TV Ratings: ‘American Idol’ Drops to Season Low

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “American Idol” didn’t quite hit its usual high notes on Sunday night, but still led ABC to an overall ratings victory.

“Idol,” which aired part 1 of its clip show about the contestants, scored a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 and drew 5.8 million total viewers, its lowest tally of season 18 in both metrics and a 16% viewership loss from last week. “The Rookie” followed that up with a 0.7 and 4.8 million viewers, a slight down tick from last week’s 0.8 rating and season high 5.9 million viewers. A replay of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” scored a 0.8 and 5.7 million viewers earlier in the night.

CBS was the only other network to air mostly original content on Sunday night, with “60 Minutes” leading the way at a 0.9 and just under 10 million total viewers. “God Friended Me” came in even on last episode at a 0.6 and 5.9 million pairs of eyeballs. “NCIS: Los Angeles” also didn’t budge from its previous episode, scoring a 0.7 and 6.7 million viewers. Its fellow “NCIS” spinoff “NCIS: New Orleans” lost a little ground episode-to-episode, coming in at a 0.6 and 6 million viewers.

Over on NBC, a replay of its 2018 “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” special, which starred John Legend as Christ and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, scored a 0.4 rating and 3.2 million viewers. “Dateline” followed it up with a 0.4 and 2.7 million viewers.

Fox aired replays of its Animation Domination Sunday lineup, with “The Simpsons,” “Duncanville,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” all coming in at a 0.4 rating. “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” managed to bring in the most viewers with 1.3 million each.

On the CW, replays of “Batwoman” and “Supergirl” both scored a 0.1 rating.