• by Wayne Friedman , March 4, 2011

With less competition on this first Thursday night in March, Fox's "American Idol" just stepped on the gas, improving its already dominant ratings from a week ago. 

"Idol" pulled in with a Nielsen preliminary 8.2 rating/24 share among 18-49 viewers, up from a 7.2 rating -- a 14% hike over last week's results.

Much of this was a result of other networks rolling into repeats, since they are out of the February sweeps, where they tend to run most of their originals. Only two shows made it over the 2 rating mark for 18-49 -- this from CBS' early evening comedies. A repeat of "Big Bang Theory" took on a 2.5/8, and an original of CBS' solid utility comedy "Rules of Engagement" reached a 2.3/7.

As is its trend, CBS does well repeating comedies -- and its dramas. "The Mentalist" at 10 p.m., in a repeat, earned a 1.9/5. Next was NBC's "The Office," touting an average 1.3/4 for two reruns in the time period. The show tied Univision's "Mujeres Asesinas 3" for the same results. (The Univision show actually did a bit better in overall average viewers -- 2.96 million versus 2.86 million for "The Office.")

ABC's "Private Practice" continues to be behind in the repeat arena, offering a 0.9/3 on this particular night -- a full rating point behind "Mentalist."

For the night among the 18-49 crowd, Fox scored an 8.2/24; CBS came in a distant second with a 2.0/6; Univision took third place at 1.6/5; NBC, a 1.4/4; then ABC, a 1.2/3; Telemundo had a 0.7/2; Ion was at a 0.5/1; and CW earned a 0.4/1.

Young crowds also went the way of Fox. Among 18-34 viewers it had a 6.2/20; Univision was next at a 1.7/6; NBC was at a 1.6/5; CBS at 1.2/4; ABC with 0.9/3; Telemundo at 0.8/2; CW a 0.4/2; and Ion a 0.4/1.