RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘American Idol’ Falls To New Low, ‘Family Tools’ Debuts Soft, ‘Survivor’ & ‘CSI’ Hit Series Lows, ‘How To Live With Your Parents’ Up
The May sweep stepped it up a notch last night with American Idol (2.8/8), The Voice (1.6/5) and Survivor: Caramoan (2.3/7) going head-to-head-to-head. While not the first time Idol and The Voice have faced off directly (they overlapped on April 27, 2011), and the NBC show a season-so-far recap, it was their debut matchup this season. With Harry Connick Jr joining as guest mentor and a “you’re a superstar” shout-out to contestant Amber Holcomb from judge Nicki Minaj, Wednesday’s American Idol fell 13% from last week’s fast nationals and 15% from April 24’s final numbers to hit an all-time Wednesday low. Still, Idol still was the most watched show of the night with 11.08 million viewers, and Fox took Wednesday in the adults 18-49 demographic and total viewers with 11.075 watching on a night when usage slipped 4% in the demo.
In its first Wednesday broadcast of the sweep, The Voice: The Road To Live show was essentially a greatest clips of the show’s fourth season so far. A lead-in and perpetual tease to next week’s three nights of live shows, the one-hour episode was up 19% from the 1.3/4 that Dateline received in the same time slot April 24. With The Voice recap show as a lead-in, Law & Order: SVU (1.5/4) saw a drop of 21% from last week. Following at 10 PM, Chicago Fire (1.7/5) bopped up 6% from its last new show April 3.
In its third-to-last show of the season, CBS’ Survivor: Caramoan was No. 2 in the reality tripleheader last night. Having said that, the long-running reality show took a 21% fall from the season-high tie April 24 airing to hit a series low. Criminal Minds (2.3/7) and CSI (1.8/5) also hit series lows as they were down 21% and 25%, respectively, from their last originals April 10.
On ABC, the new Leah Remini comedy Family Tools (1.5/4) made its debut at 8:30 PM. In terms of ratings, it wasn’t very funny: It was ABC’s lowest-rated comedy premiere ever. Family Tools was down 12% from Suburgatory’s last original show in the slot April 17 and down 26% from The Neighbors debut in the same slot on October 3, 2012. And you can’t put that number on the lead-in — The Middle (2.0/7) was actually even with its last original April 10. The highest-rated show of the night, Modern Family (3.5/10), slipped 8% from its last new show three weeks back. On the other hand, freshman How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life) (2.2/6) jumped up 47% from last week’s season low. Ending the night for ABC, Nashville (1.7/5) took a 6% dip from its last new show April 10.
The CW had new episodes of Arrow (0.9/3) and Supernatural (0.9/2). Both were down 10% from last week’s episodes.
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