TV Ratings: 'American Idol' stabilizes, wins Thursday for FOX

Lazaro Arbos auditions on "American Idol."

Credit: FOX

And on night 2, the "American Idol" ratings dip rested.

The second episode of season 13 was down about 10 percent in total viewers from Wednesday's season premiere, and 7 percent among adults 18-49, but its numbers were virtually identical to what last season's second episode drew. It helped that CBS aired repeats last night, but for at least a day, FOX executives can breathe a little easier about where the show sits in its bar mitzvah year.

Meanwhile, it was a promising return to an old timeslot for "Parks and Recreation," "1600 Penn" dipped from last week's unimpressive bow, and "Scandal" was only slightly off of last week's series high, while "Last Resort" is limping to its final port of call.

"Idol" easily won the night for FOX, with a 5.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 16.19 million viewers overall. ABC was second (2.2, 7.21 million), followed by CBS (1.9, 8.98 million), NBC (1.5, 3.89 million) and the CW (0.9, 2.03 million).

8 p.m. -- "Idol" handily won the hour, with a 5.4 demo rating and 15.86 million viewers. Repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men" combined for second for CBS (2.8, 10.51 million). NBC was third with "30 Rock" and "Parks and Recreation," which combined for a 1.6 demo and 3.69 million viewers, but with "Parks" (1.9, 3.89 million) improving by more than 46 percent over "30 Rock" (1.3, 3.5 million) in the demo, and 11 percent among total viewers. It matched the show's best performance in the 9:30 timeslot, as well as its best rating since November of 2011. The CW's "The Vampire Diaries" (1.4, 2.91 million) was fourth, finishing ahead of the penultimate episode of ABC's "Last Resort" (1.0, 5.01 million).

9 p.m. -- More "Idol" dominance (5.8, 16.53 million), with ABC moving into second place thanks to "Grey's Anatomy" (2.9, 8.68 million). NBC's comedies narrowly came in third in the demo (1.7, 3.6 million) versus a CBS "Person of Interest" repeat (1.6, 9.36 million), but "1600 Penn" (1.2, 3.04 million) was down 15 percent from last week's slack debut, and down 43 percent in the demo from "The Office" (2.1, 4.15 million). A repeat of the CW's "The Carrie Diaries" was fifth (0.5, 1.2 million).

10 p.m. -- With "Idol" done for the night, ABC finally claimed first place with a new "Scandal" (2.6, 7.95 million), followed by an "Elementary" repeat on CBS (1.4, 7.05 million) and NBC's "Rock Center" (1.2, 4.38 million).

All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

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Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com