American Idol is back! Paula's gone. Ellen's here. Simon is leaving after this season. What's it all mean for the ratings?
We'll find out tomorrow morning.
Last year's Idol premiered on Tuesday January 13, 2009 to 30.07 million and an 11.8/28 rating/share with adults 18-49 in the overnights, down about 10% from it's 2008 bow.
Though last year NCIS hadn't quite yet climbed into the 20 millions yet, CBS lineup was noticeably strong against the Idol premiere, and The Biggest Loser held up well, particularly in the second hour. ABC didn't put up much of a fight between 8p-10p which will again be the case this year with two hours of Scrubs and Better Off Ted episodes between 8p-10p.
Here's last year's overnight ratings data for the night of the American Idol premiere:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers Live+SD (000s) | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | 18-34 Rating | 18-34 Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol (season premiere) | 27.474 | 10.4 | 26 | 8.8 | 24 |
| CBS | NCIS | 18.483 | 3.8 | 9 | 2.2 | 6 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser | 7.966 | 2.9 | 7 | 2.6 | 7 | |
| ABC | Homeland Security USA | 6.040 | 1.9 | 5 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| UNI | Cuidado con el Angel | 4.698 | 1.8 | 5 | 2.0 | 6 | |
| CW | 90210 | 2.183 | 1.1 | 3 | 1.4 | 4 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol (season premiere) | 32.674 | 13.1 | 29 | 11.1 | 27 |
| CBS | The Mentalist | 18.090 | 3.8 | 9 | 2.3 | 6 | |
| NBC | Biggest Loser | 9.545 | 3.7 | 8 | 3.1 | 8 | |
| UNI | Fuego en la Sangre | 5.173 | 2.1 | 5 | 2.4 | 6 | |
| ABC | Scrubs | 4.480 | 2.2 | 5 | 2.5 | 6 | |
| CW | Privileged | 1.126 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.7 | 2 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Without a Trace | 12.391 | 2.9 | 7 | 1.7 | 5 |
| NBC | Law & Order: SVU | 9.660 | 3.6 | 9 | 3.0 | 8 | |
| ABC | Primetime: What Would You Do? | 7.253 | 2.9 | 7 | 2.6 | 7 | |
| UNI | Aqui y Ahora | 3.236 | 1.3 | 3 | 1.4 | 4 |
