From Mediaweek’s Marc Berman
-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox’s American Idol is alive and very well, with last night’s two-hour edition at a whopping 29.85 million viewers and an 11.6 rating/29 share among adults 18-49 from 8-10 p.m. Compared to one year earlier (Viewers: 30.44 million; A18-49: 12.6/30 on Jan. 16, 2008, based on the final nationals), that was down by just 590, 000 viewers and eight percent in the demo. As a true testimonial to the strength of this ongoing juggernaut, the second most-watched program of the evening was CBS’s Criminal Minds at 14.05 million viewers at 9 p.m. Once again, American Idol is in a league of its own.Here is the half hour breakdown:
American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m. – Viewers: 24.87 million, A18-49: 9.5/26
8:30 p.m. – Viewers: 29.60 million, A18-49: 11.2/28
9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 32.51 million, A18-49: 12.8/31
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 32.44 million, A18-49: 13.0/31
Hm, it didn’t lose much audience from last night (averaged 30.074 million in the overnight numbers), and again, like last night, the numbers increased over the course of the two hour episode. The demo loss from last year’s comparable episode is smaller too-10% for Tues. vs. 8% for Wed
One explanation is the tough competition Idol faces on Tuesday nights from two popular shows, NICS and The Mentalist‚ On Wednesday nights–Criminal Minds–not so much
Last year, there was a bigger drop-off between the Tuesday and Wednesday night premiers. (33.4 for Tuesday, 30.4 for Wednesday).
This Variety article is interesting….Fox special ordered some ratings numbers from Nielsen and are spinning it as if Wednesday’s show had an increase in viewers…
Still, I think it looks a bit more hopeful today–a huge drop-off would not have been a good sign.
