Big Picture
Good Morning, Nicki! Plus, Daniel Radcliffe works his magic and Bruce Jenner blasts to the past. Get the latest pics!
MORE PHOTOS +Most Commented
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: Vote in the Final Round! (2036)
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: This Round Is Closed, Please Stand By (698)
- Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Photos Galore! New Pics From Their Post-Twilight Flicks! (606)
- Afternoon Mail! Are Gleeks Having More Sex Than Vamps? (586)
- TV's Top Couple Tournament: And the Winner Is... (504)
- Beyoncé and Jay-Z Share First Photos of Baby Blue Ivy! (398)
- Whitney Houston Dead at 48 (396)
- Twitter Name Change: Introducing @Ted_Casablanca (249)
- Life After Breaking Dawn?! Maybe, Says Studio Head! (226)
- Morning Mail! Céline Dion Talks Whitney Houston's Tragic Death (222)
Top 10 Stories
- Gary Busey's Stuff Detailed for Bankruptcy Filing: VHS Tapes, Tepees and Tambourines
- Whitney Houston Remembered by Sparkle Producer: "Almost a Magic About Her"
- Miley Cyrus "Better Watch" Hunger Games, Says Liam Hemsworth
- Colbert Report Mystery Shutdown: Production Suspended Due to "Unforeseen Circumstances"
- Kevin Costner? Aretha Franklin? Bobby Brown? Latest Details on Whitney Houston's Funeral
- Diddy Remembers Whitney Houston: "She Was So Full of Life"
- Royal Feud Shocker! Sean Penn Slams Prince William's "Unthinkable" Deployment
- Real Housewives' Michaele Salahi & Journey's Neal Schon: Tareq Salahi Is the One Tormenting Us!
- Angelina Jolie Tears Up—Watch Her Get Emotional
- Josh Duhamel Not Coming Back for Transformers 4: Is Anyone?!
Fashion Police
Our Partners
"Idol" Missing Chicken Little?
The sky is not falling on American Idol.
But the Fox singing competition arguably is feeling the loss of its own Chicken Little, with ratings down in each of the weeks since 16-year-old Kevin Covais' was ordered to fly the coop.
On Mar. 21, Covais, the purported favorite of little old ladies and the original candidate of votefortheworst.com, sang "When I Fall in Love" on 1950s music night. The episode was watched by 33.4 million, per Nielsen Media Research, the show's biggest ever Tuesday crowd. A night later, the baby-faced crooner dubbed Chicken Little after the 2005 animated film was shamed as the lowest vote getter, and dismissed.
One week after that, viewership for the competition episode celebrating "songs of the 21st century" dipped 5 percent from the previous Tuesday. And the trend continued last week, with the Tuesday night numbers down 14 percent when compared to the final Covais-graced Tuesday night.
Votefortheworst.com creator Dave Della Terza wasn't surprised to hear of the viewer defections.
"[Covais had] the whole 'why is he still around factor,' " Della Terza said Tuesday. "A lot of people tuned in to see how far he would get."
In Covais' absence, Della Terza said viewers have been treated to so-so entertainment because "the bad singers [left] aren't even that entertaining."
Overall, though, Idol remains a blockbuster.
The show is averaging 31.1 million viewers on Tuesday nights, up 14 percent from last season, Fox said. And while Kenny Rogers Roasters' namesake and country music star didn't attract record numbers last week, Idol still dominated. Tuesday's installment (28.8 million) was the number one show in the latest Nielsen rankings; Wednesday's (26.2 million) was number two.
The remaining eight Idol finalists try their luck Tuesday night with Queen covers. And Della Terza, for one, can't wait to catch his site's new "worst" candidate in action.
"Kellie Pickler is going to do 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' " Della Terza said. "We hope that will bring the spark back to the show."
Elsewhere in the TV week ended Sunday:
Fox's House (fourth place, 22.7 million) is immune to the real estate bubble, hitting a series high in viewers. Per CBS, 128.5 million watched all or part of the men's NCAA basketball tournament on their office computers. We made up the part about the office computers. Sort of. The tournament's championship game between Florida and UCLA (sixth place, 17.5 million) did well in prime time on Monday for CBS, but not as well as a two-hour Deal or No Deal (fifth place, 17.7 million) did on Monday for NBC. With Dancing with the Stars and the Winter Olympics out of the picture, CBS' Survivor: Panama--Exile Island (eighth place, 16.4 million) continues to get healthier. But it also continues to lag more than 1 million viewers behind last fall's Survivor: Guatemala. Jimmy Smits won the presidency, and The West Wing (40th place, 8.4 million) won its best numbers since last November's debate episode, NBC said. The Amazing Race 9 (48th place, 8.1 million) moved to Wednesdays and made CBS forget all about that sitcom starring whatshername. The jig is up for Heist (68th place, 6.2 million), with NBC expected to ice the new series after this week. Rebecca Romijn is the latest to learn how much fun it is to launch a new series, such as Pepper Dennis (126th place, 2.6 million), on a doomed network, such as the WB. A Tuesday night repeat of UPN's Veronica Mars drew the opposite of a crowd--152nd place, 992,000 viewers. (A new episode on Wednesday did considerably better--122nd place, 2.9 million).In the battle of the networks, CBS was the week's most watched among total viewers, averaging 12.4 million; Fox was the week's most watched network among 18-to-49-year-old viewers.
Fox (9.9 million) ran second in viewers, followed by NBC (9.3 million) and ABC (8.1 million), which suffered for a lack of new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives--and Deal or No Deal.
The Spanish-language network Univision topped UPN and the WB in both total viewers and the 18-to-49 demo.
Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 28.8 million viewers
2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 26.2 million viewers
3. CSI, CBS, 23.3 million viewers
4. House, Fox, 22.7 million viewers
5. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 17.7 million viewers
6. NCAA Men's Basketball Championship (Florida v. UCLA), CBS, 17.5 million viewers
7. Lost, ABC, 16.38 million viewers
8. Survivor: Panama--Exile Island, CBS, 16.36 million viewers
9. NCIS, CBS, 15.5 million viewers
10. The Unit, CBS, 15.4 million viewers
0 Comments
Now loading...