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It might not have captured 40 percent of the total television audience like its predecessor did in the 1980s, but if Tuesday's ratings are any indication, America still loves its "V."

The new ABC series, starring Elizabeth Mitchell, Joel Gretsch, Morena Baccarin and Scott Wolf, powered into an 8.5 rating/13 share in Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. That's the best performance of any network genre show this season beating the 7.7/13 series premiere of "FlashForward" Sept. 24.

"V" didn't beat powerhouse "NCIS," but it certainly cut into its numbers a little bit. The CBS show lost 8 percent of its audience from Oct. 20, and finished 2.5 percent below its average with an 11.7/18, according to Zap2it. However, that likely will still be enough to win the week in terms of programs as it topped the best outing of "Dancing With the Stars," which garnered a 10.8/16.

At the same time, "V" easily beat everything else with "The Biggest Loser" on NBC picking up a 5.3/8 while "So You Think You Can Dance" on Fox managed a 4.0/6. Both shows lost viewers from their previous week.

Unfortunately, "V" didn't give much of a boost to "Dancing With the Stars," which stayed steady with a 9.3/14 for the third week in a row despite improving the timeslot by more than 130 percent from "Shark Tank." It became the network's second-highest rated show of the night, however, ahead of "The Forgotten," which managed only a 4.9/9 at 10 p.m.

For the night, ABC finished with a 7.6/12 behind the 9.8/16 from CBS.

On Monday, "Heroes" has been showing some stead improvement since it marked its series low on Oct. 5, climbing ever so slightly.

The NBC show earned a 3.8/6, up 2.7 percent from the previous week, and 15 percent from its 3.3/5 low. It's also just 2.6 percent from its season high, a 3.9/6, set back at its premiere on Sept. 21.

However, it's still 23 percent off last year's numbers and 45 percent down from two years ago.

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.