Last night’s American Idol elimination performed its usual feat of sweeping Wednesday night. Meanwhile, ABC’s new Portia de Rossi comedy Better Off Ted debuted to a decent 5.6 million, but the net’s hour-longs took a dip: Life lost 20 percent of last week’s audience, while Lost‘s total viewership for last night’s episode was down 14 percent from its previous new episode and down 20 percent from its season 5 premiere. The CW’s Top Model lost 20 percent from last week as well.
| Time | Show | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 p.m. | Lie to Me (Fox) The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) Scrubs (ABC) America’s Next Top Model (The CW) Chopping Block (NBC) |
10.0 7.4 5.7 3.6 3.5 |
| 8:30 | Gary Unmarried (CBS) Better Off Ted (ABC) |
7.6 5.6 |
| 9:00 | American Idol (Fox) Criminal Minds (CBS) Lost (ABC) Life (NBC) 90210 (The CW) |
23.1 13.5 9.1 4.2 0.9 (repeat) |
| 10:00 | CSI: NY (CBS) Law & Order (NBC) Life On Mars (ABC) |
12.7 7.1 5.3 |
Read more:
‘American Idol’ recap: No safe passage
‘Lost’ recap: It pays to have a plan
‘Better Off Ted’: Snap Judgment
You people skipping Lost for Idol are idiots! Lost is so good right now, and last night’s episode was so great. Why do you need to watch a 60-minute long recap show? On Wednesdays, I always watch Lost live and just check the results of Idol by logging onto ew.com. I live on the West Coast so by the time Lost starts, Idol has already announced the results.
i have to agree with alan….for some reason the nielsen ratings for lost are so low but its the most popular article on thursdays. Not only that, the message board for lost is HUGE!
Skipping LOST to watch a result show that you can record and watch later in 10 minutes is ridiculous.
Watched ANTM and AI last night. Never got into Lost.
just bring back Ugly Betty! f*ck!
ppl who skip lost for idol are smart
lost is getting ridiculous after season 2 it just starting becoming sh*t.
while idol is perfect so people are smart
Man, it’s depressing to see Lost’s ratings. I mean, cancelation is off the table but a worse time slot or even budget cuts could potentially happen. I hope not because this season is, for me at least, the best since the first. There hasn’t been a mediocre episode so far. Hopefully ABC is smart enough to not screw with the show with only 25 more episodes to go!
I wish there were less people like T.T.
Excuse me, FEWER people like T.T.
Lost has diffinitely gotten more intricate and better over the years. I watched it and turned for the last minute of Idol to see Alexis being kicked off.
As I wrote months ago, putting Lost against the Idol juggernaut is a bonehead decision. The weekly numbers continue to prove what I wrote is correct.
Lost is the best show on TV, hands down. I used to watch Idol, but not after season 5. Lost is like a great novel, that requires an investment over time, whereas Idol is like a supermarket tabloid that you skip through to look at the pictures.
this whole thing reminds me of Heroes, and how EW kept saying how it was the best show on tv, even as it continued to slide down in the ratings.
If Lost is now the best show on tv, than more people would be watching it, instead of less, week after week. It must be doing something wrong to keep on losing viewers every week.
lindsey, are you really trying to use ratings to determine what is a good show? Um, The Wire anyone?
And for exhibit B, I’ll give you every reality television show ever made.