Fox is going in for the kill. Beginning tonight, American Idol and Lie to Me will swap time slots, with the impressive new Tim Roth drama kicking things off at 8 p.m., and the ratings juggernaut starting an hour later at 9 p.m. Impact? For Idol: probably none. But Lie to Me will now have to make do without the most popular lead-in on the grid.
More importantly, the switch could really put the pressure on ABC’s Lost, which was barely edging out Lie to Me and CBS’s Criminal Minds in its 9 p.m. time slot. Ratings for the island drama have progressively declined this season, and a two-hour Idol in February indicated additional vulnerability.
How is this going to change your Wednesday nights? Lost is a repeat tonight, but can American Idol and Lost co-exist? Or will Idol cut further into Lost’s losses even when Sawyer & Co. return next Wednesday? And what about Lie to Me? Can the frosh procedural stand on its own?
addCredit(“Lost: Mario Perez/ABC; Cowell: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images”)
Something tells me, LOST and AI are not pulling from the same demographic. At least, I hope not!
“Sawyer and co.”, heh. That would be a good new direction for the show I think.
I only hope Lost’s and Idol’s fans are two different demographics. The ratings will never be a true refection of viewership though, Lost is far bigger with the torrenting crowd.
Dumb move on Fox’s part. With the overrun, people would stick to Fox even if drek like “The Moment of Truth” followed. Idol won’t gain anything, especially since the yung-uns may have to go to bed before the show ends at 10, but Lie To Me will lose a big lead-in.
Well, it won’t be changing my night. I’m not at all interested in “American Idol,” nor have I ever been. And while “Lie to Me” looks interesting in the commercials and previews, I’ve not sat in front of it. So, my Wednesday nights are set for “Lost.” They won’t be losing my viewership!
I have never watched AI and have never missed a LOST…..so it makes no difference to me. I also do not think they pull the same viewers…anyway LOST is set until the end of 2010..so I don’t think it will make much difference. ABC has already cancelled most of its good programming. I don’t think it can support dumping LOST before the end.
Lost is going to get its ass kicked by American Idol. Even people who watch Lost and American Idol would, I imagine, rather watch Lost online the next day than miss American Idol, which is live.
Personally, I don’t watch the Idol results shows or Lost live. (Honestly, i FF through most of the Idol results show, and Lost is too freakin’intense for me to sit through commercials in the middle of it!)So, it won’t change my habit of not watching either live. I wonder how overlapping the Idol and Lost demos are for there to be a direct relationship. Overall, I think Lost is losing viewers because casual watchers are jumping ship while diehards (like me, yes) are the ones really sticking it out religiously until the end…
“Lie to Me” is an awesome show, so I am looking forward to watching it and then heading over to “Lost” and then “Life on Mars”. I always catch up on “Life” the next day online on the ABC website. (Notice I didn’t mention “Idol”? Yeah, that show sucks.)
Anyway, check out “Lie to Me” if you haven’t yet, Tim Roth and cast are doing an Awesome job!
Deedee, Lost is not going to get its ass kicked by Idol. Have you never heard of this cool new invention called the DVR? And then there’s that other neat thing called TiVo. Not to mention the full episodes available on the abc web site, but I assume you know about that since you obviously can use the internet somewhat. And for those not so technologically advanced, there’s the VCR. Dumbass.
Screw American Idol. I’ll stick with my Wednesday evening diet of Lost.
I DVR everything anyway, so it won’t change my viewing habits. Plus, I don’t really care about Idol’s elimination shows.
And by the way, DeeDee, people who watch both shows would record Idol, not Lost for one simple reason: you can fast forward past Paula’s blathering.
This move will affect “Lie to Me” more than anything, since “American Idol” has helped (for better or worse) Fox shows like “House”, “Moment of Truth” and “Fringe” become hits. Without “AI”, “Lie to Me” is going to take a HUGE hit.
Don’t get me wrong, “Lost” is going to get crushed by the “Idol” machine as well. However, even when “Lost” gets crushed it won’t matter. The show already has a fixed end date for the end of next season, so it’s not like it’s going to get cancelled if it does poorly.
Sure, it’ll be slightly embarrassing if the ratings for “Lost” go down even more than they already have, but the show’s not going anywhere. Also, for die-hard fans (like myself) the show takes precedent over anything else, so it’s not like I’m going to be tempted to watch “Idol” instead. By the way, I’ve seen every episode of “Idol” this season, but when it comes to choosing between the two, there’s no competition: “Lost” all the way!
Deedee, I don’t think a true Lost fan would EVER choose to watch American Idol instead! Why watch an hour-long show when all it gives you is (at best) a list of names? Especially when you can get the same information somewhere else the next day, I don’t see the point. That’s just my opinion though.
all i got to say is thank god for my dvr!!!!