Early ratings are in for last night’s American Idol premiere. According to TV Media Insights, Idol fell 17 percent in household ratings vs the two hour premiere last year. The demo numbers will be in around noon, so watch for updates.
UPDATE: Empire WON the night. Not only beating American Idol, but veteran comedy Modern Family as well.
According to TV By The Numbers: “Empire ranked as FOX’s highest rated series premiere in 3 years among adults 18-49 (since Touch in January 2012) and FOX’s highest rated drama premiere in 6 years (since Lie To Me in January 2009). It was the second highest rated drama premiere this season behind ABC’s How To Get Away WIth Murder.”
UPDATE: Demo numbers from Variety:
“American Idol” kicked off the night for Fox (3.1/9 in 18-49, 10.9 million viewers overall), down 34% from the 4.7 demo rating for its two-hour premiere of last year and off about 25% from its first hour a year ago. However, it was up nearly 20% from its most recent season finale in May (2.6).
“Empire” averaged a 3.7 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 9.8 million viewers overall from 9 to 10 p.m.
Ratings chart from TVByTheNumbers
8:00
FOX American Idol (Season Premiere) 3.1/9 10.89
ABC The Middle 2.3/7 8.49
CBS The Mentalist 1.3/4 8.99
NBC The Mysteries of Laura 1.3/4 6.77
CW Arrow – R 0.2/1 0.988:30
ABC The Goldbergs 2.5/7 7.79
9:00
FOX Empire (Series Premiere) 3.7/10 9.83
ABC Modern Family 3.2/9 9.23
CBS People’s Choice Awards (9-11PM) 1.8/5 8.57
NBC Law & Order: SVU 1.7/5 7.78
CW Penn & Teller: Fool Us – R 0.4/1 1.099:30
ABC black-ish 2.1/6 6.31
10:00
NBC Chicago P.D. 1.6/5 7.43
ABC Galavant – R 1.0/3 3.3810:30
ABC Galavant – R 0.7/2 2.53
From TVMediaInsights
Fox led this first Wednesday of 2015 with ease, besting No. 2 CBS by 1.5 overnight rating points. But “American Idol” continues to lose steam. On paper, a dominant 7.8 rating/12 share for the 14th season premiere of “American Idol” from 8-9 p.m. has to be considered a so-called winner. But this was still a loss of 17 percent from the 9.4/15 for the two-hour year-ago season-opener (on 1/15/14). So, more expected erosion is likely to continue this season for “American Idol.”
Particularly promising on Fox, however, was the debut of heavily promoted drama “Empire” at a first-place 6.9/10 in the overnights from 9-10 p.m. Comparably, this was a hefty 138 percent above the 2.9/ 5 for the debut of former time period occupant “Red Band Society” on 9/17/14. Overnight retention out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of “American Idol” (7.9/12) was solid at 87 percent. And the loss of audience in the second half-hour (7.0/11 to 6.7/10) was only four percent. So, “Empire” was very successfully sampled on Fox.
