Michael T Hudson

NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump was no match for a bunch of bad singers just begging for insults from Simon Cowell.

Fox's "American Idol" left Trump's "The Apprentice" on NBC in the ratings dust Wednesday night. An estimated 29.4 million people watched "Idol" and 12.3 million saw Trump's reality show, which aired at the same hour, Nielsen Media Research said on Thursday.

NBC quickly moved "The Apprentice" back to Thursday nights.

A week earlier, more than 20 million people watched "The Apprentice," when it followed "Friends" on the schedule and didn't have to go against "American Idol."

The real estate mogul wasn't happy about the move to Wednesday night when asked about it on Wednesday's "Today" show.

"It was doing so well," he said. "It was No. 1 in a certain slot. It followed 'Friends.' And I think I question the strategy."

Trump got his wish. Starting next week, "The Apprentice" will air Thursdays at 9 p.m. "Will & Grace" will move a half-hour earlier, and "Scrubs" is shifted to Tuesday nights."

NBC will air reruns of "The Apprentice" against "American Idol" each Wednesday.

The three nights of "American Idol" proved it has remained a ratings juggernaut, despite being off the air since last May. Twenty-nine million people watched Monday's debut of the third season, 28.6 million watched Tuesday, and Wednesday's numbers topped them all.

Fox said the numbers exceeded their expectations. What's more important for the network: it boosted the shows around them. "The O.C.," which directly followed "American Idol," drew a series-record audience of 12.7 million Wednesday.

And because "American Idol" aired right before President Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday, Fox's coverage of the speech outdrew ABC's audience (8.3 million to 8.2 million). An estimated 9.6 million people saw the speech on NBC, and 8.6 million on CBS.


I am glad to The Aprentice go back to Thursdays.

UWSarge

I hate it when they keep shifting around the days/times of a show. Never know when it's going to be on, then I end up missing it.

Groucho

TiVo

Jadzia

Thursdays are better for me. Wednesday at 8 was just crazy.

I started not recording Smallville in my living room due to the conflicts and was grabbing it on my basement exercise room Tivo-- so I can only watch it while I work out. Same with Enterprise.

Patman

I just think it's funny that The Donald's ego wouldn't allow his show to get trumped by AI.

rabbit77

I think the biggest news of the article is that Scrubs is moving to Tuesdays. If it goes against 24 I'll be

Patman

I can't wait for CSI to clean "The Apprentice"'s clock.

Scrubs will be going up against 24 in the 9 p.m. EST slot. as a lead-in for Frasier. Here's the rest of the details in the link below from the Scrubs thread:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ion_ratings_dc

Red Dog

Actually, when they aired opposite one another, Apprentice beat CSI in the 18-49 demographic by 9%. When Apprentice moved to Wed at 8, its 18-49 rating fell 52%.

Also, NBC will run encores of Apprentice in the Wed 8 pm slot.

Patman

That was the curiousity factor kicking in, but if they re-run the previous week's on Wednesday for "The Apprentice", CSI will retain their dominance in their 9 p.m. timeslot on Thursdays.

Red Dog

I think keeping Apprentice on Thursday strenghtens NBC overall for that night. Apprentice should get better ratings (particularly in the 18-49 demo) in that slot than what is currently there. CSI will still win overall, and might win the demo in the long run, but I think Apprentice will take a bite out of it.

As for the re-run factor, keep in mind that CSI episodes will be rebroadcast by CBS quite a bit since it is a stand-alone show.

Red Dog

My question is....where is That 70s Show going now that the craptacular AI is on Wednesdays?

MrX

It'll be interesting to see how it fares against Survivor since it's only been going up against reruns on CBS so far on Thursday.

Red Dog

It won't be going against Survivor. It is going against CSI. It did go up against a new CSI last Thursday.

MrX

Whoops, I thought they were starting it after Friends again.

I wonder if it will change the numbers now that it had to go head to head with CSI for the entire hour as opposed to just a half hour.

Will & Grace as a lead in won't be as strong as having Friends either.

Patman

CSI reruns aren't dependable (as in you have no idea which episode would be re-run in March/April, the non-Sweeps month), you know exactly which episode will be re-run in the Wednesday spot for "The Apprentice", thus the "gotta watch it on Thursday" factor is not as high for "The Apprentice" as it is for "CSI".

Rypro 525

shit, I'm taping three things now on tuesday nights (best bet for a tivo for me is may)