Best-Ever ACM TV Show Scores Worst-Ever Ratings

Daily Variety's headline says it: "Fox A Titan,"and makes country fans wonder if this great show couldn't get decent ratings, what can.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "American Idol" (8.9 rating/25 share in adults 18-49, 23.0 million viewers overall) again was in season-low ratings territory, and figures to come in about 15% below the same night a year ago; still, it beat ABC, CBS, NBC and CW combined in young adults. "House" followed with big numbers (9.2/23 in 18-49, 21.6 million viewers overall), up slightly vs. the same night last season despite the softer lead-in.

ABC assumed second-place honors on the night, as the "Dancing With the Stars" results show hit a season high at 9 o'clock (4.7/12 in 18-49, 18.1 million viewers overall) one week removed from its season finale. Closing out the night, "Boston Legal" (2.8/8 in 18-49, 10.7 million viewers overall) ran second and was up week to week. At CBS, the "Academy of Country Music Awards" hit lowest-yet scores on the network, averaging a third-place 2.7/7 in adults 18-49 and 9.2 million viewers overall. It was off more than 20% year-to-year.

Music City gossip guy Jimmy Carter nails it, I'd say: "You can NOT schedule a show against "Dancing With Stars" finals and "Idol" and expect to walk out alive! The ACMS used to be in APRIL and they should go back..outside the heavy May book and get off the IDOL competition thing...it's insane....they were doing against the FINALS not semi finals....LORD!..CBS is mad because they don't have the CMA's and don't want to throw any of their CSI's into the reality slaughter house..."

My two cents' worth: Jimmy is right of course.. but also they do have to fault the Nielsen meters' sample too. Country listeners are probably under-represented in the Nielsen sample, due to their residential zips on the periphery of the large metered TV markets. Then, there's the age and non-ethnic composition of our audience, ie. this post this morning on Martina's blog site.