IDOL KEEPS FALLING

Fox’s American Idol remained the highest-rated show on television on Wednesday and Thursday, but its numbers were down by nearly 30 percent from a year ago. Thursday’s telecast, which drew 16.99 million total viewers, was actually beaten by CBS’s The Big Bang Theory among viewers 18-49, Idol‘s primary target demo. Among total viewers, the CBS comedy drew just 1 million fewer viewers. Wednesday’s performance episode of Idol counted 19.51 million viewers, down 29 percent from the comparable Wednesday a year ago, while Tuesday’s Idol repeat ((it originally aired on the previous Sunday at 11:00 p.m. following the AFC title match) averaged 9.64 million and was beaten by a repeat of CBS’s NCIS. The powerhouse performance of the Idol shows was particularly injurious to the competition on the other two networks, NBC and ABC. On Thursday, NBC’s 30 Rock attracted just 3.8 million viewers, while a repeat of ABC’s Wipeout drew just 4.9 million.