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‘Idol’ Mired in Third Place on Thursday Night; Tight Race Between Fox and CBS

Mar 8, 2013  •  Post A Comment

Fox’s “American Idol” continues to see its viewer numbers slip, and on Thursday night the best it could do was third-highest-rated show of the night behind two CBS comedies, based on Nielsen overnights.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that “Idol” delivered a 3.5 average rating in the key 18-49, trailing not only the night’s current juggernaut, “The Big Bang Theory,” which dominated with a 5.4 average, but also “Two and a Half Men,” which came through with a 3.9.

For prime time overall, Fox and CBS were locked in a close fight for No. 1, with Fox eking out a narrow win in viewers 18-49 while CBS claimed victory in total viewers.

Fox’s 3.1 average rating led the way in the 18-49 demo, followed by CBS (3.0 average), Univision (1.8), NBC (1.1) and ABC (1.1). Total viewers saw CBS ahead with 12.9 million, followed by Fox (10.6 million), Univision (4.3 million), ABC (3.9 million) and NBC (3.0 million).

ABC aired an all-repeat lineup, while NBC put up mostly reruns and CBS aired a repeat of “Elementary.”

“American Idol” was down 8% from last week’s 18-49 number. Fox’s “Glee” did its part, contributing to the network’s cause with a 2.5, up 47% from the previous original airing back on Feb. 14. The report notes that “Idol” ran two minutes over, which means the Fox shows will be subject to more than the usual adjustments.

CBS’s “Person of Interest” slipped 3% from its previous original to a 2.8 in the 18-49 demo, while NBC’s “Community” posted a 25% increase from last week to a 1.5 and NBC’s “1600 Penn” matched last week’s series low with a 0.9.

One Comment

  1. At some point, Fox will figure out that Minaj is the worst thing to happen to Idol since its’ inception.

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