Drudge posted this:
May 20, 2009
‘Idol’ wins Tuesday with lowest-ever finale; ‘Glee’ preview OK
The preview of Fox’s new musical dramedy “Glee” posted a decent stand-alone number, though it lost a large portion of its lead-in from the “American Idol” finale.
The advanced look at Fox’s new series, which officially premieres next fall, lost roughly half the “Idol” audience. The heavily promoted “Glee” was seen by an estimated 9.9 million viewers and drew an approximate 3.9 rating among adults 18-49 rating. By comparison, the “Idol” performance finale drew roughly 23.7 million with an 8.6 rating.
The numbers are factoring about three minutes of “Idol” overrun into “Glee,” but could shift by a tenth in the official nationals.
For “Idol,” it was the competition’s lowest-rated finale ever, including its first season summer run.
Comparing “Glee” to past Fox shows is tricky, but last year “Hell’s Kitchen” performed a 5.2 rating out of the “Idol” finale.
Fox has positioned the “Glee” airing as a marketing initiative rather than a ratings grab and had staffers monitoring iTunes, blogs and Twitter to gauge reaction to the show. “It was the No. 1 topic all night on ‘Twitter,’ “ read a Fox email.
Spokesperson Joe Earley said the network was pleased with the numbers and public response.
“The measurement for success last night was never about the demo rating,” Earley said. “We’re definitely happy with the way ‘Glee’ performed, we knew how tough the competition was going to be, last night was a marketing experiment and we got almost 10 million people to see it, which is fantastic. We could work all summer long marketing the show and not get those many people, and certainly not in the fall.”
“Glee” was dominated by the finale of “Dancing With the Stars” (20.1 million, 5.1), which ruled the rest of the evening. “Dancing” came into the neighborhood of the “Idol” tally among total viewers and matched its audience from last year, while slipping just a tad in the demo.
CBS had the solid season finales of “NCSI (16.1 million, 3.3), “The Mentalist” (16.8 million, 3.7) and the series finale of “Without a Trace” (11.3 million, 2.5). NBC had repeats and “Law & Order: SVU” (6.7 million, 2.4). The CW aired a low-rated episode of “Reaper” (1.8 million, 0.7)and the “90210” finale (2.1 million, 1.0).
Sounds like a lot of people are not finding this final two to be all that great!