American Idol 12 Ratings Down From Last Year (UPDATED 2)

By On 01/17/2013 · 87 Comments · In American Idol, Nashville, Ratings

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Watch for updates to this post…

UPDATE: From TV Line:

This… is American Idol‘s first ratings report for Season 12, which opened to 17.81 million total viewers and a 6.0 rating, per fast overnights.

That marks a year-to-year decline of 19 percent, which is slightly better than the Season 11 premiere’s 24 percent drop-off and more on par with the Season 10 opener’s 17 percent differential.

That’s more than halves the number of viewers that tuned in for the Season 6 premiere–the apex of American Idol ratings. But I suppose it could be worse.

Marc Berman reports that the American Idol 12 premiere was down 13 percent Year to year.  I’ll be updating this post with more information, so stay tuned.

The two-hour season-premiere of American Idol with new judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban led Fox to Wednesday overnight victory, as expected, with an 11.7 rating/18 share from 8-10 p.m. But compared to the year-ago season-opener (13.5/21 on Wednesday 1/18/12), this was a decrease of 13 percent. And that 13.5 rating one year earlier was actually down by 18 percent from the 16.4/24 in the overnights for the 2011 season-premiere (on 1/19/11). So, the slow erosion is expected to continue this season despite the new panel of judges.

Keep in mind that the year-ago American Idol season-opener averaged 21.93 million viewers and a 7.4 rating/19 share among adults 18-49 (according to the fast affiliate results from Nielsen).

Ratings Chart from TVByTheNumbers:

8:00PM

FOX American Idol -P 6.0 16 17.81
ABC The Middle 2.3 7 8.201
CBS NCIS -R 1.1 3 8.375
CW Arrow 1.1 3 3.127
NBC Whitney -R 0.8 2 2.663

8:30PM

ABC The Neighbors 1.9 5 6.166
NBC Guys With Kids -R 0.8 2 2.355

9:00 PM

ABC Modern Family 4.3 11 11.019
CBS Criminal Minds 2.8 7 12.532
CW Supernatural 0.9 2 2.071
NBC Law & Order: SVU -R 0.6 2 2.73

9:30PM

ABC Suburgatory 2.4 6 6.351

10:00PM

CBS CSI 2.3 6 11.100
ABC Nashville 2.2 6 6.541
NBC Chicago Fire -R 1.0 3 3.447

Half Hour Breakdown from Marc Berman:

8:00 p.m.

ABC – The Middle
Viewers: 8.20 million (#2), A18-49: 2.3/ 7 (#2)

CBS – NCIS (R)
Viewers: 7.92 million (#3), A18-49: 1.0/ 3 (#4)

NBC – Whitney (R)
Viewers: 2.66 million (#5), A18-49: 0.8/ 2 (#5)

Fox – American Idol (season premiere)
Viewers: 16.36 million (#1), A18-49: 5.2/15 (#1)

CW – Arrow
Viewers: 3.16 million (#4), A18-49: 1.1/ 3 (#3)

———-

8:30 p.m.

ABC – The Neighbors
Viewers: 6.17 million (#3), A18-49: 1.9/ 5 (#2)

CBS – NCIS (R)
Viewers: 8.83 million (#2), A18-49: 1.2/ 3 (#3)

NBC – Guyz With Kids (R)
Viewers: 2.35 million (#5), A18-49: 0.8/ 2 (#5)

Fox – American Idol (season premiere)
Viewers: 18.81 million (#1), A18-49: 6.2/17 (#1)

CW – Arrow
Viewers: 3.09 million (#4), A18-49: 1.1/ 3 (#4)

———-

9:00 p.m.

ABC – Modern Family
Viewers: 11.02 million (#3), A18-49: 4.3/11 (#2)

CBS – Criminal Minds
Viewers: 12.34 million (#2), A18-49: 2.7/ 7 (#3)

NBC – Law & Order: SVU (R)
Viewers: 2.58 million (#4), A18-49: 0.6/ 2 (#5)

Fox – American Idol (season premiere)
Viewers: 17.81 million (#1), A18-49: 6.0/15 (#1)

CW – Supernatural
Viewers: 2.16 million (#5), A18-49: 1.0/ 3 (#5)

———-

9:30 p.m.

ABC – Suburgatory
Viewers: 6.35 million (#3), A18-49: 2.4/ 6 (#3)

CBS – Criminal Minds
Viewers: 12.73 million (#2), A18-49: 2.9/ 7 (#3)

NBC – Law & Order: SVU (R)
Viewers: 2.88 million (#4), A18-49: 0.7/ 2 (#5)

Fox – American Idol (season premiere)
Viewers: 18.26 million (#1), A18-49: 6.5/16 (#1)

CW – Supernatural
Viewers: 1.99 million (#5), A18-49: 0.9/ 2 (#5)

———-

10:00 p.m.

ABC – Nashville
Viewers: 6.61 million (#2), A18-49: 2.3/ 6 (#2)

CBS – CSI
Viewers: 11.37 million (#1), A18-49: 2.4/ 6 (#1)

NBC – Chicago Fire (R)
Viewers: 3.53 million (#3), A18-49: 1.1/ 3 (#3)

———-

10:30 p.m.

ABC – Nashville
Viewers: 6.48 million (#2), A18-49: 2.2/ 6 (#3)

CBS – CSI
Viewers: 10.83 million (#1), A18-49: 2.3/ 6 (#1)

NBC – Chicago Fire (R)
Viewers: 3.36 million (#3), A18-49: 1.0/ 3 (#3)

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

 
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  • http://profile.yahoo.com/XDQP2Y46M5B3OHOKALDDGDHQCM Leandro

    The Voice’s premiere was 4.2 but for some reason most of the episodes had better ratings than the premiere.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_(U.S._season_3)

    But, obviously, it’s not even close to Idol.

  • Larc

    NCIS still gets top viewer numbers with live shows.  Tuesday night’s episode was adjusted upward to 22.86M viewers.  That’s an all-time record for the show.  Demo numbers are more important for advertisers, but viewer numbers are more indicative of overall popularity.  Idol might have won the night in viewers, but it hasn’t won the week.  And I doubt it will manage to tonight.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4JTC7ZSC6SK5SGV5NZMCHB5BHQ Cherry

    …comm’on…aren’t you guys interested to see who’s the next guy winner? :) Mass produce them AI!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BTBLQCZR7Y7LHV5BFYKYW5UQ6Q Aden

    I am a busy person so I get my updated AI news from blogs such as this MJ and others.  I’ll wait until Hollywood Week when judges have cooled down with their none sense acts.  This show is about the contestants not the judges.

  • elliegrll

    I think I know what CBS would answer if you asked them if they’d rather win the demo or the total viewers category.  The bottom line is all about money.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/PVEFG2TOUIXSROKUSO2O2DOWWE Taylor

    Yikes! They spent a ton of money on new judges and to bring Nigel back and the numbers are down from last year!?

    The numbers will go down from this week and once The Voice starts. AI is also lucky that Big Bang is a repeat tonight.

    These shows are going to learn that paying millions for judges is useless. It doesn’t bring in the viewers.

  • Valarie

    It only took a few minutes of last night’s show to remind me why I don’t care to watch until top 12. The audition episodes are cruel and unusual punishment for the audience.

  • Miss Chaos

    There wasnt one good contestant last night.  How can they out of thousands of kids not find someone memorable for at least one night.  There has to be better, or are we supposed to wait to find out.  I found it kinda sad that I can not remember one person on there.  The show is about the prospective Idols, not the judges, I really dont care one way or another about them.  Keith is kinda cute tho.  Even the Voice panel was interesting, but didnt take away from the contestants.  XFactor was just UG.

  • http://twitter.com/svmreiter Susan Reiter

    The whole format is getting tired.  I felt absolutely no connection to any of those judges except Randy.  They sit there and judge and talk like they’ve been doing it forever and it seems weird.  They don’t seem to ‘belong’ there really.  And the contestants?  Same old, same old

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/IDXVM7NCMXZVHX4M2RFBYOTYDA Robert

    People can poo poo the ratings all the want but the fact is it crushed everything it was up against and is still drawing over 17 mil premiere 12 seasons in.

    Any network love to have those numbers and The X Factor will never see a 5th and The Voice will never draw those time of numbers in a 12th season if they even get to one.

  • blackberryharvest

    There is nothing that could have been done to make the ratings rise- its a 12 year old show. What the new judges DID do though was make the drop smaller than Season 11.

  • hcpoirot

    All the producers (Idol, X Factor and also the Voice) forget about one thing. That the contestants are really what the viewers rooting for and watch the show because of them.

    Hiring 3 new judges didnot help the rating. The fight between Mariah and Nicki also didnot help the rating.

    When will they ever learn?

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