American Idol increased its ratings range last night. The last show before next week’s Season 11 finale saw Idol (4.8/14) up 7% from last week. The two-hour Top 3 performance show garnered 17.3 million viewers, a 5% rise compared with last week and its best since March 28. Meanwhile, CBS’ two-hour season finale of Criminal Minds (3.5/10) was up 21% over last week and up 6% on last year’s one-hour finale. It was the series’ best adult 18-49 rating since January 25. Fox won the night in the demo and total viewers, up over nearest rival CBS by 78% in 18-49 and 66% in overall viewers.
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On ABC at 8 PM, The Middle (1.9/6) was even with last week. NBC’s Betty White’s Off Their Rockers (1.4/5) was down 7% at 8 PM but up 7% (1.5/5) at 8:30, a 10-week high for NBC in the time slot and, with 5.4 million viewers, an 18-week viewer high. A Mike & Molly (1.1/4) repeat was the same as last week for CBS. The 8:30 PM Rules of Engagement (1.1/3) was also a repeat. The finale of Suburgatory (1.8/6) slumped to a season low, down 14% from last week. Modern Family (3.9/11) was also down; the ABC show fell 11% to a season low. The CW’s America’s Top Model (0.5/1) was up a tenth from last week.
A repeat of Law & Order: SVU (0.8/2) at 9 PM was followed by an original Law & Order: SVU (1.7/5) at 10. The original was down 6% from last week. Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 was down 13% in its 9:30 PM slot, a tie for its series low. In the 10 PM slot on ABC, Revenge (2.0/5) was down 9%.
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Bummer for ABC, as Revenge was fantastic last night. Wonder what this means for next weeks finale?
The pressure is obviously getting to Joshua, Jessica and Philip, and it showed a bit last night. Truly, I would not want to pick who must depart. In fact, the last several weeks have been hard choices.
So, let me state, this year Idol does not seem to be ruled by teen girl voting. The voting seems to have been fair to date, and I have no issues with it.
Overall, Idol has improved in my mind thanks to the talent this year and Nigel not going overboard with the production elements.