Rarely does good news hide within a television ratings drop, but such was the case Tuesday for FOX’s “American Idol.”
Though the show was down sizably from last week’s premiere, Tuesday’s one-hour audition episode rose significantly year-over-year. With 26.1 million viewers and a 9.9 in the adults 18-49 demo, the episode topped last year’s 22.8 million viewers and 9.0 rating.
As MediaWeek reports, there has never been a show in the history of television to demonstrate that kind of growth from a season eight episode to the corresponding season nine episode.
The solid “Idol” rating also delivered good news to FOX’s new drama “Human Target.” Despite being a re-run of Sunday’s lukewarm premiere (2.9 rating), “Target” managed to pull a 3.4 with 9.2 million viewers Tuesday. (Note: There is some question about whether a slight “Idol” overrun boosted the “Target” rating; if so, there will be a drop when the final rating releases this afternoon).
A phenomenal performance for a re-run, the number did give away almost 2/3 of the “Idol” audience, so the figure would not be ideal for Wednesday’s original airing. The good news is more directly related to the fact that an additional 9.2 million people got exposed to the premiere.
“The Biggest Loser,” one of NBC’s few gems, performed strongly in the absence of original competition from CBS. The show averaged 9.9 million viewers and a 4.1 in the demo. The demographic rating grew significantly once “Idol” left the air at 9PM (3.4 from 8-9 versus 4.7 from 9-10). “The Jay Leno Show” averaged 6.3 million viewers and a 2.0 in the demo.
ABC’s lineup represented the bottom; in between poorly-rated re-runs of “Scrubs”/”Better off Ted” and “the forgotten” were original installments of “Scrubs” (3.3 million, 1.4) and “Better off Ted” (3.2 million, 1.3).