“American Idol” predictably–and easily–won the ratings race Wednesday night, although a re-run of new competition series “The Voice” gave NBC some confidence.
Even with the encore presentation’s first half-hour up against “Idol,” “The Voice” still managed a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating with 6.04 million viewers Wednesday. A performance like that is beyond-impressive for a reality show re-run, and it definitely reflects positive word-of-mouth stemming from the prior night’s premiere. NBC should thus be confident next week’s original will, at the very least, suffer a modest decline from its lofty debut ratings.
“Idol,” meanwhile, still proved superior to “The Voice” in both the adults 18-49 demo and total viewers, posting a 6.9 with 21.67 million viewers. Though down from some earlier-season marks, there is nothing at-all alarming about “Idol.”
FOX’s lead-out “Breaking In” rose slightly to a 2.6 with 7.61 million viewers.
Over on ABC, originals of “Better With You,” “Cougar Town” and “Happy Endings” aired in conjunction with re-runs of more-successful comedies “The Middle” and “Modern Family.” They scored a 1.5 with 4.82 million viewers, a 2.1 with 5.61 million viewers and a 2.1 with 5.22 million viewers, respectively. Given its 10PM timeslot, “Happy Endings” was the best performer of the night, although “Cougar Town”‘s ratings were not abysmal.
“Better with You,” however, generated no new business from its post-“DWTS” episode earlier in the week.