Two-hour ‘American Idol’ stumbles from last Thursday episode, Fox still comes out on top

Fox ran a special two-hour episode of American Idol Thursday night, which is usually reserved for a single hour of Idol. The episode’s ratings and audience numbers fell considerably in comparison to last week’s one-hour episode, but it was still more than enough to help the network beat CBS. The week’s trend of overall downward ratings continued as well.

Idol helped Fox finish in first place, averaging 16.5 million viewers and a 5.0 18-49 rating, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That was a 14 percent drop from last Thursday’s numbers.

CBS came in second with an average of 13.35 million viewers and a 3.3 18-49 rating. The Big Bang Theory actually beat Idol in the 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. slot with 15.52 million viewers and a 5.0 18-49 rating, notes Hit Fix, but it was actually down 11 percent from its last new episode. Rob stayed steady with 10.9 million viewers and a 3.2 18-49 rating. Person of Interest still had a strong performance against Idol, dropping to 13.25 million viewers and a 2.9 18-49 rating. The Mentalist gave CBS a win at 10 p.m. with 13.6 million viewers and a 2.8 18-49 rating.

ABC came in a distant third, getting just over half as many viewers as CBS. The network averaged 6.8 million viewers and a 2.4 18-49 rating, reports Zap2It. Wipeout managed just 5.1 million viewers and a 1.5 18-49 rating, while Grey’s Anatomy dropped to just 8.13 million viewers and a 3.1 18-49 rating. Thanks to a crossover episode with Grey’s, Private Practice actually climbed up to 7.1 million viewers and a 2.6 18-49 rating.

NBC was barely on the radar, getting less than 1 million more viewers than The CW. The network averaged just 3.1 million viewers and a 1.4 18-49 rating. 30 Rock sunk to just 3.6 million viewers and a 1.4 18-49 rating, while Parks & Recreation had 3.5 million and a 1.7 rating. The Office had only 4.3 million viewers and a 2.2 18-49 rating and Up All Night had 3 million and a 1.5 rating. A Grimm repeat had just 2 million viewers and a 0.7 18-49 rating.

Thanks to The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle, The CW had a decent night, averaging 2.3 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating.