| Timeslot | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | A18-49+ | Label | y2y | Results |
| Wednesday 8:00 | 1.7 | 2.67 | 4.7 | -32% | 142 | hit | -23% | detail |
| Thu 8:00, Thu 9:00 | 1.5 | 2.57 | 3.9 | -30% | 137 | hit | -22% |
Rating the Ratings: It was another year of very steep decline for the show that once defined a decade of television. Increasingly, people are on notice about this show's troubles because the list of shows that outrank it keeps getting longer. But it's really been declining at roughly this percent rate for three years now. Since other franchises like Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor have proven that the tide can be turned with these reality series, I'm not inclined to give Idol much of a pass. It's still at a level where it could settle in as a long-time valuable player in the Survivor vein, but another year of slippage at this speed may take that off the table. I almost bumped this down to a failing grade because it declined so much more in the second half of the season (often in the -40% vicinity year-to-year), but I believe at least a bit of that was fueled by the big drops it took when facing the Winter Olympics. Grade: D-.
Here's the now updated War of 18-49 post for American Idol.
