million viewers while scoring a 4.4 rating in the key adult demo.
