"She was nude, her hair down; Tony's breath caught in his throat at the sight."

NCIS fan fiction is unexpectedly enthusiastic. NCIS is unexpectedly hot.

The military-minded police procedural, with the ardent, if not trendy, following, climbed to fifth place in the latest Nielsen Media Research rankings.

Who's excited?

"Wow. That was...Wow, Gibbs."

In its fifth season, the Mark Harmon-led CBS series is enjoying its biggest ever ratings. To date, the show is averaging 17.4 million viewers. That's up a large 15 percent over this time last fall.

With the exception of last season, which saw the series lose about 1 million viewers, NCIS has grown bigger every year since its 2003 debut as Navy NCIS. Perhaps even more impressive, it has survived going up against Tuesday's American Idol every January.

"Ow!" Brad cried out when he was propelled into the doorway.

This season's ratings burst follows a reputed behind-the-scenes power struggle between Harmon and series creator Donald P. Bellisario. Bellisario, whose considerable credits include Magnum P.I. and JAG, departed as showrunner last spring.

"He had put Gibbs in a safe position on the floor, but the older man was still unconscious."

Although one of TV's biggest hits, NCIS continues to lag behind the likes of Grey's Anatomy, House and even the much lower-rated Heroes on the buzz-factor scale because of its inability to command the 18-49-year-old audience.

Last week, NCIS was one of only two top 10 shows that failed to crack the top 25 among young adults. The other demographically challenged hit? The Andy Rooney-employing 60 Minutes.

"Julia smiled brightly and then got an impish look on her face..."

The latest NCIS airs Tuesday night. The NCIS Fan Fiction Archive updates regularly. The fire must be fed.

Here are other ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

• ABC's Dancing with the Stars averaged a season-high 21.8 million (first place) for Monday's competition. Tuesday's results show averaged a House-besting 17.6 million (fourth place) for Cameron Mathison's dismissal.
• ABC's Grey's Anatomy (third place, 19.6 million) was the highest rated show among 18-49-year-olds.
• After a slow start, CBS' Criminal Minds (seventh place, 15.7 million) has asserted itself over ABC's Private Practice (22nd place, 11.5 million). Together, both shows are running up the score on NBC's overmatched Bionic Woman (67th place, 6.3 million).
• If you're an optimist, the American Music Awards (20th place, 11.8 million) is on the rise—up 1 million viewers for ABC over last year. If you're a pessimist, the show is struggling, having notched its second-worst ratings ever.
• ABC must have found a box of finished scripts for Dirty Sexy Money (51st place, 7.9 million), the relatively low-rated soap that just scored a full-season pickup amidst the ongoing writers' strike.
• Good news on the strike front—i.e., next week's scheduled talks—could be bad news for ABC's Cavemen (88th place, 4.6 million), which continues to walk this Earth by default.
• American Idol isn't back yet, and it's already propping up Fox's ratings. Thursday's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (33rd place, 9.6 million), featuring former Idol Kellie Pickler, hit a season high note.
• The CW's Gossip Girl (107th place, 3 million) flirted with scoring its most viewers since September's premiere.
• In cable, the new season of Project Runway is auf to a fast start—2.9 million viewers, the Bravo reality show's biggest ever opener.
• An all-new Law & Order: Criminal Intent on USA (3.1 million) was buried under a mountain of SpongeBob SquarePants, a Law & Order: SVU rerun and an all-new Nip/Tuck on FX (3.6 million).
• Speaking of SpongeBob, the hit Nickelodeon animated series sopped up its biggest ever audience with its first TV-movie, SpongeBob SquarePants: Atlantis SquarePantis (8.8 million). Nothing was bigger on all of cable, save ESPN's Monday Night Football (9 million).
• The latest Democratic presidential debate, as aired on CNN, was big (4 million), but MTV's The Hills was totally bigger (4.2 million).
• In late night, the writers' strike has been an unlikely boon to Jimmy Kimmel Live. The ABC show notched its third-strongest week of the season (1.9 million viewers for the week of Nov. 5) for a batch of reruns.

Overall, the networks, save for Fox, had a terrible week. Everybody, save for Fox, was down double-digit percentage points from a year ago. Not that ABC was jealous of Fox's resiliency, but it noted that its rival's numbers "were inflated by a high-rated NFL overrun" on Sunday night.

However it got there, it got there—Fox was the week's highest rated network in the 18-49 demo. CBS was the most watched network, averaging 12 million viewers.

ABC (10.4 million) notched a pair of second-place finishes.

Fourth-place NBC (8.2 million) proudly noted that the median age of its viewers "has decreased by 1.8 years." It did not note that its overall number of viewers has decreased by 1.9 million.

Trying to make NBC not feel so bad, the CW (3 million) was down 27 percent from the comparable week last year.

In cable, the Disney Channel (2.9 million) was the most watched prime-time network, followed by USA (2.8 million) and ESPN (2.7 million).

Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 21.8 million viewers
2. CSI, CBS, 21.4 million
3. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 19.6 million
4. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17.6 million
5. NCIS, CBS, 17.4 million
6. House, Fox, 17 million
7. Criminal Minds, CBS, 15.7 million
8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 15.5 million
9. Survivor: China, CBS, 14.7 million
10. 60 Minutes, CBS, 14.6 million