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So it might not be the new darling of ABC, but for right now, it remains the science-fiction darling of the network.

"V" led all genre shows for the second week of sweeps, despite a more than 25 percent drop from its series premiere, chalking up a 6.6 rating/10 share, according to Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. That bested fellow ABC show "FlashForward," which continues to slip in the ratings while it tries to level out, and "Heroes" which slowly fell back to Earth.

Unlike last week when it finished in the top 10, "V" was a bit lower down the list this time. It was the 19th most watched show overall of the sweeps week, which ran through Wednesday finishing behind "Castle" on its own network, plus a bunch of CBS programming.

But it's still helping to give ABC somewhat of a boost. The network finished with a 7.0/11 average for the week in first-run, non-event and non-news programming behind CBS, which won its second sweeps week in a row with a 7.3/12. "V" finished below ABC's average for the week, but is still doing about a 20 percent better audience run than "FlashForward."

"Heroes" had momentum going into the second week of sweeps, but completely lost it with a 10.5 percent drop week over week. "Vampire Diaries" on The CW remained strong, while "Smallville" fought its way back to at least tie its former Thursday night partner "Supernatural."

NBC did finish tied with Fox for third place in the ratings race in the second week, and is actually slightly leading Fox overall. "Fringe" fell to a series low 3.1/5 to finish in fourth place among all network genre shows.

Top 10 Network Genre Shows -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]
1. (1) V (ABC) -- 6.6/10 -- [89.4]
2. (2) FlashFoward (ABC) -- 5.5/9 -- [80.5]
3. (3) Heroes (NBC) -- 3.4/5 -- [92.3]
4. (-) Fringe (Fox) -- 3.1/5 -- [80.9]
5. (4) Vampire Diaries (CW) -- 2.6/4 -- [80.6]
6. (5) Supernatural (CW) -- 1.7/3 -- [81.0]
6. (6) Smallville (CW) -- 1.7/3 -- [94.1]

Data collected from The Nielsen Co., as distributed by Zap2it. BlipNetwork tracks non-news, non-event programming, and figures for this story reflect airing of new episodes only. For more information on the Audience Loyalty Index, click here.