I got ahold of some overnight ratings numbers from Nielsen Soundscan:
American Idol averaged 30.074 million in the overnight numbers, down just under 10% from last year’s 33.24 million.
The very earliest indication is that the season premiere of American Idol was off 10% versus last year in the early Nielsen metered market ratings.
Ratings Breakdown:
Fox’s veteran American Idol is back and it certainly dominated the evening. But year-to-year, the two-hour eighth season-premiere lost some steam with a 16.7 rating/25 share in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Comparably, that was down by 10 percent from the 18.6/27 on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. One year prior to that, American Idol kicked-off with a 21.8/31 on Jan. 16, 2007. Here is the half-hour breakdown:
American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m. 14.6/22 (#1)
8:30 p.m. 16.5/25 (#1)
9:00 p.m. 17.9/26 (#1)
9:30 p.m. 18.0/26 (#1)
We’re not off to a great start, here…