AMERICAN IDOL Las Vegas Night Scores Ratings Win for FOX

The Las Vegas episode of AMERICAN IDOL scored a rating's win for the FOX network last night. However, numbers for the 8:00 pm first hour of the two-hour edition were off slightly from last week. 

FOX averaged 16.5 million viewers and a 9.7 rating/15 share in households in primetime, leading second-place CBS (13.35 million, 8.1/13) by about 3 million viewers. ABC (6.8 million, 4.4./7) came in third. NBC managed only 3.1 million viewers and a 2.0/3. The CW (2.3 million, 1.5/2) was off about 100,000 viewers from last week.

In the adults 18-49 demographic, FOX's 5.0 rating led by a good margin over CBS' 3.3. ABC came in third with a 2.4, a point better than NBC's 1.4. The CW posted a 1.0.

ABC's "Private Practice" was up slightly in the second half of a crossover episode with "Grey's Anatomy."

Here are the highlights of the 15 ad-sustained programs that aired in primetime on the broadcast networks last night:

FOX (16.50 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 5.0, #1) was the top draw on Thursday thanks to a two-hour edition of "American Idol" (16.50 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 5.0, #T1).

CBS (13.36 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 3.3, #2) then had to settle for second place with fresh installments of "The Big Bang Theory" (15.52 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 5.0, #T1), "Rob" (10.91 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 3.2, #3), "Person of Interest" (13.25 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 2.9, #5) and "The Mentalist" (13.61 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 2.8, #6).

Next up was ABC (6.78 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 2.4, #3) with originals from "Winter Wipeout" (5.13 million viewers, #8; adults 18-49: 1.5, #T10) - a season low, "Grey's Anatomy" (8.13 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 3.1, #4) - tied as its season low - and "Private Practice" (7.09 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 2.6, #7).

Next up was NBC (3.09 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 1.4, #4) and its mix of "30 Rock" (3.60 million viewers, #10; adults 18-49: 1.4, #12), "Parks & Recreation" (3.51 million viewers, #11; adults 18-49: 1.7, #9) - tied as its series low, "The Office" (4.34 million viewers, #9; adults 18-49: 2.2, #8) - its series low, "Up All Night" (3.01 million viewers, #12; adults 18-49: 1.5, #T10) - its series low with regular telecasts - and a repeat of "Grimm" (2.03 million viewers, #14; adults 18-49: 0.7, #15).

And finally, new episodes of "The Vampire Diaries" (2.86 million viewers, #13; adults 18-49: 1.3, #13) and "The Secret Circle" (1.76 million viewers, #15; adults 18-49: 0.8, #14) closed out the night on The CW (2.31 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 1.0, #5). In the netlet's target demo (women 18-34), "Diaries" posted a 1.7 rating while "Circle" delivered a 0.9 rating.