'American Idol' final premiere ratings: It's still huge

It's an undeniable fact that the season premiere of American Idol drew a smaller audience than last year's season premiere. But if you're seeing a lot of 'Idol ratings plunge' headlines, don't believe them.

Tuesday's two-hour show brought in an audience of 30.4 million viewers, which is down about 10 percent from the 33.4 million who tuned in to last season's debut. Ratings for adults 18-49 were down about 15 percent, from 13.8 in 2008 to 11.7 this year. 

So those are your raw numbers. The show didn't premiere quite as strongly this year as it did last year, or for that matter the three years before that.

But here's why FOX is celebrating instead of crying today: Despite the declines and the generally sorry state of broadcast TV this season, American Idol is still far and away the biggest show on TV.

The physics-defying gains of seasons five and six are gone; Tuesday marked the second straight premiere that lost audience compared to the previous year. Still, American Idol on Tuesday gave FOX the most-watched program of the 2008-09 season and the biggest prime-time audience for any network since the Olympics in August.

The 30 million-plus viewers is about four times greater than FOX's prime-time average since the start of the season and nearly beat the combined totals for ABC, CBS and NBC on the night. FOX did beat the combined 18-49 ratings of all its broadcast competitors.

FOX also offered up a couple of interesting breakdowns to compare the American Idol premiere to the other top-rated entertainment telecasts of the season. It drew 29 percent more viewers than the next-most watched show, the October season premiere of CSI (23.5 million viewers). It beat the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy by 58 percent in adults 18-49 (11.6 vs. 7.4), and more than twice as many teenagers watched Idol as watched the previous season leader, the Nov. 2 episode of Family Guy.

By week's end FOX, which also welcomed 24 back to the schedule over the past few days, could well be in second place for the season among adults 18-49 and moving up on current leader CBS.

It's probably too early to pass judgment on how new judge Kara DioGuardi is doing, and it's definitely too soon to assess the depth of this year's talent pool. But American Idol's status as a ratings behemoth looks pretty safe.