• by Wayne Friedman , March 31, 2010

Fox's "American Idol" continues to do more with less. "Idol" is down 11% versus the week before at a Nielsen preliminary 7.5 rating/21 share among 18-49 viewers for a two-hour episode on Tuesday. For the season, "Idol" is down 6% versus a year ago among 18-49 viewers.

No matter -- Fox still is well ahead of whatever network takes second place when "Idol" airs. For example, on Tuesday night, Fox's ratings were more than double that of second-place ABC for the night among key 18-49 viewers: 7.5/21 to 3.3/9.

ABC's "V" returned to around the same levels of its last original episodes at a 3.1 rating/8 share. Early in the evening, ABC's results show for "Dancing with the Stars" gained a bit -- 4% -- from its last first results show in the fall.

NBC took a backseat to Fox and ABC, with "Biggest Loser" and "Parenthood" down, 7% each among 18-49 viewers versus the week before -- "Loser" to a 2.8/8 and "Hood" to a 2.5/7.

For the night -- after Fox and ABC -- is NBC with a 2.2/7; CBS with a 1.8/5 (with all reruns); Univision at a 1.4/4; and the CW at a 0.7/2 for 18-49 viewers.

For CW's more core 18-34 viewers, the network scored a ho-hum 0.8/3 for "90210" and "Melrose Place."