“American Idol” tops Thursday night ratings

I have to get my Idol fix every week and I'm really enjoying the new judges with Tyler and Lopez adding the sizzle to the AI steak!

 The "American Idol" ratings-watch continues. And after a 5% week-to-week drop in the 18-49 demographic for Wednesday's installment, last night's episode showed less erosion - down 3% in the demo and total viewers compared to its first Thursday installment on January 20.

"Idol" averaged a 7.6 rating with 22.2 million viewers from 8-9 p.m., more than enough to power U.S. network Fox to a win on Thursday. Meanwhile, the "Idol" bump propelled Bones (3.9, 12.1 million) to its highest-rated telecast in more than four years.

With new episodes of its all-comedy Thursday, NBC was second for the night (2.5, 5.1 million viewers), despite the fact that almost all of its sitcoms showed week-to-week declines. "The Office" (4.0, 7.9 million), which featured a guest turn by Ricky Gervais, was down 11%. And while "30 Rock" (2.2, 4.5 million) easily prevailed at 10 p.m. -- against reruns of CBS' "The Mentalist" and ABC's "Private Practice" it was down 19%. Only "Outsourced" (1.9, 4.1 million) showed improvement, up 6% compared to last week's season low.

With most of its Thursday line-up in reruns, CBS was third for the night (2.1, 9.6 million). Only 8:30 p.m. comedy "$#*! My Dad Says" was new, and without an original "Big Bang Theory" to lead into it, "$#*! My Dad Says" sunk to a 2.3 w

via "American Idol" tops Thursday night ratings - Yahoo! News.