American Idol’s move to a new night seems to have paid off.
The ABC talent contest scored its biggest season debut in four years with 5.9M total viewers and a 0.54 rating point among adults 18-49, per Nielsen’s live+same day preliminary ratings. This was up from 4.49M (0.45) last year.
It was the show’s biggest premiere performance since Season 20 in 2022.
American Idol is hosted by Ryan Seacrest with Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood as judges. It previously aired on Sunday nights but moved to Mondays this season.
ABC got a bit salty when revealing the numbers, comparing its premiere performance to The Voice, saying that it marked the first time that Idol “outdelivered” the NBC show’s premiere in its nine season run on ABC.
The Disney-owned network said the premiere “surged past” The Voice but it was comparing it to the show’s fall average.
“The beginning of the year is awards season and a lot of these award shows are on Sunday nights. You’re up against the Grammys and the Super Bowl. Let’s see what happens on Monday,” showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick told Deadline earlier this month.
Clearly, ABC is enjoying a ratings boost for its linear entertainment staples such as Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Idol received more than double the votes in its finale last season.
Talking of votes, Idol is also experimenting with live social media voting for the first time this season, marking the first entertainment show to do so.
Last night’s premiere featured the likes of Jesse Findling, who has a stutter and sang Benson Boone’s “In The Stars” and Khloe Grace, who sang “Forever 13”, a song written about Aubreigh Wyatt, a 13-year-old girl who died by suicide in 2023, a moment that made Underwood cry.
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