Again under the notion that season ten’s single round of semifinals should be compared, from a historical standpoint, to the Top 8 Male/Female semifinal round of the previous format, Thursday’s “American Idol” results show surged dramatically in the ratings.
Building on last year’s 6.2 adults 18-49 rating with 19.15 million viewers, this season’s finalist announcement posted a whopping 8.1 rating with an impressive 24.96 million viewers.
Of course, the comparison is not apples-to-apples: there were several factors working in favor of this season’s telecast.
For starters, “Idol” ran against virtually no original competition last night. The only show not in re-runs was “Rules of Engagement,” which posted a mild 2.3 rating and 8.32 million viewers at 8:30PM. Last year’s “Idol” aired away from the night’s most competitive shows (ie “The Office” and “Grey’s Anatomy”), but it did face new episodes of “Survivor” and “Community”/”Parks and Recreation.”
Last year’s show was also only a single hour, putting the episode at a disadvantage–“Idol” tends to build from the start-to-finish of a two hour telecast. Its 8PM half hour last night, for instance, only clocked in at a 6.9.
By the same token, last night’s episode still averaged a 7.6 from 8-9PM, a marked increase from last year’s 6.2 rating. And it did so with viewers well aware that some of the results would be held off until the second hour.
