We all knew American Idol’s eighth season premiere — seen by an average 30.1 million viewers, according to overnight ratings (down 10 percent from Season 7’s bow) — would reclaim Tuesday night for Fox. The question was, how much would other shows suffer? Well, CBS’ NCIS held strong with 18.5 million viewers, only 3 percent shy of last week’s audience, and The Mentalist, which hit a season-high Jan. 6, only dropped 8 percent to 18.1 million. Among the show’s not so lucky: ABC’s Scrubs. Because Idol is a powerhouse in both total viewers and the 18-49 demographic, the sitcom’s back-to-back episodes took a serious hit compared to last week’s premiere: Total viewers nose-dived 33 percent for the hour, while the 18-49 rating dipped from the 3.2 that creator Bill Lawrence thought would make the Alphabet execs happy to 2.2. NBC’s Biggest Loser: Couples was also missing a notable portion of its crowd: Total viewers was down 27 percent from last week’s season premiere, while the 18-49 rating dipped from 4.5 to 3.3. Over on The CW, 90210 dipped 22 percent in total viewers, as its 18-49 rating went from 1.4 to 1.1. Privileged was down 33 percent, and took the demo drop from .8 to .5.
| Time | Show | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 8 p.m. | American Idol (Fox) NCIS (CBS) The Biggest Loser: Couples (NBC) Homeland Security USA (ABC) 90210 (The CW) |
30.1 18.5 8.8 6.0 2.2 |
| 9 p.m. | The Mentalist (CBS) Scrubs (ABC) Privileged (The CW) |
18.1 4.6 1.1 |
| 9:30 p.m. | Scrubs (ABC) | 4.3 |
| 10 p.m. | Without a Trace (CBS) Law & Order: SVU (NBC) What Would You Do? (ABC) |
12.4 9.7 7.3 |
More TV news:
Michael Slezak’s American Idol recap
Profile: Kara DioGuardi, the New ‘Idol’ Judge
12 songs that should be banned from Idol forever!
The 16 best Idol performances ever
The 10 worst Idol performances ever
Amy Wilkinson’s Biggest Loser: Couples recap
Comments (1-3) of 3 Add your comment
Sick and tired of American Idol killing well written and intelligent shows. Why are people still watching?
I wonder why ratings for “Idol” dropped. I didn’t think people were sick of it yet.
I watched Idol, but DVR’d Scrubs. Why can’t they take that into their figures