Although the “American Idol” finale drew its smallest audience since 2004, its viewership continued to significantly surpass its competition last week.
An average audience of 28.84 million saw Kris Allen be named as champion last Wednesday, 9 percent less than the 31.66 million that watched last year when David Cook won the singing competition.
However, the “Idol” finale was watched by more than 8.5 million more viewers than the most-watched non-”Idol,” program between May 18 and Sunday, the finale of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” third for the week with 20.31 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Wednesday.
For its eighth season, “American Idol” averaged 26.2 million viewers, 7 percent less than last season’s 28.2 million, but remained as television’s most-watched series.
Viewership for nearly all television series falls when they reach their eighth season. The final “Idol” performance show May 19 earlier was second for the week with 23.82 million viewers, 12 percent less than the 27.06 million for last year’s final performance show.
The “Dancing” finale was third for the week with 20.31 million viewers, 1 percent more than the 20.12 million for last year’s finale. “Dancing’s” final performance show was fourth for the week with 19.17 million, nearly matching the 19.22 million for the similar program last year.
“Dancing’s” performance shows averaged 20.85 million viewers for the spring season, 6 percent more than a year ago, while the results show was down 13 percent falling from 18.24 million to 15.95 million.
Viewers preferred familiar programming to a pair of premieres of scripted programs last week. Fox’s “Glee,” was third in its 9-10 p.m. time slot last Tuesday and 14th for the week with 9.62 million viewers, 40 percent of the final “American Idol” performance show that preceded it.
The opening two hours of ABC’s U.S. premiere of the Canadian-produced four-hour made-for-television movie “Diamonds” was a distant second in its 9-11 p.m. time slot Sunday and 54th for the week among programs on the five major networks and the Spanish-language network Univision with 4.06 million viewers
“Idol” enabled Fox to end CBS’ 11-week winning streak as the most-watched network. Fox averaged 10.19 million viewers in a week that mixed the final three days of the official television season and the first four days of the summer season.
CBS was second with 8.89 million, bolstered by the week’s eight most-watched scripted programs. ABC was third with 7.29 million, followed by NBC with 4.44 million in a week its most-watched program was “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” 25th for the week with 6.93 million. The CW was fifth with 1.4 million.
Fox finished first for the 16th consecutive week among viewers ages 18-49, the group it, ABC and NBC target and advertisers covet. Fox also led among viewers ages 12-17, 18-34 and 25-54. As usual, CBS was first among viewers ages 55 and older.
NBA playoff coverage continued to dominate the cable ratings, with the week’s five most-watched cable programs. TNT’s coverage of Sunday’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic was the week’s most-watched cable program, drawing 8.97 million viewers, which would put it 15th among the programs on the five major broadcast networks.
Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Lakers and Denver Nuggets was second for the week with 8.09 million, the most for any basketball game on ESPN. TNT was the most-watched cable network for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 3.32 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News” was the most-watched network newscast for the 32nd consecutive week, averaging 7.34 million viewers. ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” was second, averaging 6.87 million viewers while “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” averaged 5.40 million to finish third for the 139th consecutive week.
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