• by Wayne Friedman , March 29, 2013

In another sign that Fox's big "American Idol" isn't what it was: ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" beat out the singing competition show with the best 18-49 viewing numbers on Thursdays.

"Idol" grabbed a Nielsen preliminary 2.7 rating/9 share among 18-49 viewers -- its lowest rating ever for the show on any night. The Fox show was up against different competition on the night -- CBS' NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The NCAA event earned a 2.3/7 in early Nielsen estimates.

"Idol" had been beaten this season by a number of shows in 18-49,  including CBS' "NCIS" on Tuesday and CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" on Thursday in head-to-head competition.

ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" got to a 2.8/8, which was down from a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating of a week ago. ABC's 10 p.m. drama "Scandal" continued to earned strong ratings -- now at a 2.6/7, virtually at the same rating levels as a week ago.

NBC was mostly in rerun mode, with "Community" and "The Office." But it also ran a new episode of its first-year comedy "1600 Penn," an 8:30 episode, which earned a small 0.7/2 and some 1.9 million overall average viewers. That's about the same rating level as the reruns for "Community" and "The Office."

All this didn't help NBC much as it sank to the bottom of the network rating list for the night -- below that of the CW. Original CW dramas -- "The Vampire Diaries" (1.2/4) and "Beauty and the Beast" (0.6/2) -- posted overall better results than for the Peacock network.

In early results, ABC and CBS tied for the No. 1 spot for Thursday night with a 2.3/7. Fox was at a 2.0/6; Univision, 1.4/4; CW, a 0.9/3 and NBC earned a 0.8/2.

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