Tuesday, October 3, 2012 ratings — Two shows returned last night — Hart of Dixie and Raising Hope — while the rest of the schedule was filled with original episodes of Dancing with the Stars, Private Practice, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Vegas, The Next, Ben and Kate, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Go On, The New Normal, and Parenthood.

On CBS, powerhouse NCIS drew a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 18.5 million viewers, down by 12% in the demo. That was followed by NCIS: Los Angeles which registered a 3.1 in the demo (down 9% week-to-week) and 14.9 million.

At 10pm, it was the second installment of Vegas. That drew a 2.1 in the demo with 12.1 million viewers. This series dropped by 16% in the demo which isn’t unexpected for a second week but puts the show in unhealthy territory ratings-wise.

On NBC, a clip-show version of The Voice brought much lower ratings and clearly hurt the rest of the night’s programming. How would sitcoms Go On and The New Normal do without the great lead-in?

The Voice drew a 2.9 demo rating with 8.22 million viewers. It was followed by Go On at 9pm with a 2.2 rating (down 19%) and 5.99 million. The New Normal dropped to a 1.7 in the demo (-15% change) with 4.61 million.

Parenthood finished the night on NBC with a 1.7 rating and 4.48 million viewers. That was a decline of 6% in the demo and the lowest rating since February 2012.

On ABC, we had a Dancing with the Stars recap (1.3 in the demo with 8.21 million) and the results show (2.1 rating with 11.8 million). The latter did about the same as last week’s

At 10pm, it was the latest installment of Private Practice. The second episode of the season dropped by 16% in the demo to a 1.6 rating and 6.12 million.

On FOX, it was four hours of sitcoms. The return of Raising Hope drew a 1.7 demo rating with 3.89 million viewers. Year-to-year, that was down by 45% in the demo (vs a 3.1 rating) and down by 42% in viewership (vs 6.73 million). It was however right on par with how the sitcom was performing at the end of last season.

At 8:30pm, the second episode of Ben and Kate drew a 1.6 demo rating with 3.26 million, a decline of 24% Ouch! New Girl followed at 9pm with a 2.8 rating and 5.07 million viewers, essentially matching last week’s performance.

Then, the second installment of The Mindy Project garnered a 1.9 rating with 3.75 million viewers, a week-to-week loss of 21%. Double ouch!

And, on The CW, we had the season premiere of Hart of Dixie. The show drew a 0.7 demo rating with 1.54 million viewers. Year-to-year, that was down by 13% in the demo (vs a 0.8 rating) and down by -18% in viewership (vs 1.88 million). This was the show’s best performance since January 2012.

An original installment of The Next followed with a 0.3 demo rating and 0.66 million viewers. That was up by 50% in the demo from last week’s installment.

What do you think? Do you think Private Practice and Vegas are in serious trouble? How about the new FOX sitcoms? What were you watching last night?