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Balance of Power Shifts Between Season’s Two Top Shows

May 3, 2012  •  Post A Comment

A shift took place in the broadcast television landscape Wednesday night, with the two top-rated shows of the season swapping places, James Hibberd reports on EW.com.

Fox’s “American Idol” had a good night, moving ahead of NBC’s “The Voice” to become the season’s top show — just in time for the upcoming network upfront presentations to advertisers, the article says.

The story reports: “’Idol’ has reclaimed the No. 1 spot for the season (even if you include the special post-Super Bowl airing of ‘The Voice’). ‘Idol’ has averaged 6.2 on Wednesdays in the adult demo and ‘The Voice’ is at 6.1 We still have the rest of the month to go, and things could still change, but Fox will be relieved to face Madison Avenue and claim, as they have for many years in a row, TV’s top non-sports series.”

The shift happened even as Wednesday’s two-hour “Idol” slipped two-tenths of a ratings point from last week in the adults 18-49 demo, settling for a 4.6 average rating in the Nielsen overnights, TVbytheNumbers.com reports. "The Voice" did not air Wednesday.

On the other networks Wednesday night, series lows and season lows continued, with both ABC and CBS taking multiple hits.

CBS’s “Survivor” slipped two-tenths of a point in 18-49 to a series-low 2.5 average, while “CSI” tied its series low with a 2.3, down one-tenth from its previous original episode. “Criminal Minds” was even with its previous original with a 3.0.

ABC returned to originals after airing mostly repeats a week ago, with “The Middle” slipping to a season-low 2.0, “Suburgatory” matching its season-low 2.0, “Modern Family” down one-tenth to a season-low 4.0 and “Revenge” equaling last week’s series low of 2.1. “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23” broke the trend, rebounding by four-tenths from last week’s series low to a 2.4.

NBC saw a series low for “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers,” which earned a 1.3 in 18-49 for its 8 p.m. airing and improved slightly to a 1.4 at 8:30 p.m. “Rock Center” was up one-tenth to a 1.0 and “Law & Order: SVU” was up one-tenth to a 1.8.

Fox was an easy winner for the night overall, averaging a 4.6 rating in the 18-49 demo to outdistance CBS (2.6), ABC (2.4) and NBC (1.4). Total viewers was a similar story, with Fox way out front with 16.3 million to CBS’s 10.1 million, ABC’s 7.1 million and NBC’s 5.2 million.

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