American Idol Ratings Continue To Fall

Ratings for American Idol continued to fall on Wednesday evening.

The 12th season of the Fox talent competition might still be commanding big audiences but there are nowhere near as huge as American Idol commanded just a few years ago. Last night the series pulled in 13.3 million viewers with a 4.3 18-49 rating. According to reports that 18-49 rating is its lowest for a decade! So why is American Idol struggling to pull in the viewers? Is it the line up of judges or the format has become too repetitive?

Elsewhere at 8pm Survivor returned for its 26th season on CBS; the launch episode pulled in 8.9 million viewers with a 2.4 18-49 rating. ABC’s The Middle had 7.6 million viewers and a 1.9 18-49 rating at 8pm followed by The Neighbors with 5.9 million and a 1.7 rating. Whitney on NBC had 3.5 million viewers with a 1.2 18-49 rating while Guys with Kids had 2.8 million and a 1.0 rating. Arrow on The CW came very close to over-taking Whitney in both total viewers and 18-49 viewers as it had 3.2 million viewers with a 1.1 rating. The CW did out-rate NBC it in the second half of the 8pm hour.

At 9pm Modern Family on ABC had 10 million viewers with a 3.8 18-49 rating while Suburgatory had 6 million viewers and a 2.2 18-49 rating. Veteran Dick Wolf drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit pulled in 6.3 million viewers and had a 1.6 18-49 rating. Meanwhile Supernatural on The CW pulled in 2.4 million viewers with a 1.0 rating.

At 10pm forensic crime drama CSI mustered 9.1 million viewers with a 2.1 rating while NBC’s Chicago Fire had 6.6 million viewers and a 1.9 18-49 rating. ABC’s Nashville was seen by 5.7 million viewers and a 1.8 rating.