Posted: Thurs., Mar. 15, 2007, 9:20am PT

'Idol' gives 'Death' a boost

Ratings Flash - Rick Kissell

Fox captured Wednesday night's ratings battle in all key demos behind the "American Idol" results show and a nice return for laffer "Til Death," according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen. Shows on all networks seemed to be affected by Daylight Savings Time, as television usage overall declined by about 8% compared to last Wednesday.

The first 30-minute results show of the season for "American Idol" averaged a 9.9 rating/26 share in adults 18-49 and 25.6 million viewers overall, beating the combined ABC-CBS-NBC-CW competition by 5 shares in the demo. It led into the net's relaunch of Brad Garrett domestic comedy "Til Death" (5.7/15 in 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall), which dominated its time period and performed better than the three comedies Fox tried behind "Idol" last season.

By retaining about 55% of its "American Idol" lead-in, "Til Death" logged the second highest demo rating of the season for a comedy, trailing only one February episode of CBS' "Two and a Half Men."

ABC ran second on the night thanks to "Lost" (5.2/14 in 18-49, 12.1 million viewers overall), although the drama hit a firstrun series low. Net didn't do a whole lot elsewhere on the night with original episodes of "George Lopez" (2.2/7 in 18-49, 6.3 million viewers overall), "According to Jim" (2.3/6 in 18-49, 5.8 million viewers overall) and "In Case of Emergency" (2.0/5 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall).

CBS had a sluggish night, as "Jericho" (2.3/7 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall) continued to come in below its fall averages, finishing behind Fox drama "Bones" (3.4/10 in 18-49, 10.2 million viewers overall), which led the 8 o'clock hour despite coming in below its recent scores. CW remained sharp in the hour with "America's Next Top Model" (2.4/7 in 18-49, 5.2 million viewers overall), which ranked second in 18-49 and first in persons 12-34 (2.8/10).

An encore of the previous night's "Pussycat Doll" reality show at 9 o'clock (1.6/4 in 18-49, 3.5 million viewers overall) placed second to Fox in persons 12-34 (2.2/7) and was up over Tuesday's firstrun averages.

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 5.6/16; ABC, 3.2/9; CBS, 2.6/7; NBC, 2.1/6; CW, 2.0/6; Univision, 1.6/5.

In total viewers: Fox, 15.0 million; CBS, 9.6 million; ABC, 7.8 million; NBC, 7.1 million; CW, 4.3 million; Univision, 3.8 million.




TALKBACK:

Have an opinion about this article? Be the first to comment



Print Variety
Bookmark
Get Variety:
Variety Mobile Variety Digital Variety Home Delivery
Newsletter Signup:

Featured Jobs

Variety Real Estate