American Idol had its third season premiere on ABC and the two-hour showcase gave the network a ratings win across the board.
American Idol hit 8.05 million viewers and scored a 1.5 in the coveted 18-49 demo. The singing competition led the night across all the networks but it should be noted that most of the networks did take a break last night and mostly aired repeats.
This is the 18th season of American Idol in total (the hit show began its life as a juggernaut on Fox) and compared to the season two finale, the premiere was up two tenths in the key demo and it was also up in total viewers as well (the finale pulled in 7.71 million viewers). The third season premiere was off two tents from the season two premiere but American Idol has actually been a stable hit for ABC. While it’s getting nowhere near the numbers of its early years on Fox, in today’s ratings climate American Idol is thriving.
NBC also aired programming and while the live numbers are mixed, the network is paying attention to the digital gains that each series has seen. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist aired its second episode and hit 2.02 million viewers and a 0.4 in the 18-49 demo. While that is nothing to exactly celebrate, the pilot episode which was previewed on January 7, has become NBC’s top digital launch on record in Live+35. The network has said that clips from the premiere have pulled in 41 million YouTube views to date. NBC is really looking at digital performance, especially with the launch of its streaming service coming soon. The season 3 premiere of Good Girls hit 1.99 million viewers and a 0.4 in the demo. Like Zoey, a large portion of the series’ audience is digital with 43% of last season’s L+35 coming from digital sources. The series also has a lucrative Netflix deal and is said to be popular on the streamer.
