Comments on: Wednesday Ratings: American Idol finale draws 40 million for last 7 minutes

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:34:19 +0000

Wendy, the average from 9:30-10:07 is 34.22 mil. Perhaps that’s what they are referring to?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:34:04 +0000

Wendy, I’m not sure what you are talking about, the broadcast finals were in line with the time zone adjusted fast nationals — 28.838 million from 8p-10:07. Those are definitely the numbers for the whole broadcast.

The 40 million was just from 10p-10:07p. I have no idea what the 34 million you’re referring to is.

By: wendy

wendy — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:28:11 +0000

In other ratings websites they said it only got 34 million viewers in total.

By: Chris the TV Sage

Chris the TV Sage — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:06:42 +0000

And you might want to check the meaning of the word “majority”. Get back to me when *any* news show gets a 50.1 share.

Okay, all done. I will not delve into political ranting, I will not delve into political ranting…

By: Chris the TV Sage

Chris the TV Sage — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:03:54 +0000

Scott: Fully aware you are talking about the FOX affiliate. I have yet to see any of them put on a decent newscast.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:49:24 +0000

Criminal Minds is just plain disturbing to watch. It is bizarre and half of what they show should not be on TV.
It give the wrong ideas.

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:25:58 +0000

Isn’t it nice that we can check past weeks’ ratings? Lost got 4.4 in its second hour. No where near 7.0. And not double even Criminal Minds’ first hour.

By: TomSD

TomSD — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:02:11 +0000

Julia: I was looking at the first hour numbers. I don’t remember the exact number but the second hour was definitaly above 7.0 in the demo.

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:09:12 +0000

Dave is obviously a moron of the first degree. He believes Kris can’t be a good musician or singer until he’s in his fifties. LOLOL!!!!!!!! What an idiot!!! Sorry, Dave, I enjoyed Kris’ beautiful singing RIGHT NOW at age 23 and I do not have to apologize for that. Seems to me that you are a frustrated singer yourself and jealous of Kris’ success. You’re too transparent, Dave.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:41:52 +0000

To Chris the TV sage:

“Fair and Balanced”! I’m sorry that you are in the minority, according to the ratings. Besides, it was the local affiliate and the local news, so put the claws back in. Save the pity for those (very few) who are hoping to get their news from the watching the networks or their pet cable shows.

By: Perry

Perry — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:22:16 +0000

I wonder if that little man “perez hilton” threw a hissy fit because his guy did not win.

Additionally, it is nice to see FOX beat the pants off the competition once again. The other “left wing” networks still do not understand what the majority of America likes to watch.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:49:49 +0000

Go back to sleep, Jill. Talk to me about real music after Kris is 35 years into his career, has sold over 100 million records, and grossed a few billion dollars.

By: salamihead

salamihead — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:17:44 +0000

lambert finally woke up that although he loves broadway, we like our rock pure.

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:06:31 +0000

That’s funny. That number with Adam and Kiss made me glad he didn’t win. I hate that kind of junk. To me that’s not music it’s noise and a turn off. Kris singing Ain’t No Sunshine or Heartless (beautifully too, he deserved to win) is real music.

By: Chris the TV sage

Chris the TV sage — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:02:38 +0000

Scott:

And I pity those who get their news from a Fox affiliate

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:50:45 +0000

KISS still rules!! what a show. Best finale ever.

By: jay

jay — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:44:26 +0000

Damn, that post was almost incoherent. I should have distinguished between the talent and executives. MASH and Who Shot JR etc get the glory, execs who figure out just how to manipulate enough impressionable and even desperate and harassed young consumers to justify keeping their jobs get the loot. And today those same execs are buying up Rembrants and Van Goghs. There, that made a little more sense.

By: jay

jay — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:38:59 +0000

There’s a difference between glory and filthy lucre. Even the purist New York Times Yearly Almanac gives prominent place to all-time top total viewership. Dark Knight, Iron Man, Harry Potter etc put up the huge numbers and never get a sniff at the Oscars, which is what people in the future will remember. Jackie Robinson was never one of the most highly paid ballplayers. And Rembrandt and Van Gogh died penniless. We should all be so lucky as that very few who have both … maybe our friends here are in the right business to get that accomplished someday.

By: Bella

Bella — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:36:30 +0000

It’s a shame that some people waited until the end to tune in. That was one of the best variety shows I’ve ever seen on TV, and I’m 68 years old. I love the way non Idol fans like to critique something they don’t watch and always have all the answers. Why don’t they let those of us who enjoy idol enjoy it. I don’t fuss when they watch wrestling or other things I don’t enjoy. Reporting that the ratings were down for the finale is silly. Ratilngs for ALL TV watching is WAY down, but they never bother to point that out either.

By: Richie

Richie — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:32:35 +0000

Well done on a great website – this is my first time posting. I’m afraid I couldn’t let some of these comments lie!

As a TV producer myself, who mainly works in the reality TV world, I just wanted to weigh in. I’ve never worked on Idol – though have done similar shows…

Firstly 40 million for a show in its 8th season is nothing short of incredible… yes the figures were down but I can’t really see Fox being too worried by that kind of slippage.

I do also find it hilarious that Chuck fans who work themselves into a frenzy if their show goes up or down 0.1 of a share are being so critical of Idol’s figures!

I also love that every time a reality show does well it’s slammed as ‘TV for idiots’ by people on this site who feel their own shows – Chuck, Dollhouse, TSCC – are vastly superior and smarter.

For me reality is a genre – just like any other – and there’s good shows and bad shows. I love 24, Mad Men, Damages, Housewives – but I also think Biggest Loser and Project Runway are great shows and very well produced. And the Idol finale show was better than most awards shows out there – strong performances, well paced, funny in places. By the same token, many of the cable reality shows and ‘overproduced’ network reality shows – just aren’t very well done. But don’t damn the whole genre – especially if you never watch the shows in question.

Oh and to answer the conspiracy theorists – Idol probably did have 100 million votes – there’s pretty tight rules on these things because it’s a competition. And though I do think the judges have favorites – as do viewers – contestants aren’t pre-selected and the show isn’t fixed. That’s just a lazy suggestion.

But I agree that Dancing With The Stars is truly dreadful!

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:31:36 +0000

The last seven minutes ran from 10:00 PM to 10:07 PM, a time when the local news program is normally being shown on Fox. I, for one, was tuned to Fox during that time period waiting in agony for Idol to finally end so that the news and weather would start. I pity those to whom the outcome of this farce was of critical importance in their lives.

By: ctm

ctm — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Let’s face it folks, AI is a family show. You can sit down with your kids and not have to worry about sexual inuendos every 5 minutes. Communities all over the US are having I parties. Get with it, beyond the ratings, it is a throw back but with a modern touch.

By: alice

alice — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:55:40 +0000

If you look at the numbers they were building throughout the show. So 40 million in the last seven is not a surprise, if those had turned in for the new they would have switched channels not waited 7 minutes. Also, not taken into consideration was twitter, it was stirring things up online and I think caused more people to tune it to see what was up.

By: kls

kls — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:43:29 +0000

So..who gives a rat’s behind..this is junk children..junk!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:16:27 +0000

Should have looked at the table again. 23 million viewers to start, and of course it went way up from there. I wonder exactly how much $ Fox did make off of it?

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:12:25 +0000

Shorten the finale? Why in the world would Fox want to do that, when they can get more than 30 million viewers at every point along the span of more than two hours? I think it’s safe to say that most of us who watch the entire finale enjoy a great deal of it. If we just wanted to see the announcement of the winner, it’s perfectly easy to tune in for only the last few minutes of the show. Yet year after year, the entire finale draws huge numbers. Fox must make a fortune off of that alone.

By: el polacko

el polacko — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:55:40 +0000

everybody is ‘down from last year’.. the show still wiped the floor with all the competition as it does every week. the finale was quite entertaining with some big name performers like cyndi lauper, rod stewart, and keith urban dueting with the contestants.. and the comedy bits actually worked. i’m no fan of kara, but her duet with ‘bikini girl’ was a riot. sorry that the season is over, but glad that cutie-pie kris won. i was sick of adam’s theatrics and screeching weeks ago. of course, they all end up with recording contracts so ‘winning’ doesn’t really mean all that much.

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:58:20 +0000

haelohm says:

“The nearly 100 million votes is not exagerated but is actually officially verified by a professional private firm.”

If it were, one would think that fact would be mentioned somewhere on the Idol Web site. I’ve yet to find any such mention.

By: ABCFanatic

ABCFanatic — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:21:03 +0000

Wow Criminal Minds has 15 million viewers against Idol’s finale!

More people watch Criminal Minds’ finale than CSI’s and CSI: Miami’s finales

By: Nobama

Nobama — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:06:01 +0000

AI got just about as many viewers as Obama did on his little 100 day event. Isn’t that special?

By: Ladiesman217

Ladiesman217 — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:36:31 +0000

I bet this happened

10:00: 40 Million
Kris announced winner: 11.22 Million.

By: haelohm

haelohm — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:03:59 +0000

God Particle:

The nearly 100 million votes is not exagerated but is actually officially verified by a professional private firm. The vote goes in the World Record books every year.

Oh and ADAM should have won!

By: nickrewind9

nickrewind9 — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:22:16 +0000

On Tuesday’s show, Ryan Seacrest told the viewers that they would go past 10PM on Wednesday. And if you’ve watched a past Idol finale — you know that they save the best for 5 minutes after the show was supposed to be over. Maybe a small percentage was looking for the local news, but I think that most people were there for AI. They may have tuned in at 9:50 or so, and waited until 10:07 when the Idol was revealed.

By: CheeseIsNice

CheeseIsNice — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:17:29 +0000

I 100% agree Seppy. The show was too long and was filled with money grabbing TV garbage..and Ryan Seacrest. I checked FOX few times but I just couldn’t stomach the silly “bit’s they had on there. I mean, Golden Idol Awards?….Lame. That pathetic chick in the bikini and then that new judge pretending to be hip by ripping her clothes off. What the hell is this? Hogan Knows Best?

By: Seppy

Seppy — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:08:56 +0000

Maybe that 40 million in the last 7 minutes could be a message to Fox to shorten the finale. 2 hours just to hear who won is ridiculous.

By: Deven

Deven — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:58:58 +0000

I know 18-49 is the advertising currency, but I think AI’s 18-34 pull is much more impressive. Nothing else on earth–TV show or otherwise–will pull more than 10 percent of this diverse and energetic group ever again.

By: Lourdes

Lourdes — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:46:01 +0000

That’s ridiculous… AI I mean.
However, I’m happy to see the CM numbers. Good for them.

By: American Viral (part 1) « Branch

American Viral (part 1) « Branch — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:53:10 +0000

[...] So last night was the two hour finale of American Idol. There are numerous ways we could write about this show here on Branch. . .it really is a TV powerhouse. The ratings for the night before when the two final contestants (Adam Lambert and Kris Allen) duked it out on stage were the lowest in three years, but typical American Idol style a new record was set with over 100 million votes called and texted in, and the finale drew escalating numbers as the night wore on breaking a new ratings record for the show in its final 7 minutes with over 40 million viewers. See the complete breakdown on ratings by the half hour here [...]

By: David R

David R — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:37:08 +0000

Terminator**

By: David R

David R — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:36:17 +0000

Dennis says:
May 21st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Wow, a 13% drop from last season. AI will be cancelled for sure…

Are you kidding, there is no way FOX would cancel it. Not when they are still getting decent ratings. That would be like all the networks canceling all there number one shows and keeping their worst rating….Dollhouse,Chuck Termination…the list goes on.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:16:28 +0000

Miranda, the DVR numbers are still with the folks that usually send them to us. They’re busy these days, we should see them again soon, I hope.

By: miranda

miranda — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:12:08 +0000

Where are the DVR ratings for the past two weeks?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:07:02 +0000

Nice job American Idol!

By: andywhitto

andywhitto — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:04:09 +0000

Those numbers are INSANE! I guess fox will never let that show go for MANY years to come lol.

By: Boris

Boris — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:55:43 +0000

Dagnabit.

By: Boris

Boris — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:54:34 +0000

[i]For anyone who cares, in the NON time-zone adjusted numbers….[/i]

I find them interesting, thanks.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:43:44 +0000

Joe Criminal Minds did well against the Idol Finale but it didn’t perform better than the rest of the CBS line-up until 10, when Idol was off the air and its competition was Law & Order.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:04:57 +0000

Criminal Minds was amazing last night. I’d love it if they had more two hour episodes. It allowed for a much more expansive storyline. I think now there’s little question that CM is CBS’ biggest crime drama, ahead of all the CSIs. Against monster competition it did better than they usually do.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:55:29 +0000

Wow, a 13% drop from last season. AI will be cancelled for sure…

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:30:32 +0000

Tom, check your math. Double Criminal Minds is 7.