TV Ratings: ‘The Rookie’ Draws Series High Audience, ‘American Idol’ Tops Sunday

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “American Idol” and CBS’s country music special “ACM Presents: Our Country” vied for first place in a relatively quiet night for TV ratings, as “The Rookie” drew more Live+Same Day viewers than it has ever done before.

“Idol” topped the night with a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49 and 6.9 million total viewers, which represents a slight downtick from last Sunday’s 1.3 and 7.3 million viewers. “America’s Funniest Home Videos” continued to scored strong numbers amid the co-viewing boom caused by the coronavirus pandemic, coming in at a 1.0 rating and 6.2 million viewers.  “The Rookie” came in even at a 0.8 rating and 5.8 million viewers, yet another season high in the latter metric.

The “ACM Presents” special, which featured performances from the likes of Shania Twain, Brad Paisley Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, scored a solid 1.0 rating and 7.7 million viewers, the second largest audience of the night only behind its “60 Minutes” lead-in, which delivered a 0.9 and just under 10 million viewers. A replay of the network’s “Garth & Trisha Live!” scored a 0.7 and drew 4.7 million pairs of eyeballs.

NBC’s Sunday night lineup was pretty much even across the board week-to-week. “Good Girls” was the only series to tick down to a 0.4 and 1.8 million viewers. “The Wall” topped the night with a 0.5 and 3.1 million viewers, while “Little Big Shots” drew the same number of viewers and a 0.4 rating. “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” also posted a 0.4 and just over 2 million viewers.

Fox aired only reruns of its Animation Domination lineup, with “The Simpsons” and “Duncanville” replays both scoring a 0.4, followed by “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” replays both at a 0.5.

Likewise the CW also aired only replays of “Batwoman” and “Supergirl,” both of which delivered a 0.1 rating.