'Idol' Regains Season Ratings Crown
For the second night in a row, Fox's "American Idol" pulled the profile of network prime time up a bit--by the scruff of the neck.
The "Idol" results show, which crowned the program's season-seven champion with rocker David Cook, equaled its adults 18-49 rating versus a year ago--with a massive 11.4 rating/29 share, which was Fox's average for the night. Overall, viewers also increased slightly to 31.7 million viewers from 30.8 million the year before.
Although the "Idol" finale is still down a big 20% versus the 2006 edition of the show, it's still good news for Fox, considering that many TV finales this season, and the May sweep in general, have seen dramatically lower viewership.
On Tuesday night, the ratings for the finale performance show of "Idol" were also slightly higher than the same day a year ago, which eventually gave Jordin Sparks the win.
Fox also sees this as good news--since for most of March and April, "Idol" regular-season ratings were down typically by 10% or more, versus the same days of a year ago.
Not surprisingly, the two-hour finale of "Idol" beat the other four network shows combined by some 14 share points in the 18-49, 25-54 and 18-34 viewer demos, and by 22 share points among teens 12-17.
Other networks didn't exactly run and hide with repeats of their respective big shows:
CBS' two dramas posted the next-best results: the finale of "Criminal Minds" with a 3.3/8 and a finale of "CSI: NY" with a 3.1/8. This helped give CBS a distant second-place victory to Fox with a 2.7/7.
NBC and ABC were much further down the line--with Univision rising to take a noted third-place tie on the night, earning a 1.7/4.
NBC's highlight was a season finale of "Law & Order," which registered a 2.5/7.
ABC not only finished behind Univision--for the second day in a row--but was also behind TNT's NBA Playoffs. Its lone season finale, "Boston Legal," opened a few eyes with a 1.5/4. Adding in a two-hour repeat of "Lost" with a 1.0/2 in the first hour, and 1.3/3 in its second hour, ABC saw a 1.2/4 average for Wednesday.
CW took a 0.6/2 average from two encores of reality show "Farmer Wants a Wife."
Recent MediaDailyNews Articles
-
Broadcasters Sue AereoKiller In DC May 24, 5:21 p.m.
Confirming their efforts to follow over-the-top TV services with legal filings in any market where they ... -
Cigarette Marketers Slice Mag Spending In 2011 May 24, 4:52 p.m.
The five major cigarette marketers nearly cut in half their collective magazine spending in 2011. The ... -
B2B Revenues Rises, Credits Events, Digital Ads May 24, 4:45 p.m.
Overall, business-to-business media revenues are growing, due to an upward trend in B2B trade shows which, ... -
Court Dismisses Defamation Suit Against WPP's Sorrell May 24, 3:31 p.m.
A New York Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell.Sorrell ... -
MediaCom Races To Win FIA E Championship's AOR May 24, 12:37 p.m.
A start-up race car circuit, The FIA E Championship, has named WPP’s MediaCom as its agency ... -
Networks Tie For Last Month of the 2012-2013 Season, NBC Gains Ground May 24, 10:56 a.m.
The four major networks were in a virtual tie for the last month of the 2012-2013 ... -
Aereo Is Not Just For Cord-Cutters May 23, 6:34 p.m.
Are cord-cutters most likely to subscribe to Aereo? Not necessarily, according to early returns. CEO Chet ... -
Cars.com Drops Flag On NASCAR.com Sponsorship May 23, 6:25 p.m.
Cars.com has a need for speed. The site has a deal with Turner to sponsor a ... -
Worldwide Pay TV On The Rise, Big Growth In Asia May 23, 4:17 p.m.
North American pay TV subscribers may continue to show little or no growth for the first ... -
Activision Blizzard's Campaign Wins Grand Effie May 23, 4:12 p.m.
Video game marketer Activision Blizzards’ ad campaign “The Vet and the nOOb” for "Call of Duty: ...
Be the first to comment on "'Idol' Regains Season Ratings Crown"
Leave a Comment