TV ratings: 'American Idol' stones Tuesday foes but down from last year
Twitter
Fast National ratings for Tuesday, March 16, 2010"American Idol's" top 12 covered the Rolling Stones Tuesday night and scored a decisive ratings win in the process. The show was down a good amount, however, from last year's first show on the big stage.
FOX averaged 22.6 million viewers and a 12.8 rating/20 share in households for the night -- the best of Tuesday by far, but off by more than 2 million viewers from the comparable show last year (25.2 million, 14.5/22). CBS (15.35 million, 9.6/16) was a solid second. There was a big drop from there to third-place NBC, which drew 6.8 million people and a 4.3/7. ABC (5.7 million, 3.5/6) came in fourth, and The CW (1.5 million, 1.0/2) trailed.
The story was pretty much the same in the adults 18-49 demographic. FOX dominated with an 8.0 rating but was down significantly from last year's 9.2. CBS was the best of the rest at 3.1, followed by NBC at 2.6. ABC averaged a 2.2 and The CW a mere 0.7.
Tuesday hour by hour:
8 p.m.
FOX: "American Idol" (21.5 million viewers, 12.3/20 households)
CBS: "NCIS" (17.6 million, 10.9/18)
NBC: "The Biggest Loser" (6.5 million, 4.1/7)
ABC: "Lost" rerun (3.7 million, 2.5/4)
The CW: "90210" (1.9 million, 1.2/2)
18-49 leader: "American Idol" (7.5)
9 p.m.
FOX: "American Idol" (23.6 million, 13.3/21)
CBS: "NCIS: Los Angeles" (15 million, 9.4/14)
ABC: "Lost" (8.8 million, 5.1/8)
NBC: "The Biggest Loser" (8 million, 4.9/8)
The CW: "Melrose Place" (1.2 million, 0.7/1)
18-49 leader: "American Idol" (8.4)
10 p.m.
CBS: "The Good Wife" (13.4 million, 8.6/15)
NBC: "Parenthood" (5.9 million, 3.9/7)
ABC: Special - "FlashForward: What Did You See?" (4.3 million, 2.8/5)
18-49 leader: "The Good Wife" (2.7)
Ratings information includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are preliminary and subject to change. Source: The Nielsen Company.
More ratings at Zap2it: Daily, weekly and cable
Photo credit: FOX
Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest news and buzz
Zap2it Elite Sheet Must Reads from the Web's In-Crowd
Post a comment
Advertisement
Zap2it Elite Sheet
Must Reads from the Web's In-Crowd
- Most Liked
- Most Commented
Our Partners
life unexpected & one tree hill better get renewed after I see the rating for 90210, melrose and gossip girl
The Good Wife is now the BEST show on all of television.
@Rick: Congratulations for providing year-to-year comparisons. Excellent work. :)
People will think I have it in for Lost, but it's presented by ABC as a "cultural milestone".
The ratings say the opposite.
ABC is also barking up the wrong tree with its endless re-runs trying to spruce up Lost and FlashForward.
Its energies would be better used looking for new hits (and not renewing the likes of Cougar Town!)
At NBC the spectacular failure of Parenthood is quite surprising to me (of course it's not doing any worse than its renewed pseudo-hit Mercy!)
Then again, others tried to adapt Parenthood into a series before and failed. Apparently, the idea of doing a spin-off was enough for NBC to ignore the lessons of the past. Was the original movie that beloved or that much of a hit anyway..?
Parenthood is up against Good Wife which is a terrific show... I enjoy Parenthood On Demand now free on Comcast... I think these 2 shows draw from a similar audience... I have to watch Good Wife live....
Parenthood never did well, but to make Universalhappy NBC keeps renewing it like it's delivering.
CW is doing the same with 90210.
This is the way the industry is self-sabotaging itself into irrelevance.
FOX needs shows like House that deliver without costing a fortune in PR.
At CBS How I Met Your Mother didn't re-run particularly well but still beat an original of the much hyped Chuck which still isn't performing (like the rest of NBC's sched)
At NBC, Trauma's numbers confirmed why NBC was right when it canceled it and wrong when it brought it back to fill one of its many programming holes, as 20 year-old Law and Order was its highest rated show... (!!)
At CW ratings were still in sampling error territory with Gossip Girl still setting records for futility while celebrating another renewal (the question remains how CW can renew a show with such low ratings and hope to have a good year next year!)
i hope this is the beginning of the end for AI
rena frack you!!!! shut the heck up!!!! you are a MORON!!!!
Rena Moretti your dumb NBC has not been renewing Parenthood because this is it's first season. To PRRR American Idol is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Time Net Show 18-49 Rating 18-49 Share Viewers Live+SD (million)
8:00 FOX American Idol 7.1 22 20.504
CBS NCIS 3.2 10 16.814
NBC The Biggest Loser 2.3 7 6.357
ABC Lost (repeat) 1.1 3 3.723
CW 90210 0.9 3 1.931
8:30 FOX American Idol 7.9 22 22.493
CBS NCIS 3.6 10 18.384
NBC The Biggest Loser 2.5 7 6.577
ABC Lost (repeat) 1.4 4 4.039
CW 90210 0.9 2 1.794
9:00 FOX American Idol 8.2 21 23.241
ABC Lost 3.7 10 8.467
CBS NCIS: LA 3.1 8 15.064
NBC The Biggest Loser 3.0 8 7.705
CW Melrose Place 0.6 2 1.223
9:30 FOX American Idol 8.6 22 24.048
ABC Lost 3.9 10 9.053
NBC The Biggest Loser 3.3 8 8.299
CBS NCIS: LA 3.2 8 15.019
CW Melrose Place 0.6 1 1.101
10:00 CBS The Good Wife 2.7 8 13.555
NBC Parenthood 2.3 6 5.925
ABC FlashForward (clip special) 1.8 5 4.876
10:30 CBS The Good Wife 2.7 8 13.270
NBC Parenthood 2.3 7 5.952
ABC FlashForward (clip special) 1.3 4 3.779
'American Idol' is the highest rated show on television. With or without Simon Cowell it's not going anywhere until the ratings drop at least in half from current levels. CBS and FOX are connecting with whatever free television audience is still out there. ABC and NBC not so much. It almost seems as though they're not even considering what the audience wants to see but are programming shows they think the audience should like. That approach leads to low ratings obviously.Some shows like 'The Office' do okay in syndication where advertisers can target a specific demographic.