'Idol' Loses Reins On Ratings, Bested By "Bang'

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Fox's "American Idol" has now landed back at its beginnings -- seeing ratings it hasn't seen since it started up 10 years ago.

A two-hour "Idol" results show on Thursday was down around 15% from a week ago to a Nielsen preliminary 5.0 rating/13 share among 18-49 viewers -- which is its lowest score since the show started.

Just like a week before, CBS' "Big Bang Theory" continues to best "Idol" in its common half hour -- 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.-- a 5.0 rating to the "Idol" 4.6 rating. But "Bang" didn't get all that much good news on a week-to-week basis, either. It was down from a 5.6 rating the week before.

Fox still bested and distanced itself over CBS on the night overall -- a 5.0/13 to CBS 3.3/9. A week ago, Fox was at a 4.0/11 versus a 3.6/10 for CBS. The chief reason: Two hours worth of "Idol" this time around versus one hour a week ago.

CBS's new comedy "Rob" slipped a bit, but still landed with a strong 3.2/9. The network's dramas were lower, down a tad: "Person of Interest" at a 2.9/7 and "The Mentalist" at a 2.8/7.

ABC was next -- actually adding two-tenths of a rating point overall this Thursday, averaging a 2.6/7. "Wipeout" was the same at 1.5/4; "Grey's Anatomy" hit another season low, a 3.1/8; but "Private Practice" was up almost a half a rating point, a 2.6/7.

NBC went lower -- now down versus Univision on the night to a 1.4/4 average. Its best -- if you can call it that -- came from "The Office" at a 2.2/6, another season low. "30 Rock" was at 1.4/4; "Parks & Recreation" at 1.7/5; 'Up All Night" at 1.5/4; and a "Grimm" rerun earned a 0.7/2.

Univision was positioned better on the night overall then NBC -- fourth place among the broadcasters, hitting a nice 2.2/6. CW was the same versus a week ago at a 1.0/3.

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3 comments on "'Idol' Loses Reins On Ratings, Bested By "Bang'".

1. Philip Moore from Philip Moore
   

   commented on: February 17, 2012 at 3:28 p.m.
   and when you say "American Idol" are you referring to the 2 hour commercial break on Fox periodically broken up by a few minutes of singing? My daughter and I used to watch Idol regularly but she can't stomach the 30 minutes / hour of preview of what will follow the commercials, commercials, recap of what happened before the commercials. There is obviously a lot of great content "behind the scenes" and maybe Idol online is a better way to access/enjoy what originally drew us into the show. I still enjoy Idol because I have a DVR and I don't have to put up with the commercial load. I literally wait until the show has been recording for an hour to start watching and fast forward through an entire 60 minutes of non-original content in the 120 minute show.
2. Philip Moore from Philip Moore
   

   commented on: February 17, 2012 at 3:30 p.m.
   and by fast forward I actually mean skip forward because my DVR has the skip ahead 30 seconds button. Hit it 8 times and I get all the way through the 4 minutes stop set without seeing a single ad.
3. Jonathan Hutter from Garrand
   

   commented on: February 20, 2012 at 2:59 p.m.
   It's the end of the world as we know it.

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