The "American Idol" results show dominated the primetime ratings race on Wednesday, beating the combined demo delivery of ABC, CBS, NBC and CW during the night's middle hour.
Wednesday also saw CW's "America's Next Top Model" deliver season highs as it nears its conclusion next month, and CBS rolled at 10 p.m. with a special firstrun episode of "Criminal Minds" in what appears to be a trial balloon for a possible fall sked switch.
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "American Idol" (8.1 rating/21 share in adults 18-49, 23.3 million viewers overall) more than doubled the demo score for any other program on Wednesday, on par with its performance from the previous week. Dipping some was 8 o'clock rookie drama "Lie to Me" (2.3/7 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall), although it won its rather lackluster hour in most broad categories.
CW's "America's Next Top Model" was on the rise (1.9/6 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall), placing second to "Lie to Me" in 18-49 while winning the 8 o'clock hour in adults 18-34 (2.1/7). It especially dominated among women 18-34 (3.4/11), logging the show's best number since its fall finale in November.
At CBS, a special 10 p.m. firstrun episode of "Criminal Minds," the latest in a series of unusual timeslot schedulings on the CBS sked this week, won easily with a 3.5/9 in 18-49 and 13.5 million viewers overall -- easily the best numbers for a scripted program on Wednesday; by comparison, an original episode of usual timeslot occupant "CSI: NY" last week pulled a 2.9/8 in the demo and 12.1 million viewers overall. Earlier, repeats of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (1.4/5 in 18-49, 5.2 million viewers overall) and "Gary Unmarried" (1.7/5 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall) didn't do much, with the net then picking up some at 9 p.m. with a repeat "Criminal Minds" in its regular timeslot (2.3/6 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall).
ABC was led by a "Lost" clip show at 9 p.m. (2.9/7 in 18-49, 6.6 million viewers overall) but again dropped off at 10 p.m. with rookie drama "The Unusuals" (1.6/4 in 18-49, 5.0 million viewers overall). In the night's opening hour, 8:30 laffer "Better Off Ted" continues to hang in there (1.7/5 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall), again nearly at the level of lead-in "Scrubs" (1.8/6 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall).
NBC was slow all night with its repeats from the "Law & Order" franchise, peaking at 10 p.m. with the motherhood edition (1.8/5 in 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall).
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 5.2/15; CBS, 2.5/7; ABC, 2.1/6; NBC and Univision, 1.5/4; CW, 1.2/3.
In total viewers: Fox, 15.6 million; CBS, 9.6 million; NBC, 5.8 million; ABC, 5.3 million; Univision, 3.8 million; CW, 2.6 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com