'American Idol' Takes Ratings Silver for the First Time in Six Years THR

Lindsey Vonn's downhill skiing gold medal run on NBC lured enough viewers away from Fox's "American Idol" to have it place second in its time period, a feat that hasn't happened in six years, The Hollywood Reporter says.  

The Associated Press says the last time "Idol" wasn't first in its time period was in May 2004, when a special Monday edition was trumped by an episode of NBC's "Fear Factor."

"Idol" has consistently captured its time period for the last 222 episodes, but a stellar Wednesday by Team USA (six medals on Wednesday, three of them gold) allowed the coverage to best the singing competition, which posted a season low 6.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic last night.

NBC's 9 o'clock Olympic coverage landed a 9.0 rating in the same demo, and drew in 29.4 million viewers for the night. 

--Andrew Krukowski