After two weeks of playing second fiddle to "America's Next Top Model," the new The CW horror drama "Vampire Diaries" is the king of the network once again, earning a 2.4 rating/4 share, according to Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co.

That was the best audience for the show since Sept. 24, when it dipped slightly from its previous week, but was still off more than 22 percent from its premiere.

This week's outing was up 14.3 percent for its sixth episode, and halted a slide that started after its 3.1/5 series premiere.

The average overnight rating for "Vampire Diaries" is 2.5/4, better than any other show on The CW. It also finished 14 percent ahead of "Top Model," a show that has beat it for the last couple weeks.

"Supernatural" remained steady as its lead-out, but the audience gap between the two shows has grown again. "Supernatural" earned a 1.6/3, according to Zap2it, matching its audience for the last three weeks. The show, however, is boasting a rather high Audience Loyalty Index rating, however, of 85.7, second only to "Heroes."

The ALI shows how much of a program's total audience comes back to watch new episodes each week by comparing a show's highest rating against its average.

"Vampire Diaries" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW, followed by "Supernatural" at 9 p.m.

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