Surprise! More People Watched The Overstuffed “American Idol” Results Episodes Than The Ones With Actual Singing

noah | May 26, 2009 4:30 pm
whaaaa

Somehow, the eminently DVR-able results episodes of American Idol–in which 59 minutes and 55 seconds of filler led up to the news that someone would be sent home in a cloud of tears and Carrie Underwood–ended the 2008-09 TV season as the most-watched show, averaging 26.69 viewers over the course of the season and edging out its Tuesday-night companion by some 570,000 people. Either enough people watched the finale to push the Wednesday-night editions of the show ahead of the relatively action-packed performance episodes, or the continued success of Two And A Half Men is a leading indicator as far as how much crap your average people-metered viewer is willing to sit through when there’s nothing else to do at home. (Or maybe people just are really that sick of music.) The top 10, after the jump. Rank) Program, Network (Total Viewers in Millions) 1) American Idol (Wednesday), Fox (26.69) 2) American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, (26.12) 3) Dancing With the Stars, ABC (20.32) 4) CSI, CBS (19.03) 5) NCIS, CBS (17.84) 6) The Mentalist, CBS (17.45) 7) Dancing With the Stars (Results), ABC (16.76) 8) Sunday Night Football, NBC (16.27) 9) Desperate Housewives, ABC (15.66) 10) Two and a Half Men, CBS (14.98) Oh hey, Dancing With The Stars had a lot of viewers too! So people like music, at least when it’s beamed into their homes and they can consume it passively. [TV Week; HT Vulture]

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