"American Idol" received a boost and scored an easy win for Fox on a repeat-heavy Thursday night, while NBC's new drama "Awake" premiered soft but still yielded the network's best numbers in its timeslot in nearly a year, according to preliminary numbers.
"Idol," on Fox from 8 to 10 p.m., was up 18 percent in the adults 18-49 demographic versus last week, taking a 5.3/15 in the demo. The episode, which saw the Top 13 finalists chosen, was also up in total viewership, climbing 17 percent to 18.3 million total viewers. It was also the highest-rated Thursday episode of the season. Those numbers easily placed the network at the top spot for both the demo and total viewers for the night — not that there was a lot of competition.
CBS, in second place in ratings and total viewers with an average 2.1/6 in the demo and 9.5 million, ran a new episode of "Rob!" at 8:30, which was down 10 percent from last week in the demo with a 2.6/7, and 9 million total viewers. The rest of the network's primetime roster consisted of repeats.
NBC was in third place in ratings and total viewers with an average 1.9/5 in the demo and 4.7 million. "30 Rock" at 8 received a 1.4/4 in the demo and 3.8 million total viewers. "Parks & Recreation" at 8:30 posted a 1.7/5 in the demo and 3.8 million total viewers. "The Office" at 9 took a 2.5/7 in the demo and 5 million total viewers, while "Up All Night" at 9:30 drew a 1.6/4 in the demo and 3.5 million total viewers.
The premiere of the split-reality drama "Awake" at 10 drew soft numbers, taking a 1.9/5 in the demo and 6.2 million total viewers. But it improved on its lead-in, and gave NBC its best non-sports performance in the demo since last May and its best non-sports total viewership in the slot since April 2010. In a reflection of how much NBC has struggled at 10 on Thursdays, it improved 58 percent boost over the average in the demo this season.
ABC, meanwhile, ran repeats throughout the night.
