Primetime Ratings: Super Tuesday Polls Tap American Idol as Winner

Not-so-Super Tuesday for ABC’s Wall-to-Wall Primary Coverage

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/6/2008 12:56:00 PM

Super Tuesday's super ratings winners were not the networks' political coverage, but American Idol and House over on Fox.

In fact, when given a choice between news and entertainment on the broadcast networks, viewers chose entertainment by a wide margin.

Fox won the night with a 10.1 rating/24 share in the 18-49 demo, according to overnight Nielsen Media Research ratings.

Idol built from a 10.3/26 in its first half-hour to a 12/29 in its second from 8 p.m.-9 p.m., with a new The Biggest Loser on NBC coming in second in the time period with a 2.8/7. Even a repeat of NCIS on CBS (1.8/4) easily topped ABC's Super Tuesday coverage, which was the biggest loser in the time period among the Big Four with a 1.2/3.

ABC also came in fourth for the night with its wall-to-wall coverage of one of the most competitive presidential-primary races in modern history, averaging a 1.4/3 for the night in the demo. Still, that was essentially the same numbers it has been getting with its entertainment programming on Tuesday nights, averaging a 1.4/4 in the overnights last week with shows like According to Jim and Carpoolers.

NBC was second with a 2.8/7 thanks to Biggest Loser. It also drew the strongest ratings for election coverage, with a 2.1/4 for its one hour's worth from 10 p.m.-11 p.m., when ABC, CBS and NBC all had political coverage. ABC was second in that hour with a 1.4/4, followed by CBS with a 1.3/3.

CBS was third on the night with a 1.5/4 led by NCIS.

The CW was fifth led by a new One Tree Hill with a 1.3/3.