TV Ratings: ‘American Idol’ Thursday Opener Steady With Last Season

American Idol continued its premiere week Thursday night with a 5.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 16.2 million viewers. The show was down just 7 percent in the key demo from Wednesday’s opening haul. Compared with the Thursday premiere last year, Idol was only off by a tenth of a point and even with its fast national showing.

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Last year’s inaugural Thursday Idol averaged 18 million viewers and a 5.7 rating with adults 18-49, which marked double-digit drops from the previous year. It also gave an expected 23 percent drop from the Wednesday premiere. It marks the strongest retention the show has boasted in its second episode since 2009.

Thursday’s retention also leaves Idol tracking much higher than the recent run of The Voice, besting its premiere-week average by 41 percent in the demo (a 5.8 adults rating vs. a 4.1).

Elsewhere, ABC’s Last Resort was down 17 percent to a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49. Grey’s Anatomy (2.9 adults), tying a season low, was down 9 percent. And while it was off 7 percent from last week, Scandal (2.6 adults) still topped the 10 p.m. hour. The network averaged a 2.2 adults rating and 7.2 million viewers.

Encores brought CBS a 1.9 rating with adults 18-49 and 9 million viewers.

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On NBC, 30 Rock was down two-tenths of a point for a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49, while Parks and Recreation opened up shop in its new 8:30 p.m. time slot by jumping four-tenths to a 1.9 rating in the demo, a season high for the half-hour and the series. The Office (2.1 adults) was a tenth of a point shy from last week, while 1600 Penn (1.2 adults) lost 25 percent of its premiere haul. Rock Center With Brian Williams (1.2 adults) was up a tenth of a point, giving the network a 1.5 adults rating for the night and 3.9 million viewers.

The Vampire Diaries (1.4 adults) returned up a tenth of a point on The CW before the network aired another encore of The Carrie Diaries (0.5 adults). The CW averaged a 0.9 rating with adults 18-49 and 2 million viewers.

Univision averaged a 1.6 rating with adults 18-49 and 3.9 million viewers.