Thursday Ratings: American Idol Rises

By On 03/02/2012 · 50 Comments · In American Idol, Ratings

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Ratings are in from TVBytheNumbers:

With the February sweeps period in the rear view mirror, and its PR competition with The Big Bang Theory on hold, American Idol’s 2 hour show was up 18% to a 5.3 adults 18-49 rating, vs. last week’s one hour show. Its total viewership of 18.3 million was a Thursday season high. Against ABC & mostly CBS broadcast repeats, Fox’s ratings victory in adults 18-49 and total viewership was never in doubt.

That’s great news–but Idol was up mostly against repeats, so we shall see.  Monday’s The Voice had a 5.4 rating.  Maybe Idol will adjust upward–we’ll find out later.

8:00PM

FOX American Idol (8-10p) 5.3 15 18.278
CBS The Big Bang Theory -R 3.2 10 11.108
NBC 30 Rock 1.4 4 3.773
ABC Wipeout -R 1.3 4 4.545
CW The Vampire Diaries -R 0.4 1 1.108

8:30PM

CBS Rob 2.6 7 8.996
NBC Parks & Recreation 1.7 5 3.778

9:00PM

NBC The Office 2.5 7 4.955
CBS Person Of Interest -R 1.8 5 9.477
ABC Grey’s Anatomy -R 1.1 3 3.440
CW Supernatural -R 0.3 1 0.952

9:30PM

NBC Up All Night 1.6 4 3.478

10:00PM

NBC Awake (series premiere) 1.9 5 6.247
CBS The Mentalist -R 1.7 5 8.873
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live (special) -R 1.0 3 3.038

 
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  • Anonymous

    No, not mimic – but get real occasionally, please.

  • Anonymous

    Nvm.

  • Anonymous

    I am optimistically thinking that some who watched because BBT was a rerun will come back because they are already hooked on someone in the cast.

  • Hazehel

    It was against the Rob finale, so that’s good.

    Rob is a terribly unfunny show, I wondered why anyone would want to watch it.

    I like the new show Awake though, I just wish they don’t use that yellow-tinged and blue-tinged colorings used to show real life or dream sequence – really unnecessary and they look unpleasant.

  • MissMyEm

    I had no intentions of watching the show but because of certain bloggers like Slezak and Rushfield who I appreciate, I decided to set my DVR.  I started to watch it and only got past the first few females and the second batch of males.   I was not impressed with anyone actually.    I did however feel bad for the guy in the pink shirt…forgive me I can’t remember his name…but already Jimmy Iovine doesn’t like him.  By saying this is American Idol not American Comedian…speaks volumes.  And no matter how far he goes, if Jimmy doesn’t want him, he may get a contract but they won’t do a thing for him.   I found myself going “Really???” for everyone that Jimmy really liked.   In other words…Jimmy and the judges just don’t cut it.   The gal who they raved about…just didn’t see the star power or the voice.    The guy Josh…who JLo was salivating over….sounds like an Adam Lambert clone.  

    So maybe they’ve saved the best for last because no one did a thing for me.

  • Anonymous

    How do these numbers compare to the Top 13 reveal of S10? Are they off about 30-40% like the rest of the season?

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/NO4G73GL7KDSP4K3ERYEZJ5FYY Joseph

    I feel like you’re a visitor from another world or that you were on the wrong channel.

    “The guy Josh… who JLo was salivating over… sounds like an Adam Lambert clone.”

    I’m assuming you mean Jeremy who sounds nothing like Adam Lambert. Like… NOTHING.

  • Hazehel

    How do these numbers compare to the Top 13 reveal of S10? Are they off about 30-40% like the rest of the season?

    It’s down 35% for the 18/49 demo compared to the last season Top 13 reveal (or lower if the ratings get adjusted up later).  At the beginning it was more like down 25-30% with the occasional one over 30%.  but for the last few episodes the drop were between 33-38%.  

  • Anonymous

    18 million is amazing for a show in it’s 11th season.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, probably not going to happen. Big Bang is an awesome show. There are reasons why so many people watch it. Fans of BBT aren’t going to abandon it in droves because they heard a song or voice they liked. Big Bang will be back next week and their fans will be back to watching it.

  • Taro

    I’m not too optimistic that this is sustainable. Though I’m quite pleased with the Top 13 results, no one in this cast has caught my eye. Which means zero investment from me. Somehow everyone seems almost the same to me … Not mediocre, just similar.

    Plus, I think I can safely predict that the winner will be a *gasp* WGWG? If things start changing then maybe I’ll start watching.

    That said, I’m very drawn by The Voice this season. The contestants are so diverse and I’m curious how each will be showcased by their mentors.

  • Anonymous

    but one-half of milli-vanilli made it through, or was re-cycled (again). not caught up in the rapture? me, neither. note to contestants: just because you can hit a note doesn’t mean you have to do it all the time. there was so much screeching i literally muted the tv during many a performance. that said, i commented yesterday that philip philip stands out, which is not difficult with such a lackluster bunch. i’m with you, taro… the voice.

  • Anonymous

    Yes – that “clone” remark was strange.  But, putting that aside, Jeremy does have a beautiful voice of his own and hope that he’s able to get it together to stay around for awhile.

  • Valentin432

    The rise is good, you can’t ask much more from a week to week update than a 20% rise (with the final numbers). As I said yesterday, this was an important episode to measure the interest in this cast, the fact that it got the hiighest number of viewers since the beginning of the season on a Thursday is a very good sign.

    I’m still baffled by those dips at the 9PM slot.

    As far as the repeat argument I will say the exact same thing I said about the same show last year, you’re not gaining viewers just because other shows are in repeat, there are far too many different options nowadays to be entertained. Just like last year I will point to the other original shows airing yeserday (in this case the NBC comedy bloc) and show that it was down every half hour compared to last week.

  • http://twitter.com/tinawinabina Tinawina

    What’s crazy to me here is that a show can lose 35% of its viewers and still likely end up the #1 or #2 show of the year. Worst case scenario #3? WTF? LOL

    I mean think about it. A hit show is anything with a demo in the mid 3s or above. A big hit show generally pulls what, a 4 or 5 in the demo? And a huge hit may stay in the 6s sometimes. Idol was pulling 7-9s last year, and it wasn’t even it’s best year ever. I guess I never really grasped that fully before. Jeebus.

    So now, when it is on a downward spiral and struggling, losing a third of its viewers, the “fallen” version of idol still pulls the same ratings as a big hit show. And it is 11 seasons old. Holy shit.

    I mean it may plunge ever further next year, which would mean it becomes what? Probably a regular hit? That is not the worst fate in the world.

    This show has had a hell of a run. It’s kind of amazing wen you think about it.

  • Hazehel

    I mean think about it. A hit show is anything with a demo in the mid 3s or above. A big hit show generally pulls what, a 4 or 5 in the demo? And a huge hit may stay in the 6s sometimes. Idol was pulling 7-9s last year, and it wasn’t even it’s best year ever. I guess I never really grasped that fully before. Jeebus.

    The problem is the general decline and aging of the demographics in network TV viewership.  In Season 1 the 18/49 demo ranged from just under 4 to over 10 for the finale (most episode seems to range from 5-7), so the average number for that season might turned out to be about the same as this season, but it was ranked outside of Top 25.   The networks has lost a huge chunk of their audience.  A lot of them went to cable, but many just got older.

    There is no doubt that Idol is one of the biggest show in US TV history, and I would argue the biggest ever, I don’t think any show can surpass what it has achieved.   I suppose the show can probably drag on the many more years if it is happy with an audience of 10 or million or so (which seems to be the typical number for many reality shows), but I just think that it needn’t have been like this.  It could have done better if the producers have made better decisions, keeping the drop down to low 20% instead of 30-40% for the last few episodes, have a slow descent rather than a crushing fall.  

  • Kylee

    Idol still has a lot of life left in it. Look at Survivor.

  • Anonymous

    I think a lot of singers would be very pleased to be compared with a singer as skillful as Adam Lambert, but in this case the comparison doesn’t holed up.

  • Kylee

    It’s just not so amazing when you realize they’ve lost 6 million plus viewers in one year.

    Well, last year was a buzzed year-it was the first year without Simon and had a big revamp. It was considered “Fresh and new” by a lot of people. It also had a lot of great talent to back it up. This year, the novelty of the new judges and all the new stuff has worn off and I think its just part 2 of the Season 7/8/9 downward spiral. I think this season can stay steady-the top 13 is another good and diverse one. Next year they will do another revamp and hopefully the ratings will be okay(bring in some high profile A-lister judges, change the auditions format, etc).

  • Anonymous

     THIS. SO MUCH lol. Sorry for the caps, but this is what I have been trying to say forever and you said so eloquently.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Laura-Corn/100001659368831 Laura Corn

    I watched all 3 shows this week out of curiosity.   My viewing will become more sporadic as the weeks go by.   Pretty sure this show will not suffer much with a small loss of viewers–most shows would die for their numbers.    Believe there are several reasons for the teens to watch and vote this year, unfortunately I am  not in that category and cannot think of anyone I would vote for at this juncture.     

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SYFK77IYLRQIVATQ2MJKSW2J7Y Pam

    Oops.  I almost forgot.  Here are last night’s final adjusted ratings.

    Awake was adjusted up a tenth of a point with adults 18-49 vs. the Thursday preliminary numbers. American Idol was also adjusted up a tenth.

    8:00PM FOX American Idol 5.4 15 18.27

  • Tera2

    That’s more like the idol ratings we’re used to.  I figured it would improve a bit once it gets to top 24 and top 12 rounds when people pick favorites and are more dedicated to watch.

  • Kylee

    So it is now the number 1 show of the week :) (I think if its tied in the demo they go by the total viewers in addition to the demo to determine the rankings.)

  • Allison

     I also thought the Results show was done well. The immediate cut down to 5 and 5 spared of of the old 3 weeks of semis, dragging out the fodder, which was a blessing. There was way less ‘…..after the break’ nonsense from Ryan.
    The wildcard and ‘sing for your life’ gave a reason to watch the results show for more than the last 3 minutes.

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