The alien ships invaded major cities, but Morena Baccarin's character of Anna didn't invade too many television sets.

The return of "V" after a 126-day break hit ABC with a whimper, attracting a 4.5 rating/8 share in Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. That's down nearly 20 percent from its previous episode on Nov. 24, and 47 percent from its series premiere Nov. 3.

Tuesday's episode also was down 33 percent from its November average of a 6.7/10 before it was moved to its current 10 p.m. slot behind "Lost."

And speaking of "Lost," that show in its final season bounced back with a 6.2/10, its highest rating since Feb. 9, and more than 5 percent better than its season average. "Lost" grew its audience from last week by 15 percent, and is now off its premiere ratings by 10 percent.

"V" lost 27 percent of its "Lost" lead-in audience, despite posting "Lost"-like numbers before taking its four-month break.

It wasn't all bad for "V." The series is doing slightly better than "The Forgotten" in the same time slot, which averaged a 4.4/8 in overnights, but had only managed household ratings in the low 3.0s in its final weeks. It did lose to a rerun of "The Good Wife" on CBS, but did slightly better than the new series "Parenthood" on NBC, which earned a 4.1/7.

Some had already worried about the fate of "V" considering its four-episode November event witnessed a 34 percent audience dropoff. However, the latest numbers will only solidify those concerns as ABC tries to decide what will and what won't come back in the 2010-11 season.

On Monday, "Chuck" continued its lower-rated outings, posting a 3.3/5 for the second week in a row. That's 23 percent off its Jan. 11 premiere, and its overall ratings are just above what "Heroes" was earning in the timeslot. Although many have predicted NBC will give "Chuck" another season, but the latest numbers could throw some of that in doubt.

The series is now 5 percent lower in ratings than it was last season, which it struggled to get renewal.

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that include 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.

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.