'American Idol' dominates ratings in second week

LOS ANGELES - Executives U.S. network Fox are breathing a sigh of relief this morning.

The network dominated Wednesday night with the second week of "American Idol" averaging a 9.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 25.2 million viewers. But more importantly, the two-hour "Idol" (8-10 p.m.) was only down 5% in the demo compared to last Wednesday's premiere.

Last year, the third telecast of "American Idol" dropped 14% in the demo. Of course, the tenth season opener last Wednesday was also down 18% in the demo (9.7 rating) compared to the 2010 opener.

ABC and CBS tied for a distant second on the night averaging a 2.1 demo rating each. ABC had back-to-back reruns of "The Middle" (which averaged a 2.0 in the demo with 6.8 million viewers from 8-9 p.m.) followed by reruns of "Modern Family" (2.6, 7.3 million) and "Cougar Town" (2.1, 5.0 million).

At 10 p.m., new drama "Off the Map" (1.8, 5.0 million) was down 14% in the demo compared to last week's episodes, for its lowest rating since its premiere three weeks ago.

Paula Abdul's CBS reality competition show "Live to Dance" continues to languish, finishing fourth at 8 p.m. with a 1.1 demo rating and 4.7 million viewers overall. However that's actually up 10% compared to last week.

The news was better for CBS at 9 p.m.; a new episode of "Criminal Minds" built substantially on its paltry lead-in (3.2, 12.8 million) to take second in the hour, while "Blue Bloods" continued to perform well in its new Wednesday time slot, finishing first at 10 p.m. (2.0, 12 million).

NBC was fourth on Wednesday averaging a 1.4 demo rating with 4.8 million viewers overall. At 8 p.m., "Minute to Win It" (1.4, 5.0 million) was down 13% week-to-week, while "Chase" (1.2, 4.1 million) was up 20%. And "Law & Order: SVU" was third at 10 p.m. averaging a 1.7 rating with 5.4 million viewers.