‘Victoria’s Secret’ helps lead CBS to victory

Well, here we are in the season of ratings glory by way of women prancing around in their undies.

The “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” -- the modern-day yuletide carol -- helped CBS lead Tuesday night in the ratings.

The annual breast fest brought in 9.3 million viewers and was the No. 1 program in adults 18-49 and adults 18-34 -- outdistancing NBC’s “Parenthood” and ABC’s “Private Practice” in the 10 p.m. hour. Despite being the high-rated program of the night, the lingerie extravaganza was down nearly 10% from the previous year.

PHOTOS: Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2012

The models with glitter-dusted skin weren’t the only ones helping CBS’ glow. The network’s annual re-airing of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” performed strongly -- coming in second behind NBC’s “The Voice” -- in the 8 p.m. hour. It did particularly well among kids and teens.

But even the stop-motion animated reindeer took a ratings hit from the previous year. It averaged about 10 million viewers -- down more than 2 million viewers from last year.

A repeat of “NCIS” in the 9 p.m. hour also performed well for the network.

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