RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘American Idol’ Falls To New Low, ‘Family Tools’ Debuts Soft, ‘Survivor’ & ‘CSI’ Hit Series Lows, ‘How To Live With Your Parents’ Up

The May sweep stepped it up a notch last night with American Idol (2.8/8), The Voice (1.6/5) and Survivor: Caramoan (2.3/7) going head-to-head-to-head. While not the first time Idol and The Voice have faced off directly (they overlapped on April 27, 2011), and the NBC show a season-so-far recap, it was their debut matchup this season. With Harry Connick Jr joining as guest mentor and a “you’re a superstar” shout-out to contestant Amber Holcomb from judge Nicki Minaj, Wednesday’s American Idol fell 13% from last week’s fast nationals and 15% from April 24’s final numbers to hit an all-time Wednesday low. Still, Idol still was the most watched show of the night with 11.08 million viewers, and Fox took Wednesday in the adults 18-49 demographic and total viewers with 11.075 watching on a night when usage slipped 4% in the demo.

In its first Wednesday broadcast of the sweep, The Voice: The Road To Live show was essentially a greatest clips of the show’s fourth season so far. A lead-in and perpetual tease to next week’s three nights of live shows, the one-hour episode was up 19% from the 1.3/4 that Dateline received in the same time slot April 24. With The Voice recap show as a lead-in, Law & Order: SVU (1.5/4) saw a drop of 21% from last week. Following at 10 PM, Chicago Fire (1.7/5) bopped up 6% from its last new show April 3. (more…)