Despite negative reviews, people were curious to see Tim Allen's new sitcom. Last Man Standing debuted to 12.95 million viewers and nabbed a 3.5 rating among industry-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, overnight Nielsen ratings showed.

ABC sounded happy afterward, noting that the show achieved the network's highest demo rating in the Tuesday at 8/7c time slot in nearly two years.

The comedy had to face one of the three top-rated shows on television, CBS' NCIS, which attracted 18.66 million viewers (3.9), yet managed to improve substantially upon No Ordinary Family's debut audience of 10.5 million.

Against NCIS and Allen's comeback, the first hour of The Biggest Loser on NBC drew 5.34 million people and The CW's 90210 1.54 million. Fox pre-empted its usual lineup for the third game of the ALCS between the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers, averaging 7.93 million fans.