• by Wayne Friedman , March 27, 2009

Early on a special Thursday edition, "American Idol" may have seemed like it was off its game -- but all that proved to be wrong as the big Fox show grew its audience as it progressed.

"Idol" started off with a Nielsen preliminary 6.8 rating/20 share among 18-49 viewers at 8 p.m. -- a bit below its usual results show. But "Idol" picked up steam in the second half hour, posting an 8.1/21.

"Idol" had some new competition of sorts, with the NCAA basketball tournament earning a 2.8/8 from its "Sweet 16" bracket of games at 8 p.m. Third place went to a surprising "Premio Lo Nuestro" from Univision at a 2.5/7.

ABC's new show "In the Motherhood" went in "Ugly Betty"'s spot -- earning similar numbers. "Motherhood" took a 2.1/6, just ahead of NBC's "My Name is Earl," which seemed to take the full brunt of all the competition, earning a 2.0/6.

With "Idol" as a launch pad, Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" came close to knocking off the 9 p.m. time-period leader ABC's "Grey Anatomy" in the first half hour. It earned a 5.0/12 to "Grey's" 5.1/12.

But "Kitchen" backed off a bit in the second half hour -- getting to a 4.5/11 -- while "Grey's" motored on with a 5.8/14. The "NCAA Tournament" grew to a 3.8/9 during the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. hour, and to a 3.7/10 from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

"Private Practice" continued ABC's No. 1 status in the later part of the evening, averaging a 3.8/10. But it didn't come without a big fight. "NCAA" was right behind with a 3.7/10, and behind that was "ER" with a 3.6/10.

Fox led the night easily with a 6.1/16 because of "Idol," while the rest fought for second-best. ABC got that nod, with a 3.8/10. CBS earned a 3.5/9, while NBC took a 3.1/9, followed by Univision with a 2.6.7 and CW with a 1.4/4. CW's tag team of "Smallville" and "Supernatural" posted numbers similar to their recent original episode outings.