• by Wayne Friedman , January 19, 2007

"American Idol" is crushing the competition. It did to Wednesday what it started up on Tuesday night--performing a two-day blowout of network prime-time schedules, recording another day of record viewership.

The show scored virtually identical numbers on Wednesdays--posting a 15.5 rating/36 share--to its numbers on Tuesday. Some 37 million tune in. This was down a tick from Tuesday's 15.8/36. But "Idol"'s second night was up about 18% or 5.5 million viewers versus its second night of a year ago.

Fox's typically poor fourth-quarter start is being followed by its typical first-quarter drubbing of the other networks with "Idol" and "24," which on Sunday night had a two-hour debut ringing up a healthy--but not great--5.9/14.

Other networks on Wednesday night continued to find ways to grab some viewers and possible ad revenues.

For the second night in a row, CBS led the pack of the also-rans, posting a 3.1/7 for the evening. At 9 p.m., CBS with "Criminal Minds" had a 3.3/7 and, at 10 p.m., with "Idol" out of the way, "CSI: New York" earned a 4.1/11. Both shows won their time periods.

ABC ran comedies, new episodes of "According to Jim," new series "The Knights of Prosperity," and "In Case of Emergency." The best numbers came with a 2.3 for an 8:30 p.m. showing of "Jim." The two new comedies could only muster a 1.5/3 for "Knights" and a 1.4/3 for "Emergency." ABC came in with a 2.1/5 average for the night.

NBC did a smidge better with a rerun of "Friday Night Lights" and new episodes of "Deal or No Deal" and "Medium." NBC averaged a 2.2/5 for its prime-time lineup.