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Ratings Report: Meet Your New 'American Idol'
by Dan Gomez, assistant research director
It was billed as the clash of TV titans - FOX's "American Idol" going head-to-head with ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."
The most important seven minutes ever in the history of television! Who would emerge victorious? The suspense was unbearable. Well, it seems this "Thrilla in Vanilla" was more of a bust than a blowout. Seems the DWTS recap show ran an extra seven minutes, just like "Idol," thereby averting a showdown.
Yes, it was a let down but in the end that seven minutes really wouldn't have mattered anyway. "American Idol" beat the tar out of "Dancing with the Stars" in the Tuesday night primetime ratings. 28.2 million people tuned in to witness Sanjaya's po'faux-hawk while 17.9 million showed up to say goodbye to model Paulina Porizkova.
Now, the real winner in this whole ratings fracas isn't Simon, Paula or Randy - it's Gregory. Dr. Gregory House, that is!
The medical drama starring Hugh Laurie as the cantankerous M.D. is experiencing an upswing in the ratings thanks to its time slot following "Idol." Two weeks before "Idol" began, "House" had an audience of 17.8 million viewers.
Not bad, most shows would kill for a number like that. 20.8 million people saw Tuesday night’s episode and it was the number two show of the night. That's fantastic!
To be honest, "House" did go through that same scenario last season but not to this extent. The drama is way up from this time last year and its ranking this season has gone from #17 to #10. It's retaining more of "American Idol's" audience - the drama only loses about 200,000 to about 1 million viewers in the 9:30 PM half-hour each night.
Unfortunately for Donny Osmond, following "Dancing with the Stars" didn't help. Viewers virtually abandoned Osmond's new reality series "The Great American Dream Vote" after "Dancing" ended. Only 6 million people stayed to watch. Maybe ABC should have gone with Tito Jackson instead.
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