The new sets, new attitude, new judge and renewed focus on good singers made a number of critics proclaim that “American Idol” has gotten its groove back. But after Wednesday night’s two-hour season 13 premiere, one thing is clear: all the paint and good-natured camaraderie between the judges has done nothing to stop the ratings bleeding.
As promised, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and newbie Harry Connick Jr. brought the nice during Wednesday’s opening bid, but, according to early ratings from Nielsen SoundScan, that didn’t help “Idol” from putting up its worst first-night numbers since its debut season in 2002.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Idol” drew an average 4.6 rating among adults 18-49, pulling in 15 million viewers. After shedding 30 percent of its viewership in each of the past two seasons, that Wednesday night number was yet another blow to the show, which opened last year’s controversial outing with a 6.0 rating and just over 17.9 million viewers.
Wednesday’s premiere was down 23 percent in the ratings from the 2013 season debut and 16 percent in viewership. The affable Connick, joked a number of times during the episode that he was not getting nearly the attention his fellow judges (especially Lopez) were, and at one point the producers ran a montage of contestants saying they didn’t know who he was.
To put that all in perspective, the debut of the show in 2002 drew 9.9 million viewers, growing over the season to more than 23 million by that year’s finale. By season two, the first night brought in 26.5 million pairs of eyes. Season three began a streak where “Idol” was the top show in the all-important 18-49 demo for eight years running. It hit a peak in 2006, but opening night ratings have been slowly sliding ever since 2010.
Equally troubling, at least for the show’s producers, is that Nielsen reports that the median age of “Idol” viewers has slowly risen from 31.9 in year one to 51.2 in season 12 (taking it firmly outside the demo advertisers most covet), while average viewership has fallen by more than 50 percent since the season five peak.
Final numbers for Wednesday night’s show will be available later in the day and could change slightly.
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