Michael Weatherly, Mark Harmon and Cote de Pablo in NCIS by Cliff Lipson/CBS

Tuesday's tallies, in short:

8 pm/ET
After nipping at DWTS' heels last week, NCIS this time around emerged as Tuesday's most-watched program, delivering 17.24 million total viewers. House (12.6 mil) topped the night in demos, and added 460K to its previous tally. Behind Biggest Loser (7.2 mil), Opportunity Knocks (six mil) found 800,000 fewer people to be home. 90210 (3.2 mil) bounced back from last week's dip.

9 pm
Dancing with the Stars (15.14 mil) dropped 17 percent week-to-week, and even trailed The Mentalist (15.27 mil) in viewers. At 10 mil, Fringe was up 390 thou, while Privileged (1.88 mil) inched up juuuust a hair.

10 pm
Without a Trace surged 11 percent to top the hour with 12.65 mil, though SVU (10.22 mil, up 720K) was No. 1 in demos. ABC's Half Their Size special (5.36 mil) ostensibly would have beaten a test pattern.