Despite being the shiny new kid on the block, the American Song Contest debut on NBC Monday night could not best the last episode of American Idol auditions.
American Idol ratings soundly beat American Song Contest head to head.
The two hour premiere of American Song Contest, a stateside version of the popular Eurovision Song Contest, averaged a 0.5 rating in the key 18-49 demo and 2.892 million overall viewers while airing live from 8-10 p.m per Nielsen’s fast-affiliate ratings. Meanwhile, American Idol averaged a 0.7 key demo rating and 5.1465 million viewers during that same time period.
Not even the OG American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, who served as co-host with Snoop Dogg could win the day for NBCs new singing show. ASC ratings were about on par with America’s Got Talent: Extreme, which held the timeslot the prior 4 weeks.
American Idol ratings tied the demo with the popular FOX drama, 9-1-1, and pulled in slightly more over all viewers (0.7, 5.1 million).
American Idol fared badly against March Madness
However, the Sunday edition of American Idol (March 20) dropped an alarming .3 ratings points from the previous Sunday: from a 0.95 and 6.6 million viewers to 0.65 and 5.4 million overall viewers. CBS dominated the day and night with NCAA Basketball which bled into 60 minutes 7 pm hour leading to an unusual demo win (1.04, 9 million) for the veteran news show.
American Idol premiere ratings beat The Masked Singer premiere
As an aside, American Idol premiere ratings also beat The Masked Singer’s, which CRUSHED for FOX when it first premiered. The season 7 premiere on March 9 nabbed an 0.87 rating and 4.1 million viewers (Idol earned .09 for its premiere). The Masked Singer week 2 on March 16 garnered 0.71 and 4.028 million overall viewers.
This post will be updated with final ratings later today.
