Ratings Chart Attack!

Reality programs ruled Wednesday night, as CBS’ special “I Get That a Lot” and Fox’s “American Idol” won their respective hours, while the series finale of “Life on Mars” went out with a whimper.

Last night’s results episode of “American Idol” on Fox posted an 8.1 rating/20 share among adults 18-49 and 23.7 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen figures. “Idol” was up 5% from last Thursday’s results episode (delayed to accommodate President Obama’s press conference), but down 7% from its last Wednesday telecast two weeks ago. In the 8 p.m. hour, “Lie to Me” (2.6/8, 9 million) continued to lose steam, dropping 16% from its most recent original episode two weeks ago and hitting a new series low.

CBS’ premiere of the hidden-camera special “I Get That a Lot” fared well with a 3.4/10 (10.3 million). The show improved the network’s performance for the hour by 48% over last week’s “Survivor” clip episode; it also delivered the best performance in the hour in various demos since December’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” special. “I Get That” was comparable to last week’s original Wednesday dramas and may inspire the network to order “A Lot” more episodes. “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: NY” were repeats last night.

“Lost” on ABC scored a 4.2/10 (9.3 million), on par with recent performances. At 10 p.m., the series finale of “Life on Mars” (2.1/6, 5.9 million) retained only half of its “Lost” lead-in to wrap with a rating similar to recent performances. In the 8 p.m. hour, “Scrubs” (1.9/6, 5 million) was down 10% from last week while “Better Off Ted” (1.8/5, 4.7 million) remained flat.

On NBC in the 9 p.m. hour, “Life” (1.4/4, 5.6 million) was flat with last week. “Law & Order: CI” and “Law & Order” were both repeats at 8 and 10 p.m., respectively. “CI” did, however, improve the network’s time-period performance by 33% over last week, when the now-deceased “Chopping Block” occupied the slot.

After going up against “Idol” last week, The CW’s “America’s Next Top Model” (1.7/5, 3.9 million) grew 21% for last night’s telecast. With a “90210” encore at 9 p.m., the network averaged a 2.0/6 among women 18-49.

For the night: Fox finished first (5.4/15, 16.3 million), followed by ABC (2.7/7, 6.7 million), CBS (2.6/7, 10.1 million), NBC (1.5/4, 5.7 million) and The CW (1.1/3, 2.6 million).