‘American Idol’ Ratings Holding Up

NEW YORK (AP) — Simon Cowell may have left “American Idol,” but he didn’t take many viewers with him.

Any hope that Fox’s rivals had that the acerbic British judge’s exit after last season would do serious damage to the talent competition has been dashed. It remains television’s dominant prime-time show, with its two editions last week easily topping anything else on the air.

The Nielsen Co. said that the show is averaging 25.1 million viewers this season, down by just under 2% from last year’s 25.5 million, despite losing its dominant personality. Cowell and fellow judge Kara DioGuardi were replaced by professional musicians Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

Last week’s performance show on Wednesday had 22.6 million viewers, and the results show had 19.6 million. The comparable two shows last year, which aired on Tuesday and Wednesday, had 22.9 million and 20.5 million, Nielsen said.

The finale of ABC’s “The Bachelor” and the special where Brad Womack explained his choice followed “Idol” in the ratings competition last week.

Fox won the week’s ratings competition for the third straight week, with CBS again airing reruns of some of their most popular shows.

Fox had an average of 9.4 million viewers in prime time (5.5 rating, 9 share). CBS had 8 million viewers (5.0, 9), ABC had 6.3 million (3.9, 7), NBC had 5.4 million (3.5, 6), Ion Television had 1.3 million (0.9, 2) and the CW had 1.1 million (0.7, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a primetime average of 3.9 million viewers (2.0 rating, 3 share). Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.7, 1), TeleFutura had 640,000 (0.3, 1), Azteca had 220,000 and Estrella had 210,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.1 million viewers (5.9, 12). ABC’s “World News” was second with 8 million (5.4, 11) and the “CBS Evening News” had 6 million viewers (4, 8).

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for March 14-20. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership. A ratings point represents 1,159,000 households, or 1% of the nation’s estimated 115.9 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

1. “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox, 22.58 million.

2. “American Idol” (Thursday), Fox, 19.57 million.

3. “The Bachelor: After the Final Rose,” ABC, 13.96 million.

4. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 13.88 million.

5. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 13.73 million.

6. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.75 million.

7. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 12.48 million.

8. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.94 million.

9. “Undercover Boss,” CBS, 11.7 million.

10. “Bones,” Fox, 11.61 million.

11. “Glee,” Fox, 11.15 million.

12. “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 10.95 million.

13. “Survivor: Redemption Island,” CBS, 10.73 million.

14. “House,” Fox, 10.41 million.

15. “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” CBS, 10.33 million.

16. “Secret Millionaire,” ABC, 10.3 million.

17. “Harry’s Law,” NBC, 10.16 million.

18. “Amazing Race 18,” CBS, 10.14 million.

19. “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 9.93 million.

20. “Mike & Molly,” CBS, 8.37 million.