Everyone Watches Idol

With record setting numbers, Fox's American Idol led the way in this week's Nielsens. Unfortunately for Fox, it's over. The summer hit that debuted June 11 concluded Wednesday night when a winner was crowned. Nearly 23 million total viewers watched, making it this summer's leading show. Nielsen's most recent ranking gives it a 16 share/9.7 household, but that was for a previous episode. The numbers for the finale will come out next week.

Online, as Nielsen//NetRatings reported, traffic to the "American Idol" website skyrocketed during the series finale, as the popularity of the twice-weekly aired show spilled over to the Web with fans flocking to the site.

Daily overnight analysis from Nielsen//NetRatings shows that traffic to the "American Idol" site skyrocketed 193% to 241,000 visitors on Tuesday September 3, compared to 82,000 visitors last Tuesday, August 27. Traffic to the site peaked yesterday, with 308,000 surfers visiting the site, compared to 158,000 visitors last Wednesday.

"'American Idol' pushed the reality show one step further with its interactivity, relying on American viewers to vote and decide the fate of their favorite contestant," said Carolyn Clark, Internet analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings. "The website provided an additional medium for fans of the show, offering clips of performances, photos of the contestants and most recently, an opportunity to chat with winner, Kelly Clarkson."

Although the show has ended, Fox plans an American Idol special on Sept. 23 and a second season. A Fox spokesman told MDN that plans for the second season are undecided in terms of the show's format and starting dates. Other networks are planning copycat versions of Idol that may start soon.

Although Idol was last week's top show, nothing else from Fox made the top 25 list and Fox finished dead last in primetime averages at 7 share/4 household, trailing CBS (9/5.2), NBC (9/5) and ABC (8/4.6). ABC's relatively strong numbers came from NFL preseason football and Monk, the drama it picked up from USA Network for a brief run this summer.

The other leading shows for the week were the standards: Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS), CSI (CBS), Law and Order (NBC), Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes (CBS). The new shows Dog Eat Dog (NBC), Meet My Folks (NBC) and Yes, Dear (CBS) also performed well.

MTV's 2002 Video Awards led the way for cable's most recent week with a 6.6 household rating and 7 million viewers. Other cable leaders were the Mountain Dew Southern 500 (TNT) and WWE Entertainment (TNN).

Syndicated leaders were Wheel of Fortune, Friends, Jeopardy, Seinfeld and The Oprah Winfrey Show, with Wheel scoring a 7.4 household rating with 7.8 million viewers.

Sports leaders for the most recent week were NFL preseason football and the Little League World Series (ABC), NFL football and NEC World Series golf (CBS) and WWE Smackdown (UPN). NFL football on ABC scored a 13 share/7.6 household with 7.9 million viewers. Rainouts at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last weekend forced CBS to run make goods for advertisers who had been promised audience guarantees. On Sunday, all but 30 minutes of live coverage was cancelled, so tapes of past games and interviews were aired to a smaller audience.

Much attention is being paid to Sept. 11 broadcasts. NBC will run a two-hour Concert for America, hosted by Tom Brokaw, preceded by a Dateline NBC special. CBS plans special versions of 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II and will rerun the acclaimed documentary 9-11. ABC will broadcast news throughout the day and a special edition of Nightline. Fox plans a two hour special The Day America Changed and UPN will run its special, Portraits of Courage. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel plan news and documentary programs. Other channels, including the Food Network and HGTV will suspend their lifestyle shows in favor of reflective words and music. A few cable channels, including A&E and the History Channel, will fade to black on Sept. 11 with A&E scrolling the names of victims beginning at 8:46 am, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Much of the 9/11 programming will run without advertising or advertising from a limited number of sponsors.

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