Wednesday 01/25/12 - American Idol Helps Touch to Solid Premiere on FOX

As the only network to roll out a full schedule of original programming Wednesday night, FOX averaged the largest A18-49 audience for the fourth consecutive evening. Though it declined 16% from its season premiere last week, American Idol (5.04 A18-49 Live Rating) was still the highest rated program of the night among A18-49 viewers, providing a solid lead-in to the series debut of Touch (3.30) at 9pm, which reported a 25% improvement over the network's 2-hour series opener of Alcatraz on 01/16/12.

Landing in a distant second place, CBS featured a mix of repeat and original programming. While opening the 8pm hour with a repeat of Criminal Minds (1.67), the network followed with originals of Criminal Minds (3.09) and CSI (2.90), reporting increases of 16% and 18%, respectively, among A18-49 from last week's episodes.

Following its Wednesday night broadcast of Que No Podia Amar (1.59) at 8pm, Univision featured Mexico versus Venezuela in an International Friendly (1.70) soccer match for the remainder of the evening. This combination of programming placed the Hispanic broadcast network ahead of ABC's Wednesday night repeat lineup of The Middle (1.40), Suburgatory (1.36), Modern Family (2.29), Happy Endings (1.51) and Revenge (0.85).

Similar to CBS, NBC also scheduled a mix or repeat and original programs last night, though chose the 8pm hour to run their new episodes. However, reporting declines of 3% and 18% from a week ago, original airings of Whitney (1.34) and Are You There Chelsea? (1.30), respectively, provided a soft start to the network's back-to-back repeats of Law & Order: SVU at 9pm (1.06) and 10pm (1.29).

On cable, repeats of Storage Wars and a new episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter helped A&E draw the largest A18-49 cable audience last night, while original airings of Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy and American Restoration landed History second among A18-49 cable viewers.

Continuing to trail its broadcast competition significantly, The CW kicked off the evening with the latest episode of One Tree Hill (0.49), which declined 4% among A18-49 from a week ago. Trying to generate additional viewership for its newest reality show, the network used the 9pm hour for an encore of Remodeled (0.21), which lost nearly 60% of its lead-in audience.

Source: Nielsen, based on Live data