TV Week is reporting that last night’s performance final was the lowest rated in the history of the show:
Tuesday night …American Idol was the series lowest-rated final performance night ever.
Last night episode drew an 8.3 rating/24 share among adults 18-49, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research figures. About 23.1 million viewers tuned in to see Adam Lambert and Kris Allen give their final performances before a winner is crowned tonight.
Compared with last year live-plus-same-day numbers, last night …Idol dropped 18% in the demo and 15% in total viewers.
Week to week, …Idol posted a 4% increase, but that bump pales in comparison to the 12% weekly increase for the comparable episodes last year. In total viewers, this year final performance saw a 2% weekly increase, while last year there was a 9% increase.
Just for a fun comparison, let’s check out the performance final ratings for Seasons 5-7.
- Season 5 – 32 million viewers – 12.3 rating/24 share
- Season 6 – 25.3 million viewers – 9.7 rating/27 share
- Season 7 – 27.1 million viewers – 10.1 rating/28 share
There’s a caveat, last night’s numbers are preliminary. The final numbers are expected to reflect a bump in …Idol performance once the show three-minute overrun into the 9 p.m. hour is taken into consideration, maxing out at an 8.4 or 8.5 rating in the demo.
Dancing with the Stars, on the other hand, drew 20.1 million viewers, holding onto its audience from last year.