'X Factor' strong for Fox

Fox led primetime among young adults Tuesday as a special, 150-minute edition of ''The X Factor'' produced the show's best numbers since its bow last month. CBS held strong with its ''NCIS'' combo, as both dramas grew week to week. Also of note, a visit by President Obama led to the highest overnight score for a Tuesday edition of NBC's ''The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' since March 2010. For a second straight week, ''The X Factor'' shifted to Tuesday in a week when the World Series was scheduled for its two regular nights, and an expanded episode averaged a strong 4.3 rating/11 share in adults 18-49 and 11.8 million viewers overall from 8 to 10:30. It was up about 10% from last week's two-hour episode and is expected to match the show's premiere demo score of 4.4 when the same-day nationals are released by Nielsen later today. ''X Factor'' won its final three half-hours in all key demos, peaking with a 4.9/13 in 18-49 from 10 to 10:30, which certainly helped its program average. Fox led the night in 18-49 and 25-54. CBS, second on the night in demos and first in total viewers, saw both ''NCIS'' (4.0/11 in 18-49, 19.0 million viewers overall) and ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' (3.7/9 in 18-49, 15.9 million viewers overall) post week-to-week gains, with the original rising 2% from last week, beating ''X Factor'' in 18-49 and 25-54 while standing as the night's most-watched program overall. ''NCIS: Los Angeles,'' facing reality shows on ABC, NBC and Fox, was up 9% in 18-49. And holding steady at 10 p.m. was rookie drama ''Unforgettable'' (2.5/7 in 18-49, 11.3 million viewers overall), which CBS has picked up for the rest of the season. At ABC, Tim Allen comedy ''Last Man Standing'' dipped a bit more in its third outing (2.8/8 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall) but is still at a good number for the net in the timeslot. The Alphabet again lost 3 share points, though, at 8:30 p.m. with ''Man Up'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 6.7 million viewers overall), which was down about 20% week to week. The half-hours were followed by the ''Dancing With the Stars'' results show (2.5/6 in 18-49, 13.8 million viewers overall) and ''Body of Proof'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall), both in line with last week. NBC's ''The Biggest Loser'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall) maintained its week-ago rating, and was followed by a special repeat of first-year drama ''Prime Suspect'' (1.0/3 in 18-49, 2.9 million viewers overall), which the net is trying to expose to a larger audience by airing multiple airings of the show this week. And at 11:35 p.m., President Obama's appearance on ''The Tonight Show'' generated a 4.1 household rating/11 share in Nielsen's 56 metered markets , the best for the show in 19 months. In the same latenight hour, CBS' ''Late Show With David Letterman'' did d 2.7/7 in the overnights, and ABC's 25-minute ''Nightline'' earned a 3.6/9, followed by a 1.8/6 for ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' at midnight. CW aired repeats of ''Ringer'' at both 8 (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.0 million viewers overall) and at its regular time at 9 (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.3/11; CBS, 3.4/9; ABC, 2.3/6; NBC, 1.6/4; Univision, 1.5/4; CW, 0.3/1. In total viewers: CBS, 15.4 million; Fox, 11.8 million; ABC, 10.6 million; NBC, 4.6 million; Univision, 3.3 million; CW, 0.9 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com