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‘American Idol’ dominates, but is down; ‘Glee’ loses more than half of ‘Idol’ audience; CBS and ‘Dancing With the Stars’ finale solid

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Big night of TV on Tuesday. Here’s your ratings quick fix:

The Adam Lambert-Kris Allen final performance episode of ‘American Idol’ delivered 23 million overall viewers and a night-leading 18-49 rating (8.3/24). Tally is down slightly from last year’s 27 million for the penultimate episode.

On ABC, the two-hour finale of ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ which saw Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson take the crown, averaged 20 million overall, building 15% in its second half (peaking at 21.6 in the 10 p.m. hour). That’s on par with the audience who watched last season’s November ender (20.6 million).

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Up against ‘Dancing’ at 9, the premiere of Fox’s ‘Glee’ hung on to a little less than half of its ‘Idol’ lead-in, averaging 10.7 million total (4.3/11 in 18-49). Less encouraging: The show experienced a 28% fall-off in its second half-hour.

A rep for Fox said the network is happy with the numbers; Fox considers Tuesday’s ‘Glee’ airing ‘a sneak preview’ of the show’s official fall launch.

News was better for CBS’ season finales of ‘NCIS,’ which scored 16.1 million (3.3/10) against ‘Idol’ at 8, and ‘The Mentalist,’ with 16.8 million (3.7/10) against ‘Dancing’ at 9.

The season finale of The CW’s ‘90210’ drew 2.1 million (1.1/3) at 9.

Fox won the night in total viewers and adults 18-49.

-- Denise Martin

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