Nellie Andreeva

Gleemania continues as the Fox music dramedy returned strong for Season 2. But no Tuesday series really impressed. Fox’s new comedy Raising Hope (3.1/8 in adults 18-49, 7.5 million) did the best, followed by fellow Fox half-hour Running Wilde (2.5/7, 5.9 million) and ABC’s cop drama Detroit 1-8-7 (2.4/7, 9.8 million). Here is a rundown network by network.

Thank gawd for Glee. After the disastrous premiere of Lone Star on Monday, the network got some much needed good news this morning as Glee drew a 5.5/16 among 18-49 and 12.3 million viewers overall in its return for Season 2. That was up 57% from last year’s fall premiere before the official start of the season. It is the series’ 2nd-highest episode ever, off .1 from the spring debut. Glee was by far the highest-rated program of the night in the 18-49 demo. But for Fox, which has been looking to successfully launch a live-action comedy series, the news was not as good at 9 PM with the premiere of its 2 new comedies.

Greg Garcia’s Raising Hope opened with a 3.1/8 at 9 PM. That was the highest-rated premiere for a live-action comedy on Fox since Back to You in the fall of 2007, but it doesn’t mean much as the network has only premiered 2 live-action comedies since: Brothers, which ran on the low-rated Friday night, and Sons of Tucson, which fizzled this past midseason. Raising Hope was able to hold on to just a little over 50% of the 18-49 viewers who watched the second half-hour of Glee. The Will Arnett/Mitch Hurwitz comedy Running Wilde (2.5/7) slipped even further at 9:30 PM. Still, on the strength of Glee, Fox won the second night of the season in 18-49 after finishing fourth on Monday.

Glee seriously impacted the incumbents in the 8 PM time hour. The 10th cycle of The Biggest Loser opened with a 2.9/8 in 18-49 and 7.2 million viewers overall for the 2-hour premiere. That was down 24% from the reality series’ debut last fall, which was a week earlier, and the franchise’s lowest season premiere ever. Versus the same week last season, it was down 6%. Loser, which faced Glee in its first hour, did show an impressive hour-to-hour gain though – 46%.  At 10 PM, Parenthood (2.4/7) was down 11% from last week’s season premiere.

Like The Biggest Loser, veteran NCIS (3.9/11) also was hurt by Glee, down 19% from last season’s premiere. The two back-to-back episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles averaged 3.4/9 and 3.0/8, down from the 4.4 rating the show’s one-hour series premiere drew last fall. Both series were up from their May finales and combined forces to deliver a nightly win for CBS in total viewers (16.1 million)

The network split its 2-hour Dancing with the Stars results show into two one-hours. The first hour averaged a 2.6/7, while the second, which featured the elimination of David Hasselhoff, won the 9 PM hour with a 4.3/11. The combined two-hour average was a 3.4/9, down 3% from Dancing‘s second night premiere last fall. At 10 PM, ABC premiered its first new show this season, cop drama Detroit 1-8-7, which had recently emerged as one of the network’s stronger bets. Well, it had a so-so debut with a 2.4/7, good for second place in the hour (tied with Parenthood) and down 8% from the premiere of long-forgotten new ABC drama The Forgotten, which debuted in the slot a year ago.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.