American Idol ratings were up Monday over the previous Monday edition on its way to a time-period win in the 18-49 demo and households in the Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings.
That came despite competition from the finale of Bachelorette and the first hour of Fear Factor.
Fox won the night with an 8.1 rating/18 share for Idol (10/24 vs. 9.8/23 the week before) and drama 24 (6.3/14). 24 was up strongly from the previous week, when it averaged a 5.6/12).
NBC was second with a 5.1/12 for a two-hour Fear Factor (4.8/11) and Medium, which won its time period with a 5.6/13, up a tick from last week.
ABC was third with a 3.9/9 for its three-hour Bachelorette finale extravaganza, just nipping CBS, which recorded a 3.8/9 for an unusually conciliatory offering for a sweeps night--an all-repeat lineup, the only repeats of the night on any network.
The WB and UPN tied for fifth with a 1.6/4. WB aired 7th Heaven and Summerland, while UPN offered One on One, Girlfriends, Cuts and Half & Half.
Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
