'American Idol' Scores Highest-Rated Thursday for Any Network in 4 Years

Frank Micelotta/FOX

With virtually the entire broadcast lineup in reruns against American Idol’s two-hour Top 13 finalist reveal Thursday night, the Fox show climbed 13 percent week-to-week for an 8.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 15 percent among total viewers with 25 million.

It was the highest-rated Thursday on any network in four years.

CBS was a distant second for the night (2.0, 9.3 million) with mostly reruns, though the network did run a new installment of Rules of Engagement (2.3, 8.1 million). But without a new episode of The Big Bang Theory as a lead-in, Rules tumbled 18% week-to-week.

Univision (1.6, 3.9 million) was third for the night, followed by NBC (1.4, 3.0 million) with three hours of Office reruns, and ABC (1.2, 4.0 million) with reruns of Wipeout, Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice.