and the winner is....American Idol!

One of my all time favorite prime time television shows is American Idol. I am a huge fan every season, whether it’s during the results show on Wednesday nights, or when they perform on Tuesday nights. So I automatically thought that if it was one of my all time favorite shows, and the performers get so many votes, it must be another favorite show to other viewers.

According to USA Today, during the week of February 12^th through the 18^th, American Idol placed first and second with 31.2 million voters, and 28.9 million voters. These viewers were between the ages of 18 and 49 years of age. In the category of viewers 50 years and older, CSI and CSI Miami placed first and second with 11.7 and 11.6 million viewers. For the week of March 24^th through March 30^th, Fox’s American Idol placed first and second again. This time the Wednesday night show at 9 PM had a rating of 15.2 with a share of 24. There was an audience of 17,185,000, and 25,742,000 viewers. The Tuesday night performance show at 8 PM had a 14.0 rating with a share of 21. The audience was 15,767,000 and there were 24,758,000 viewers.

I don’t think the ratings would change that much if you moved American Idol to a different night or time. The only other competition that American Idol would have would be if they changed it to Monday night at 8PM or Tuesday night at 9, because Dancing With the Stars on ABC came in third and fourth place with the Monday night show having a rating of 13 and a share of 20.0 There was an audience of over 14 million, and over 20 million viewers. The results show has a rating of 11 and a share of 17. There was an audience of over 12 million and almost 17.5 million viewers.

So as you can see these shows are close, but American Idol still comes out on top. I think that since most of the viewers of American Idol are between the ages of 18 and 49, the only thing that could change the ratings would be if they moved the time earlier, like at 7 PM. People in this age bracket are either college students, parents, or work a full time job so it would be more difficult for them to catch the show at a different time. I think this is exactly what Fox was thinking when scheduling the show. I know that since the show is at 8 and 9 PM it gives me time to finish up my day and get everything done so that I can just relax and watch the show.