American Idol barely wins Tuesday night ratings

Ohmygah!

CBS and Fox were neck-and-neck for dominance in total viewers, with the home of American Idol beating the Eye net by just 100,000 viewers. Personally, I cannot remember it ever being this close on a night when Idol was on. Fox, of course, was first among adults 18-49, with CBS and NBC tied for second.

American Idol opened the evening for Fox with 24.51 million viewers and a 9.1 rating/24 share among adults 18-49. As strong as that still is, compared to the year-ago telecast (Viewers: 29.96 million; A18-49: 12.3/29 on Feb. 12, 2008, based on the final nationals) it is down by 5.45 million viewers and 26 percent in the demo. Yes…that’s significant.

A solid second in the 8 p.m. hour was CBS’ NCIS, with 17.97 million viewers and a 3.7/10 among adults 18-49. Next was the first hour of NBC’s The Biggest Loser (Viewers: 7.60 million; A18-49: 2.9/ 8), followed by ABC repeat holiday specials Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (Viewers: 5.09 million; A18-49: 1.5/ 4) and A Charlie Brown Valentine (Viewers: 4.66 million; A18-49: 1.5/ 4), and 90210 on the CW (Viewers: 2.38 million; A18-49: 1.2/ 3).

Via MJ's Big Blog