RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Repeat Beats ‘Idol’ Head-To-Head In Viewers For 1st Time, ‘Hannibal’ & ‘Vampire Diaries’ Down
Last night’s American Idol (2.9/9) dipped 6% from last week’s fast nationals in the adults 18-49 demographic and was down 9% from last week’s final numbers. That left the Fox singing competition bested in total viewers for the first time ever by a repeat of The Big Bang Theory (3.0/10) on CBS. In the 8-8:30 PM slot, Big Bang pulled in 11.19 million viewers to Idol’s 11.03 million. Over the entire 8-9 PM hour, Idol garnered 11.9 million viewers who watched the live results show, which kicked off with a Donna Summer medley and included performances from alumni Fantasia Barrino and Clay Aiken, some inevitable bickering between judge Nicki Minaj with mentor Jimmy Iovine, and eventually one more contestant cut loose to get to the final four. With a two-minute overrun, Idol likely will see ratings rise in the final nationals later today.
Like last week, Fox had a new Glee (2.2/6) following Idol at 9 PM. Last week’s controversial school-shooting episode still lingered as the characters absorbed the incident, and the show dipped 8% from that April 11 episode. With a night full of repeats, CBS edged ahead of Fox to win Thursday in total viewers (9.248 million vs. 9.144 million), while Fox topped the night in the demo.
After topping its premiere in its second week, NBC’s new Hannibal (1.4/4) took a downward turn Thursday. Facing repeats last night, the freshman drama fell 18% from last week. The network started the night with Community (1.3/4), which had a Christmas party but sadly no puppets like last week. Still, the show was up 8% from its April 11 show. A The Office (1.0/3) encore followed at 8:30 PM in what was Parks And Recreation’s slot last week. Then it was a double shot of Parks And Recreation. The 9 PM (1/7/5) show was up 13% from last week’s 8:30 PM broadcast, as was the 9:30 (1.7/5) show.
It was prom night on the CW’s The Vampire Diaries (0.9/3) last night, but the show was still down from 25% from its last original March 28 to hit a series low. A new Beauty And The Beast (0.6/2) followed and was even with its March 28 performance.
Like April 11, the only original on ABC last night was a new Wife Swap (1.5/5). After hitting its second-best-numbers of the season last week, the reality series was up 7% to a new second-place season high. Otherwise, the network ran encores of Grey’s Anatomy (1.1/3) and Scandal (0.9/3).
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UPDATE: RATINGS RAT RACE: NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ Tops Premiere In Second Week
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