ABC won Tuesday night in terms of total viewers with new political drama Commander in Chief posting 16.2m viewers for its premiere.

The network's win largely rested on Commander, however. CBS won the 8pm slot with NCIS (14.6m), with ABC's According to Jim (7.9m) in second. Bones on Fox posted 7.6m viewers for the hour, beating The Biggest Loser on NBC by 200,000.

House on Fox came in second to Commander in the 9pm hour, averaging 13.1m viewers. NBC averaged 9.2m viewers during the 9pm hour; despite My Name Is Earl posting 11.1m viewers for the first half-hour, The Office managed a mediocre 7.2m for the second. CBS aired a bumper edition of The Amazing Race, averaging 10.7m viewers between 9pm and 11pm.

At 10pm, Law and Order: SVU on NBC was the clear leader, averaging 14.9m viewers. The new season of ABC's Boston Legal got off to a good start - the premiere, which guest-starred Heather Locklear and Rupert Everett, delivered 12.6m viewers.