Fox's "American Idol" held up extremely well as it started its second week on Tuesday, retaining nearly all of its audience from the previous week, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.
The night included President Bush's live State of the Union Address at 9 p.m. ET, so preliminary nationals are deemed unreliable for most programs. Specially ordered time-zone adjusted fast nationals for Fox, though, show that "American Idol" averaged an 11.6/30 in adults 18-49 and roughly 24.1 million viewers from 8 to 9 - roughly the same scores the music talent show averaged in the hour last Tuesday, when it became Fox's highest-rated entertainment program in the hour ever among both adults 18-49 and 18-34.
Based on metered-market overnights, NBC's coverage and analysis of the State of the Union Address out-rated both ABC and CBS.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com