Looking back over the several most recent season finales, Idol had a 6.9/11 MM result in 2014, a 9.5/16 in 2013, which fell on a Thursday, and a 13.6/22 on May 23, 2012. Compared to the 6.4/10 that the MaIdol had in MM results, last night’s show was up 50%. With Studdard facing off against Clay Aiken, that show emerged with a massive 16.8 rating among the 18-49s and a huge audience of 38.06 million viewers. The best any Idol has done in any of its season finales and any episode overall was the Ruben Studdard winning Season 2 ender of over a decade ago. Both of those categories were all time finale lows for the singing competition show. Airing on a Wednesday, that 8 – 10:06 PM Idol ended up with a 1.7/6 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.03 million viewers. That’s a surge of 55% from the 6.2/10 metered market result that the Season 14 Idol finale drew on – then new finale low for the show. and Keith Urban, and a victory for Trent Harmon over La’Porsha Renae, the 2-hour Idol ended its fifteenth and final season with a 9.6/15 in metered market ratings. With past winners galore, an old co-host, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, performances from judges Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr.
PREVIOUS, 6:31 AM: In the end Simon Cowell did show up, as did almost everyone else ever on American Idol for the series finale – plus President Barack Obama, via pre-taped video. With Idol over just after 10 PM, newbie The Catch (1.1/4) actually saw a little upward movement to the tune of 10% in its third week. Grey’s Anatomy (2.1/8) slipped a tenth and Scandal (1.7/6) was even with last week. Shonda Rhimes and ABC’s TGIT pretty much escaped unscathed from the Idol ender. The CW’s DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow (0.7/3) was even with last week while The 100 (0.5/2) is currently matching its fast affiliate result of March 31 – that was adjusted down a tenth in the final numbers. In fact, Blacklist saw a small viewership uptick of 5% to 6.24 million over its last original.
The James Spader-led series was steady in the demo with its last new show of six weeks ago, with just an 8% dip. NBC didn’t really put up much of a fight against the Idol finale with The Blacklist (1.2/4) the net’s only original of the night. After that, both Mom (1.5/5) and 2 Broke Girls (1.4/5) dipped in the demo from their last originals and newbie Rush Hour (0.9/3) went into reverse 18% in its second week. The not so good news for CBS was the 8:30 PM Season 2 debut of The Odd Couple (1.6/5), which fell a hard 48% from its Season 1 debut of February 19 last year. The most-watched show of the night, BBT was down 14% in the demo from last week but still tied Idol for Tuesday’s top-rated show. ABC and CBS were tied for second with a 1.6 rating, while CBS was solidly in the second spot viewershipwise with 7.32 million.ĬBS’ second place viewership standing certainly came in no small part from The Big Bang Theory (3.0/) and its audience of 13.24 million. To put the end of Idol in some perspective of where the ratings juggernaut show once stood: The all-time Idol finale rating was the 16.8 snagged in the Ruben Studdard-winning Season 2 last night’s series finale was down 82% from that show.įox obviously finished first among the Big 4 last night in the demo and total audience. On 'American Idol' Finale, Nostalgia Strikes Dominant Chord - Review
In total audience, last night’s finale was a Season 15 high, beating the 10.96 million of the cycle’s premiere by 18%. Thursday to Thursday, the Idol series finale was up 43% in the key demo over last week. That Candice Glover-winning show had a 3.6/11 rating and 14.31 million viewers. Matching the Season 15 premiere of January 6 among 18-49s, last night’s fast-affiliate results are the highest results an Idol finale has seen since the Season 12 ender of May 16, 2013. With big double-digit rises in the adults 18-49 demo and overall audience, the two-hour Season 15 ender drew 12.94 million, the best result for an Idol finale in three years.Ĭompared to the all-time finale low of Season 14, last night’s Idol was up 76% in the key demo and 61% in total viewers. UPDATE, 8:15 AM: Mariah Carey never made an appearance on the American Idol (3.0/10) series finale last night, but a lot of past judges, contestants and it turns out long-absent fans did. SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of last night’s American Idol series finale.