RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘The Voice’ Hits Series Low, ‘Idol’ Dips, ‘CSI’ Up, ‘Family Tools’ Down, ‘Modern Family’ Hits Season Low

Wednesday saw The Voice (2.7/8) and American Idol (2.8/8) go head-to-head with live shows for the first time. While the NBC show bested the Fox series in their common hour, with Idol pulling in a 2.5/8, the night saw both shows hit new lows. Last night’s one-hour live The Voice had host Carson Daly announcing that technical glitches forced all online and text votes from viewers disregarded. It also saw the NBC show hit a series low with its 2.7. While up from the 1.6/5 of last Wednesday’s season-so-far recap show, last night’s show was down a hard 27% from Tuesday’s two-hour live performance show. The Voice wrapped its second week of special Wednesday shows with this season’s top 12 contestants being picked as well as performances Rod Stewart and former judge Cee Lo Green. Having the live Voice as a lead-in was good for Law & Order: SVU (1.9/5), which saw a 27% upward turn from last week for the series’ best result since January 9. Unlike Law & Order, Chicago Fire (1.8/5) was up last week, and the freshman drama repeated that this week, rising 6% from its May 1 show.

Idol was the most-watched show of the night with 10.82 million viewers over its two hours, but it hit another all-time low. The Fox show was even with last week’s fast nationals but down 3% from the final numbers of its May 1 show (2.9/9 ). On last night’s two-hour Idol, the show took its three finalists back to their hometowns and had them sing three songs each as they headed toward someone being eliminated tonight and next week’s season finale. By the nature of these live shows, expect to see ratings for both Idol and The Voice adjusted in the finale numbers later today. With that and the competition, Fox won the night in the adults 18-49 demographic and total viewers.

Besides the new all-time low, Idol took another hit on Wednesday as Survivor: Caramoan (2.5/8) tied the Fox show for the first time in their common 8-9 PM hour. With one more contestant voted off and up 4% from last week’s series low, the other big reality show of the night now heads to a special Sunday slot to wrap up the CBS show’s 26th season May 12. Criminal Minds (2.5/7) was up 4% from its May 1 showm while CSI rose 16% from last week.

On ABC, The Middle (1.8/6) was down 10% from last week to tie a season low. The second week of new comedy Family Tools (1.1/3) shows something needs to be fixed: The show slid 27% from last week’s premiere, which was ABC’s low-rated comedy debut ever. Modern Family (3.1/9) was also down. The series fell 14% from its May 1 show to a season low. ABC’s other recently debuted comedy, How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life), dipped 5% from last week, while Nashville (1.6/4) slipped 6%.

The CW had Arrow (0.9/3) at 8 PM with Supernatural (0.9/2) following at 9 PM. Both were even with last week’s shows.