Thursday Ratings: American Idol Hits a Season Low

Isn’t that better than last week?

Would Idol do better if it was on at 9 pm on Thursday?

That’s what I thought too.

Either way que the “idol is doomed” comments in 5, 4, 3….

Actually, the headline should be “Idol Stabilizes”

The 5.4 will be raised to a 5.5 which is the exact same as last Thursday, meaning the show did the exact same this week as last week. That’s good news.

Here is last weeks-definitely not a season low

On a night when ABC was in repeats and CBS was a mixture of new comedies and repeat procedurals, Fox won the night with adults 18-49 and total viewers but CBS’s The Big Bang Theory beat American Idol by fairly comfortable margins in the 8-8:30p ET head-to-head half hour.  Big Bang Theory’s 5.4 adults 18-49 rating was ahead of American Idol’s 4.8 adults 18-49 rating for that half hour and Big Bang Theory claimed more viewers for the half hour too (15.96 vs. 15.46).  For the full hour, Idol’s 5.4 adults 18-49 rating tied with the Big Bang Theory’s half-hour and will likely be adjusted up in the finals to win out.

I also remember it being initially 16.99 while this week is 17.1. It’s up a little in total viewers! And will likely be onpar with last weeks demo. So there is some good news to that….also just because TBBT beat idol last night, doesn’t mean it’s the new number one show- it would have to catch up to idol’s Wednesday ratings.

Either way, hopefully ratings improve in Hollywood.

More people watch television at 9pm than 8pm, but the earlier time works better for the audience, and is better for the other Fox shows that air at 9.

The headliner seems very misleading in this case.

Agreed; MJ should alter the headline.

Even though the numbers have dropped its still in 1st place, how many shows would kill to be there?

Its also up the the half hour rating-last week it got 4.8 against TBBT-this week its 5.0.

Actually, the headline should be “Idol Stabilizes”

The 5.4 will be raised to a 5.5 which is the exact same as last Thursday, meaning the show did the exact same this week as last week. That’s good news. 

If you are looking at total viewer number the number is actually up from last Thursday
.

The title is just repeating what TVbythenumbers says.  In a few hours’ time it will be probably wrong.

Idol needs to shut Randy’s up, hire some decent judges, cut these stupid auditions to a couple of weeks and figure out why they are losing ratings.  Yes, right now it is still the top show but they are losing viewers faster than the titantic sank.  They need to ignore what The Voice and X Factor are doing and figure out what they are doing wrong.  The other two shows are just offering disgruntled AI viewers another avenue to watch.

Idol producers expected ratings to be down this season.

they are losing viewers faster than the titantic sank.

Actually, once the numbers are adjusted, it should be up in total viewers and the same as last week’s demo.

The other two shows are just offering disgruntled AI viewers another avenue to watch.

Those two shows have definitely had more problems then idol.

I was one of those who skipped AI and watched Big Bang! lol The audition shows are really weak this year.

I guess not a lot of people cared about the Madonna video preview. That really didn’t help the ratings.

AI is down to 17 million viewers.  Didn’t they start out with at least 20 million? Like I said the Titanic tv show of the season

I ain’t surprised, this season’s audition eps have been the most boring EVER. My hopes for this season are disappearing fast. Hollywood better be good.

Looks like it held pretty steady. We’ll see what happens next week when Hollywood starts.

I feel like your underestimating the tragedy of the Titanic.

The show was flat from last week, and it ADDED total viewers. So, it stabilized.

The premiere is always the highest. So its been like that every season. And the Thursday shows have always been low this year.

Here are the Thursday ratings so far this year:

Week 1-18.02 million viewers 5.7 demo
Week 2-17.14 million viewers 5.5 demo
Week 3-(before adjustments) 17.1 million viewers 5.4 demo(again, will be adjusted)

So Thursdays have actually been pretty stable this year. Not the Titanic.

Good analogy! The Titanic tv show of the season.  You hit the nail right on the head.

It just sound more interesting….in a Chicken Little, the sky is falling kind of way.  Titanic, not so much, at least not yet.

Idol is still the number 1 rated show. I doubt any other show will pass it this year. The Big Bang Theory would have to get to 7.9 at this rate to dethrone idol-not happening.

But I have a great idea for you:

Considering that the auditions have been boring and dragging on this year, I think the ratings are pretty good. 

Those two shows have definitely had more problems then idol.

Yep, like substantially lower ratings.

The producers and Fox expected the ratings to be lower this season, because the show is 10 years old.  It’s also the record holder for consecutive years in first place.  Nobody is predicting that that streak will be broken this year.  Yes they made some mistakes during the audition rounds, but even if that didn’t happen the ratings still would have fallen.

Cathy Knott: AI is down to 17 million viewers.  Didn’t they start out with at least 20 million? Like I said the Titanic tv show of the season 

I think that percentage drop would be in line with what the show usually sees.  Last year started off with 26 million, which was somewhere around an 18% drop from the previous season, and even though the year to year drops for the rest of the audition shows weren’t as what we’ve seen this year, the drop from the first audition show to the last was probably around three or four million.

I guess that Madonna video they were hyping up wasn’t even enough for people to care.

If people are not normal viewers of AI, why would they tune in just to watch a video, especially since they don’t know when it will air?  It makes more sense to just wait, and watch it on youtube.  As much as Nigel and Simon Fuller like their celebrity guests, there’s no evidence that any of them have ever caused the ratings to increase.

Here is an interesting perspective from IDF:

http://idolforums.com/index.php?showtopic=681579&st=0

So its possible that the ratings may increase a little during Hollywood. I think a lot of people are sick of auditions in general.

Even though I think last night’s audition episode was much better compared to some of the previous episodes, I’m relieved they are finally over.  No, this isn’t the titanic by any means.  The audition episodes were basically boring and from what auditions that did make it to air, nothing really screamed buzzworthy.   It will be interesting once the HW rounds start next week to see how the ones that didn’t get any screentime.

A lot of people I know who like Idol don’t generally watch the auditions — that start watching with Hollywood Week (some even wait until Top 13). So it’ll be interesting to see if the ratings continue to drop now that the audition shows are done

If you are looking at total viewer number the number is actually up from last Thursday.

Ratings have nothing to do with how many viewers watched the show. What TV by the Numbers is talking about is Idol’s share in the desirable demo. It’s all that advertisers care about.

 But if they had a 5.5 last week and this week they had a 5.4, they usually adjust upwards of about .1 % which will make it even with last Thursday, and more viewers overall too.

Hey, look at that. Final numbers updated. Idol had a 5.5 Literally the same as last week. Please change your headline as it is now inaccurate? :)

From Fox_Research FOX Research 

Finals: #AmericanIdol adjusted up to 5.5/16 A18-49 (even with last week) and 17.4 mil Total Viewers (+2% vs. last week, 17.4m vs. 17.1m)

But, as SI10 fan noted above, last week’s preliminary rating was a 5.4 too, so TV By The Numbers was wrong to call it a season low.  In both cases the number was raised to 5.5.

Here is last night’s ratings adjustment w/table.

American Idol, The Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy, The Office, and The Mentalist were each adjusted up a tenth with adults 18-49 vs. the Thursday preliminary numbers

8:00PM
FOX American Idol 5.5 15 17.41
CBS The Big Bang Theory 5.5 16 16.54
ABC Wipeout 1.8 5 5.96
NBC 30 Rock 1.3 4 3.23
CW The Vampire Diaries 1.2 3 2.74

8:30PM
CBS Rob 3.3 9 11.06
NBC Parks & Recreation 1.7 5 3.60

9:00PM
ABC Grey’s Anatomy 3.6 9 9.71
CBS Person Of Interest 3.3 9 15.10
NBC The Office 2.8 7 5.31
FOX The Finder 2.4 6 6.87
CW The Secret Circle 0.7 2 1.74

9:30PM
NBC Up All Night 1.8 5 3.70

10:00PM
CBS The Mentalist 2.9 8 13.87
ABC Private Practice 2.3 6 6.55
NBC The Firm 0.8 2 2.97

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I like ‘The Firm’… so, of course, it’s at the bottom of the heap.

I do think Randy has been off base again this season.  I am wondering if he feels overshadowed by Jennifer and Steven.  He really needs to do some research and provide musical knowledge.  He has become more boring than ever.  Maybe with a change, ratings would increase?