ABC welcomed Dancing With The Stars back for its new season, and in return the popular celebrity competition arrived at number one.

The show had an estimated 1.27 million WABC viewers for the two-hour opener, according to Nielsen, and a 6.5 rating.

American Idol‘s performance night fell short of the top spot, with 1.2 million tuned to WNYW. The telecast yielded a 6.2 rating. Results night had a third-place finish with 1 million viewers and a 5.3 rating.

Venerable newsmagazine 60 Minutes was fourth for the week (1 million/5.2).

Also on WCBS, NCIS landed in fifth place (868,000/4.4).

There’s more from the Top 10 after the jump.

Sixth                      Touch                 WNYW (818,000/4.2)
Seventh               Castle                   WABC (807,000/4.1)
Eighth               NCIS: L.A.             WCBS (771,000/4.0)
Ninth             Amazing Race         WCBS (745,000/3.8)
*Tenth    Two and a Half Men   WCBS (682,000/3.5)
*Tenth         The Good Wife          WCBS (679,000/3.5)

*tied

While still impressive, NBC’s The Voice dropped off to 14th (614,000/3.1).

Desperate Housewives, the final weeks of series’ eight-season run, had a 16th-place showing (572,000/2.9). It tied with the coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship . Sunday’s afternoon regional final (that spilled into prime time) had 570,000 WCBS viewers.