HOLLYWOOD -- Although it hardly needs any, Fox's "American Idol" picked up ratings momentum as the talent show's field narrowed to a dozen. Tuesday's two-hour seg, featuring performances by each of the finalists, beat its combined broadcast competish across the board.
According to Nielsen, "Idol" -- facing mostly repeats on the other nets -- averaged a big 10.3/27 in adults 18-49 and 22.01 million viewers overall. This is a mere 4% dropoff from what the two-hour finale of the original "Idol" delivered last September (10.7/30).
In its second hour, "Idol" did a monstrous 11.7/29 in the demo, topping the combined ABC-CBS-NBC-UPN-WB competish (10.2/26).
Elsewhere, a couple of shows that premiered the previous week, NBC's "Let's Make a Deal" (2.3/6 in A18-49, 6.77m) and ABC's "The Family" (2.8/8 in A18-49, 6.10m) both took a hit in their second week, while the Peacock's month-old comedy "AUSA" (2.4/6 in A18-49, 6.02m) again fell behind comedy foe "Less Than Perfect" on ABC (2.8/7, 6.63m) and looks like nothing special.
Original episodes of ABC's "According to Jim" (3.9/10 in A18-49) and "8 Simple Rules" (3.5/10), although overmatched opposite "Idol," nonetheless were the night's top-rated scripted programs in the demo.
NBC's special "Meet My Folks" led the 10 o'clock hour in 18-49 (3.4/9), while "Judging Amy" delivered its best repeat score since December 2001 (3.0/8) and beat its all-original competish in adults 25-54 (4.0/10).
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com