Fox's 'Idol' Still Tops, But Glitter Is Fading

Fox's programming trend of mostly good and some bad continues: "American Idol" crushed its competition yet gets crushed by "Idol" numbers of a year ago.

Earning a Nielsen 10.4 rating/26 share, a two-hour "Idol" beat all the networks combined on Wednesday night. But "Idol was down by double-digit percentage versus a year ago. Plus, it had a season low for Tuesdays.

Perhaps standing in "Idol"'s way--to some extent--was a special ABC two-hour "Dancing with the Stars" on its second night of its latest edition. It earned a respectable 4.1/10. Also putting a little chink in the "Idol" armor was NBC's sturdy reality series "Biggest Loser," which posted a gallant 3.2/8 for its special hour-and-a-half episode.

CBS had somewhat less success with its "Big Brother" at 9 p.m. registering a 2.0/5. CBS got the same numbers for its struggling "Jericho"--although the show did perk up from the week before.

ABC didn't do much earlier in the evening--a 1.9/5 for "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" special and a 1.5/4 for "Just for Laughs." But getting in the slipstream of "Dancing," ABC showed off its new comedy "Miss Guided" to a modest 2.7/8 at 10:30 p.m.

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Although the competition was tough, the CW's "One Tree Hill" grabbed a nice 1.4/3 in 18-49 for its 100th episode--and it even improved on its young women 18-34 numbers week to week with a 3.0/7.

For the night, Fox was at 10.4/26; ABC came in with 3.1/8; NBC, 3.0/8; CBS, 2.0/5; CW, a 1.1/3; and MyNetworkTV, 0.7/2

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