Last night’s finale ratings were down from last season:
Fox’s “American Idol” wrapped its eighth season with huge numbers Wednesday night, although the music megahit was down more than 10% in demos vs. last year and is expected to come in with its lowest in-season finale ratings to date. The preliminary numbers are a bit murky due to the show’s irregular running time (8-10:07 p.m.), but “Idol” likely averaged about 29 million viewers, off from last year’s 31.7 million.
Even in a slightly depressed state, however, the “Idol” finale ‘ in which 23-year-old Arkansas native Kris Allen was revealed as the winner ‘ was easily the top-rated program of the May sweep. It also drew roughly three times the demo score of the next highest-rated program on Wednesday, the season finale of “Criminal Minds” on CBS.
For fun, Seasons 5 and 6:
- Season 6 – 30.7 million
- Season 5 – 36.3 million
