Tuesday, October 16, 2012 ratings — The second Presidential debate ate up most of the primetime schedule but there were still original episodes of The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, Raising Hope, Ben and Kate, and Hart of Dixie — as well as the premiere of Emily Owens, MD. CBS ran a repeat of NCIS: Los Angeles.

On NBC, The Voice wasn’t the most watched program of the night for a change. The reality competition drew a 4.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 12.1 million viewers. It was up by 2% over last week’s episode and helped lead NBC to have the best ratings for the presidential debate with a 4.7 rating and 12.2 million viewers.

On ABC, Dancing with the Stars drew a 2.1 rating (-5% week-to-week) with 12.7 million. How much lower will the demo fall? For debate coverage, ABC garnered a 2.8 rating with nearly 11 million viewers.

On FOX, Raising Hope brought in a 1.7 demo rating (-6% week-to-week) with 4.3 million. It was followed by Ben and Kate with a 1.2 rating and 2.9 million. FOX’s debate coverage drew a 1.7 rating with 4.2 million.

On CBS, a rerun of NCIS: Los Angeles attracted a 1.4 demo rating with 8.2 million viewers. Their debate coverage drew a 2.2 in the demo with 8.3 million.

And on The CW, Hart of Dixie attracted a 0.6 rating (+20%) with 1.32 million. The series debut of Emily Owens, MD only drew a 0.5 rating with 1.7 million. Compared to last season’s debut of America’s Next Top Model in the same timeslot, the network was down by 44% in the demo (vs a 0.9 rating) and down by 14% in viewership (vs 1.96 million). It was not a good start.

What do you think? Did you watch the Emily Owens, MD debut or the debate? If you saw the debate, which channel did you watch? Any particular reason?