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HOME > American Idol > American Idol 8'American Idol's eighth season debuts huge, but ratings dip again
By Christopher Rocchio, 01/14/2009
Tuesday night's premiere of American Idol's eighth season was the highest-rated telecast of the 2008-2009 television season, however the show's season premiere ratings still dipped for the second consecutive year.
However similar to most other broadcast network shows that have returned this season, those numbers were down from last January's broadcast of Idol's seventh-season premiere, which averaged 33.2 million total viewers and scored a 13.8/32 rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographic and a 12.9/33 rating/share among Adults 18-34.
Tuesday night's debut marked the second consecutive year that Idol's premiere dipped a bit from its previous season, as the show's monster sixth-season premiere in January 2007 averaged 37.3 million total viewers, a 15.7/36 rating/share among Adults 18-49 and a 14.8/38 rating/share among Adults 18-34. Idol's eighth-season premiere also fell short of the ratings numbers that the show's fourth (33.5 million viewers and a 14.0/33 in Adults 18-49) and fifth season (35.5 million viewers and a 15.3/34 in Adults 18-49) premieres had delivered, making it the least-watched premiere since the show's third-season debut in January 2004. Despite the prior season decline, Tuesday night's two-hour Idol 8 premiere still managed to hammer the combined total programming of the four other major network broadcasters in the 8-10PM ET/PT time period -- out-delivering CBS, ABC, NBC and The CW's combined ratings by 17% among Adults 18-49 (an 11.6/28 rating/share vs. a combined 9.9/24 rating/share); 23% among Adults 18-34 (a 9.7/26 rating/share vs. a combined 7.9/21 rating/share); and 145% among Teens (a 10.8/33 rating/share vs. a combined 4.4/14 rating/share). In addition, it also outperformed CBS, ABC, NBC and The CW by 85% among total viewers (30.1 million vs. a combined 16.3 million). As the highest-rated entertainment telecast of the 2008-2009 season on any network, Idol's eighth-season premiere broadcast also blew away the season's previously top-rated programs among Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34, Teens and total viewers. Idol beat Grey's Anatomy's September fifth-season premiere (the season's previously top-ranked telecast among the Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34 demographics) by 57% among Adults 18-49 (11.6/28 rating/share vs. 7.4/18 rating/share) and by 24% among Adults 18-34 (9.7/26 rating/share vs. 7.8/21 rating/share). Idol's debut also beat CSI's October ninth-season premiere (the season's previously top-ranked telecast among total viewers) by 28% among total viewers (30.1 million vs. 23.5 million); and it crushed Family Guy's November 2 episode (the season's previously top-ranked telecast among Teens) by 108% among Teens (10.8/33 rating/share vs. 5.2/15 rating/share). In addition, Idol's premiere also helped Fox deliver the highest-rated night of the 2008-2009 season -- including both entertainment and sports programming -- among Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34, Teens and total viewers. DISCUSS AND COMMENT ON THIS STORY Reality TV World has launched a trial program offering Facebook Comments on our stories to provide an enhanced user experience to our readers. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then 'Add' your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the 'X' in the upper right corner of the comment box.Get more Reality TV World! Follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. |
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