As usual American Idol propelled Fox to the top of the ratings heap Wednesday night. The 90-minute installment, which featured performances from Idol’s top nine contestants, averaged a 7.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 22.5 million viewers overall. Last night’s Idol was off 8 percent in the demo versus last Wednesday’s two-hour installment, but it nearly doubled the demo rating for next-highest show of the night – CBS’ Criminal Minds.
Idol gave new comedy Breaking In (3.5, 9.8 million) a running start; it bested the post-Idol premiere of relationship comedy Traffic Light by 25 percent, garnering the highest post-Idol retention of any comedy in more than four years.
For the night, Fox averaged a 6.2 rating with 19.3 million viewers followed by CBS (2.9, 11.1) with Survivor: Redemption Island (3.1, 10.5 million), Criminal Minds (3.6, 13.9 million) and Suspect Behavior (2.1, 8.9 million). Survivor was flat week-to-week, matching its lowest-rated regular telecast ever. Criminal Minds post a 3 percent uptick, but Suspect Behavior was down 9 percent for a series low.
Univision (1.6, 4.1 million) was once again third for the night with telenovelas Eva Luna (1.6, 4.3 million), Teresa (1.7, 4.2 million) and Triunfo del Amor (1.5, 3.7 million).
ABC and NBC tied in the demo with a 1.4 rating each while NBC edged ABC in total viewers 5.0 million versus 4.5 million.
NBC’s Minute to Win It (1.0, 3.3 million) was down 17 percent week-to-week for a series low while a new episode of Law & Order: SVU (2.3, 8.0 million) won the 10 p.m. time period despite an 8 percent decline.
ABC programmed reruns of The Middle and Modern Family. A new episode of Mr. Sunshine (1.6, 4.6 million) at 9:30 p.m. was up 14 percent week-to-week while the finale of Off the Map (1.3, 3.8 million) tied its series low and was last in the 10 p.m. time period.
America’s Next Top Model and Shedding for the Wedding averaged a 0.6 rating with 1.3 million viewers overall for the CW.
