‘American Idol’ Recovers From Series Low On Sunday

ABC’s American Idol (1.5 demo rating, 7.37 million viewers), recovered Sunday from the previous week’s series low, suffered during dinging by CBS’ ACM Awards in its timeslot. Idol was the night’s top-ranked show in the 18-49 age bracket.

Meanwhile, CBS’ 60 Minutes  (0.7, 8.77M) fell 36% compared to previous week’s 1.1 demo rating when it enjoyed that ACM Awards lead-out, though the newsmag handily won its 7 PM time period in viewers with a 56% lead over closest competitor. 60M was the night’s most-watched broadcast program.

The lower 60M lead-in resulted in a week to week 33% drop for freshman drama Instinct (0.6, 7.19M), which matched its lowest rating to date. At 9 PM, NCIS: Los Angeles (0.8, 7.50M) wobbled by a tenth in the demo week to week.

Despite Idol’s rebound, freshman drama Deception (0.6, 3.38M) drooped to its lowest demo rating at 10 PM, after a week off the air to make way for ABC News’ first crack at sacked FBI Director James Comey. Deception‘s performance, however, was enough to best NBC’s Timeless (0.5, 2.36M) and tie CBS’s Madam Secretary (0.6, 6.09M) in the demo. Madam Secretary beat its combined competition by 6% in total viewers.

In addition to Timeless, NBC’s Dateline (0.6, 3.91M), Little Big Shots (0.8, 5.85M) and Genius Junior (0.6, 3.65M) maintained all of previous week’s demo ratings.

8 PM’s The Simpsons (0.9, 2.20M) was Fox’s best performer on the night, tied in the demo with 9 PM’s Family Guy (0.9, 2.03M), followed by hammocked Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.8, 1.74M).

Idol-advantaged ABC (1.2, 5.93M) dominated the night in the demo, while CBS (0.7, 7.39M) took total viewers. Fox (0.7, 1.70M) tied CBS for second place in the demo, ahead of NBC (0.6, 3.94M)