CBS was thisclose to winning its fifth straight week, but will have to settle its winning streak at four after ABC slipped past it for only its second win of the season.

ABC earned a 6.5 rating/10 share in an average of its non-event, non-news programming compiled from Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. That was just enough to get past CBS, which with a much lighter schedule, managed only a 6.4/11 for the week, down less than 10 percent from its previous week while ABC was up nearly 5 percent.

CBS, however, was without "NCIS" and "NCIS: Los Angeles," which were the top-rated and fourth-highest rates shows of the week last week, earning a 12.7/20 and a 10.2/16 respectively. Instead the top two spots this week went to "Dancing With the Stars," which picked up a 12.0/18 and an 11.0/17 respectively.

In fact, CBS only aired half the schedule it did last week, mostly in preparation for November sweeps which began last Thursday, with its best outing coming from "The Mentalist" which scored a 9.4/15 on the first day of sweeps, good enough for fourth place. "CSI" also made the top five with a 9.0/14, while "Survivor" was the only other CBS program to make it into the top 10, it's 7.1/11 on the first night of sweeps earning it a ninth place finish.

Once again, ABC and CBS kept all the other networks out of the top 10. The closest anyone else came was "The Biggest Loser" on NBC, which finished with a 6.0/9, good enough for 14th on a light week.

Fox, loaded with Major League Baseball, only had four episodes aired all week, three of them from "So You Think You Can Dance" broken up by "Lie To Me." That was enough to earn it a 3.9/6 behind NBC, which grabbed a 4.0/7 despite "The Jay Leno Show" finishing with its worst week yet, a 3.3/6 average.

The CW was without "90210" and "Melrose Place," and that was actually good news for the network. It improved 19 percent to a 1.9/3 for the week, lead by a 2.6/4 from "The Vampire Diaries." Although its ratings are low, The CW is maintaining a consistently strong viewership base, according to the BlipNetwork's Audience Loyalty Index, this week retaining about 73.1 percent of its total audience for every show.

CBS is leading the first week of sweeps that began Thursday and ends Nov. 4 with a 6.4/10 after six shows. ABC is not far behind with a 5.9/9 while NBC -- which has had only comedy blocks and Jay Leno -- is third with a 3.6/6.

The sci-fi/horror block of The CW, containing "The Vampire Diaries," "Supernatural" and "Smallville," are averaging a 2.0/3 so far during the first week of sweeps for the network, good enough for fourth since Fox has yet to air a new regular program because of the World Series.

"The Mentalist" and "CSI" on CBS are leading the way for sweeps so far with a 9.4/15 and a 9.0/14 respectively, followed by "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC.

Top 10 Network Shows -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]
1. (2) Dancing With the Stars (ABC) -- 12.0/18 -- [95.0]
2. (3) Dancing With the Stars (ABC) -- 11.0/17 -- [98.2]
3. (-) The Mentalist (CBS) -- 9.4/15 -- [94.9]
4. (6) Dancing With the Stars (ABC) -- 9.3/14 -- [85.0]
5. (-) CSI (CBS) -- 9.0/14 -- [96.9]
6. (8) Desperate Housewives (ABC) -- 8.8/13 -- [95.6]
7. (5) Grey's Anatomy (ABC) -- 8.6/13 -- [87.3]
8. (16) Castle (ABC) -- 7.5/12 -- [90.7]
9. (14) Survivor (CBS) -- 7.1/11 -- [92.2]
10. (19) Brothers & Sisters (ABC) -- 6.7/11 -- [95.5]

Top Networks -- [ALI]
1. (2) ABC -- 6.5/10 -- [54.2]
2. (1) CBS -- 6.4/11 -- [68.1]
3. (3) NBC -- 4.0/7 -- [66.7]
4. (4) Fox -- 3.9/6 -- [90.7]
5. (5) The CW -- 1.9/3 -- [73.1]

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.