Andrew Eccles/The CW, CRAIG SJODIN/ABC, Chris Cuffaro / FOXTuesday TV's Big Winner, Besides Olivia Newton-John: Nathaniel Marshall, whose headband inspired Simon Cowell to name-check the "Physical" singer, got to do his stuff before American Idol's biggest crowd of the night: 26.1 million, per preliminary Nielsen estimates. Second-chance semifinalist Felicia Barton and the high-fiving Scott MacIntyre likewise got exposure in the show's typically most-watched segment from 9 to 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday TV's Other Big Winner: ABC, which waited out the two-hour Idol, then hauled out yet another postfinale Bachelor special—and found 10.9 million people still willing to hear out Jason Mesnick.
What About Reaper? It is what it is, which isn't necessarily a small thing these days. The second-season premiere played best among teen boys and virtually matched, if slightly improved upon, last season's average in total viewers (2.4 million versus 2.3 million).
Etc.: Idol dominated, natch, but considering all the reruns, chiefly from NCIS and The Mentalist, it arguably should have dominated more. It was about even with last week's performance show: 24.2 million compared to 24.5 million. The Biggest Loser (9 million) was a bit off, too.