Isabella Vosmikova/FOXThere was a fresh, pipin'-hot season premiere last night.
And it wasn't Glee's.
A rundown of Tuesday night's key TV ratings winners—and potential shark-jumpers:
ADORKABLE IS THE NEW BLACK
• New Girl (10.1 million viewers, per estimates): How impressive a launch? It was the night's No. 1 show among the demographically desirable even though its ranks had probably already seen the pilot on iTunes.
THE OLD BLACK?
• Glee (8.9 million viewers): So, maybe the concert movie's failure to launch wasn't a blip, after all? Compared to last fall's opener, the third-season premiere was down by more than 3.5 million viewers, and, worse, off by a ton among 18-to-49-year-olds who apparently were saving themselves for Fox's 9 p.m. show, also known as New Girl.
• Dancing With the Stars results show (14.5 million viewers): So, it's not like either this show or Glee got off to a terrible start; it's that both shows got off to shockingly smaller starts versus last fall. In DWTS' case, Metta World Peace's elimination was witnessed by 4 million fewer people than David Hasselhoff's in 2010. As with Glee, young adults flat-out fled. And, no, neither Ashton Kutcher nor Charlie Sheen weren't on TV last night.
STILL STYLISH
• NCIS (19.6 million viewers): In dog years, this show is nearly 70 years old, and, per last night's demo rating, hipper than Glee, DWTS, 90210 and everything else on Tuesday, save New Girl.
• NCIS: Los Angeles (16.7 million viewers): Like its sibling, it was big—and unbeatable.
ETC.:
• Unforgettable (14 million viewers): Debuting in The Good Wife's 10 p.m. time slot, this freshman crime drama was bigger than The Good Wife, as well as the competition, Parenthood (5.3 million viewers) and the second-season premiere of Body of Proof (9.6 million viewers).
• Raising Hope (6.9 million viewers): Not bad, but this sophomore comedy didn't exactly prove it could mesh with its New Girl lead-in, either.
• The Biggest Loser (6.1 million viewers): Down 1 million from last fall's opener.