American Idol Makes a Ratings Comeback

By On 03/26/2009 · 20 Comments · In Uncategorized

Nieslen fast overnight ratings from Marc Berman:

-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by the two-hour performance edition of American Idol, Fox won Wednesday, with a hefty advantage above second-place CBS of 14.01 million viewers and 6.2 rating points among adults 18-49. In the distant No. 3 spot was ABC, followed by NBC and the CW.

American Idol, which aired one day later due to President Obamaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s speech on Tuesday, averaged a healthy 25.60 million viewers and a 9.1 rating/24 share among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m., building by half-hour as follows:

American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ Viewers: 22.40 million, A18-49: 7.7/23
8:30 p.m. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ Viewers: 26.26 million, A18-49: 9.2/24
9:00 p.m. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ Viewers: 26.31 million, A18-49: 9.3/23
9:30 p.m. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ Viewers: 27.44 million, A18-49: 10.1/24

The Obama speech bump to Wednesday night didn’t hurt this week’s performance show–the ratings are up more than 10% over last week’s 21.54 million viewers and an 8.0 rating/22 share.

Idol had less competition last night than it typically does on Tuesday night, when NCIS and the Mentalist hold their own in the 8-10pm hours.   Idol also normally competes against the Dancing with the Stars results show.

Last year’s Top 10 Performance episode had 24.8M viewers.

 
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  • abbysee

    Reports of idol’s demise are premature. I guess we don’t have to sit shiva, or buy a black arm band.

  • http://myspace.com/girlgeek mj

    Idol had a lot less competition last night than it typically does on Tuesday’s. We’ll see how it does next week…

  • holeighannie

    Hopefully it does well next week too! What the hell else is on TV on Tuesdays? Seriously, I don’t even know.

  • mac

    It really pays to perform near the end of the show. 4-5 more million people got to see those contestants perform.

  • sma11ie

    Do we know what next week’s theme is, or will that get announced tonight?

  • jumpstart

    ^ I’m hoping for rock week.

    *fingers crossed*

  • downeast

    I think The Powers That Be owe Adam Lambert a thank-you note. His love it or hate it Ring of Fire last week generated a TON of buzz…I’m thinking lots and lots of people tuned in last night just to see what he’d do next.

  • CRB

    downeast Mar 26th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    I think The Powers That Be owe Adam Lambert a thank-you note. His love it or hate it Ring of Fire last week generated a TON of buzzà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m thinking lots and lots of people tuned in last night just to see what heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d do next.

    The disrespectful way that Alexis was ousted did as well, so we had the double buzz of both of those working this week.

    Honestly, I can’t imagine that a stressed “sing for your life” from Micheal or Megan, assuming one of them goes, is going to be audibly worse than what they did last night and either of them getting the boot would hardly classify as “a shocker” or generate much sympaty so I’ll predict that we’ll see a drop next week.

  • cheese

    Did Idol perform better the last time it was bumped to Wednesday/Thursday? I’m surprised it did so well against Lost, but that’s probably because Lost isn’t as popular as I think it is.

    Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m hoping for rock week.

    I don’t know if I could take a whole night of Randy saying “That’s more of a band song, yo”

    I suppose Cook’s appearance might have nothing to do with the theme, but I wish they would do a “Songs from the 21st Century” night (I think they did that theme for Top 10 in Season 5, right? It blew, if I remember correctly)

  • jersey

    *raises hand* I watched Lost during the second hour! I’m surprised Idol did so well against it too.

  • Valentin432

    Idol had a lot less competition last night than it typically does on Tuesdayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s. Weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll see how it does next weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦

    Yes MJ, but normally when the show is dislocated from its normal slot, they lose some viewers.

    It’s a really impressive bounce, with numbers higher than last year for the first time.

    Too soon to conclude anything, we will have to wait a little more.

  • wolfsbane813

    i wonder if this means that idol is going to rethink what days of the week it airs its program… i think the lack of competition from dwts and some of cbs’s power shows are beneficial to the titan of talent shows.

  • bambambam

    I think it’s Adam drawing viewers. He’s the only contestant who is creating expectations and exceeding them week after week.

  • Natasha

    I think it’s Adam too. He’s got all the buzz and I think people are genuinely curious about what he’s going to do.

  • weareallinnocent

    I would like for Adam to be the main cause, and I hope he gets the credit. I agree that TPTB saved the so-called favorites for the last half hour for the most part to keep viewers watching.

    That said, I stand by my theory of last week. At least part of this week’s alleged bump is a bounce back from last week’s St. Patrick’s Day. :-)

  • http://emmarude65embarqmail.com carroll

    I love NCIS on CBS on Tuesday night. I wonder how it did without the competition of AI. Wednesday, there is really nothing on to give any competition to AI. So, of course, they will have bigger numbers than on Tuesday night.

  • flynnsgirl

    If it stays like this, the answer is in two words, or 4 if you are Kara: Adam Lambert. Can’t find anyone anywhere who hasn’t been talking about him.

  • ordinarygirl09

    Wow. 27 million that’s really good for being on a Wednesday.

    lol,I doubt everyone is tuning in for ONE person. nice try

  • downeast

    “lol,I doubt everyone is tuning in for ONE person. nice try

    Well, I am. don’t I count ? :cool_wp:

  • Margaux

    Last Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day, and it was good weather in the Northeast. From all accounts, the bars were doing great business for a weeknight. The one I visited certainly was. I made sure to be home by 8 pm, but I was probably the exception.

    With the stressful economy, two or three green beers with your pals sounds like a good time.

    Can that impact national TV ratings? you never know.