Wednesday’s TV ratings
Season Is a Success for Everyone Except NBC
The 2004-05 TV season went out with a bang when the two-hour season finales of Fox’s “American Idol” and ABC’s “Lost” drew a collective average of 51 million viewers to broadcast television. The fourth-season “Idol” conclusion, in which Carrie Underwood was named winner of the singing competition, averaged more than 30 million viewers — up about 1.5 million viewers over last spring’s finale. In the same 8-to-10 p.m. time period, the season’s last “Lost” episode logged nearly 21 million viewers. That nearly matched the new hit drama’s best number of the season, which it scored for an episode that aired before “Idol” returned to Wednesday nights. Interestingly, the two highly hyped finales did not cannibalize each other, as some industry navel-gazers had feared. Among all the broadcast networks, viewer levels were up 5 percent Wednesday night week to week.
Ratings peaked in the final half hour for both show. Even MORE people flocked to a TV at 9:30 Wednesday night. Television isn’t dead; it’s just rarely this interesting.
27. May 2005 at 15:22
Makes sense, at least for American Idol. Most people know that the AI winner isn’t revealed until right before 10, so why bother watching all the filler?
27. May 2005 at 19:50
As for “Lost,” some of the most worthwhile viewing on television. That season finale was amazing.
31. May 2005 at 08:29
Jonah – I agree. No, they didn’t answer a single question they promised to, but I still enjoyed it.
Mark – Yup, those last few minutes are when all the people who just want to be able to talk around the water cooler the next day tune in to watch. The rest of us like the drama and the celebration of the season that the other 1:55 represents…