Special 'Idol' tops Tuesday

Fox's ''American Idol'' easily brought its two hrs in teenagers with Tuesday's special episode. Most competing shows lost demo ground however the CBS ''NCIS'' shows carried out well, and also the night's final hour saw NBC's ''Parenthood'' wrap its season by having an upswing. Based on preliminary national estimations from Nielsen, ''American Idol'' averaged a 5. rating/13 be part of grown ups 18-49 and 15.8 million audiences overall, on componen using its two-hour Wednesday of a week ago. Tuesday's special episode, where the 12 male runners up carried out, did about 80% much better than the net's regular selection of a week ago. From eight to ten p.m., ''American Idol'' beat runner-up CBS by 56% in grown ups 18-49 (5. to three.2) by 37% in grown ups 25-54 (6.three or four.6). At CBS, ''NCIS'' (3.4/9 in 18-49, 18. million audiences overall) was dinged a little by ''Idol'' but drawn to within 3 shares from it in grown ups 25-54 while beating the background music competition as a whole audiences , something it never did once the shows faced one another on Tuesday for quite some time. ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' adopted having a strong performance (3.1/8 in 18-49, 15.7 million audiences overall), bouncing back by 15% from last week's season low to put second overall within the 9 o'clock hour the 2 ''NCIS'' shows combined to conquer ''Idol'' mind-to-mind as a whole audiences for that two-hour block. And also at 10, ''Unforgettable'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 9.9 million audiences overall) was lower a tad week to week, tying for that hour's 18-49 lead. Opposite tough reality competition, NBC's ''The Greatest Loser'' dropped to season lows (2./5 in 18-49, 5.7 million audiences overall), but ''Parenthood'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 5.a million audiences overall) had its best demo score since November. 29 using its 18th and final episode of year. The household drama, a powerful artist among trendy audiences along with a substantial gainer in Digital recording device playback, figures to come back for any 4th season within the fall. 4th-place ABC saw ''Last Guy Standing'' (2.1/6 in 18-49, 7.4 million audiences overall), ''Cougar Town'' (1.5/4 in 18-49, 4.3 million audiences overall) and ''The River'' (1.5/4 in 18-49, 4.a million audiences overall) all edge lower to season lows, and ''Body of Proof'' closed the evening having a below-average delivery (1.3/4 in 18-49 CW broadcast a unique repeat of ''Hart of Dixie'' (.3/one in 18-49, .9 million audiences overall) and original ''Ringer'' (.4/one in 18-49, 1.a million audiences overall). Preliminary 18-49 earnings for that evening: Fox, 5./13 CBS, 2.8/7 NBC, 2./5 ABC, 1.6/4 NBC, 1.5/4 CW, .4/1. As a whole audiences: Fox, 15.8 million CBS, 14.5 million ABC, 5.six million NBC, 5.5 million Univision, 3.7 million CW, 1. million. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com