American Idol wins over Winter Olympics in ratings race
For a second straight Tuesday, a two-hour edition of Fox's "American Idol" crushed NBC's coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in key demos. While Fox and NBC were the top-rated networks, ABC also had reason to cheer as "Lost" remained solid despite the extra competition.
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "American Idol" averaged an 8.9 rating/22 share in adults 18-49 and 24 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., peaking in its final half-hour with a 9.3/21 in the demo and 24.7 million viewers overall. The expanded installment, in which the 12 female finalists performed, was down a bit week to week and year-to-year, but beat the Olympics head-to-head by 78% in the 18-49 demo and by more than 3 million total viewers.