Fox’s season six premiere of “American Idol” spelled disaster for the second week of “The Sopranos” syndication on A&E. American Idol completely owned any show competing with it during its debut.
In it’s Jan. 10th A&E debut, The Sopranos grabbed the attention of 4.3-million viewers, which was the best ratings of an off-network-series kickoff in basic-cable history. On this Wednesday night, American Idol completely took over the 9PM time slot and The Sopranos lost 49% in total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Even after American Idol ended at 10 p.m., the second episode of The Sopranos dropped from its first week by 37% in total viewers. I guess this is a lesson learned for anyone trying to go up against the Fox Reality contest…fuggetaboutit.
