RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘American Idol’ Slips To Win Sleepy Post-Sweep Thursday

As much as they say sweeps don’t matter anymore, the broadcast networks still try to put their best foot forward in November, February and in May. And on the first night following the February sweep last night, most networks switched to repeats. That left Fox’s American Idol, ABC’s Zero Hour and NBC’s Community and 1600 Penn as the only original choices last night. None took advantage. Idol‘s final Vegas edition (3.8/11 in adults 18-49) was down a tenth from last Thursday. Fox still won the night handily in 18-49 and all other key demos, as well as total viewers. ABC’s Zero Hour (1.0/3) fell another tenth to a new series low. NBC’s Community (1.1/4) was even with last week’s series low despite not facing a The Big Bang Theory original this time. 1600 Penn (0.9/2) continues to fade, down a tenth from last week to a series low. Overall, adults 18-49 usage last night was down -6% from 8-11 PM vs last week, which reflects young viewers’ decreased appetite for broadcast TV when there are so many repeats on. But reruns once again worked well for CBS, whose encores were only outranked by Idol last night — Big Bang Theory (2.8/9), Two And A Half Men (2.2/6), Person Of Interest (1.9/5) and Elementary (1.6/5).

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