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American Idol Has Its Work Cut Out for It Tonight
Frank Micelotta/FOX
The good news for American Idol is that it got a bounce out of last night's Adam Lambert-Kris Allen sing-off. The so-so news is that it was a so-so one.
The sobering news is that it's going to need a hefty one tonight to avoid tomorrow's ready-to-roll "lowest-rated finale ever" headlines.
Well, at least Glee got happy…
As for last night, Idol's penultimate show of the season averaged an estimated 23.8 million viewers, Fox said, up 5 percent over last Tuesday, tying the show's smallest week-to-finale-week uptick since at least 2005.
Last year, the David Cook-David Archuleta matchup boosted viewership 9 percent from Tuesday to Tuesday. In Idol's glory years of 2006 and 2005, the Taylor Hicks-Katharine McPhee and Carrie Underwood-Bo Bice sing-offs each jacked up Idol by 12 percent over the previous performance episode.
Last night's results matched 2007's in which the Jordin Sparks-Blake Lewis showdown goosed the numbers by 5 percent.
Overall, Lambert vs. Allen was the least-watched sing-off since Idol's prehistoric first season, which doesn't really count since it was so prehistoric.
In order to avoid recording a new Idol finale low tonight, the show will have to win over 28.9 million—just enough to squeak by 2004's Fantasia-crowning show. (Technically, 2002's Kelly Clarkson-crowning moment in time is Idol's least-watched finale, but again, the first season doesn't really count.)
In order to hit 28.9 million, Idol will have to beef up by more than 5 million viewers from last night and by more than 4 million from last Wednesday.
Good thing Lambert has range.
Elsewhere in last night's ratings:
• In the golden post-Idol time slot, Glee's sneak premiere scored 10 million viewers, Fox said, a slight improvement over last week's Fringe finale. Fox seemed most excited about Glee hitting No. 1 last night on Twitter's Trending Topics.
• Dancing With the Stars avoided the "lowest-rated such-and-such" trap by getting approximately the same number of people to tune in Shawn Johnson's win as the show's 2008 spring finale: 20.1 million, per preliminary Nielsen estimates. And, yes, DWTS got a finale bounce—it was up about 43 percent from last week's results show.
• NCIS (16.1 million) and The Mentalist (16.8 million) don't do bounces. They live large like that week in, week out.
• 90210 probably would've liked a bounce for its finale. But it didn't get one. Overall, it ran even with last week, not to mention its season, averaging 2.1 million.
• At 10 p.m., the canceled Without a Trace (11.3 million) closed out its season, and its CBS run, with a beat down of Law & Order: SVU (6.7 million).
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