Episode 5.06 - 316 - Ratings

Thanks to B3RT4 for the heads up.

American Idol won the night of course, but LOST zoomed back up over a 5.0 rating among adults 18-49. A few weeks from now, it will face off against American Idol, and that will drop (last week, against an expanded Idol, Lost pulled a 4.4 in the overnights), but for fans of LOST, it won’t matter any.

LOST bested Lie to Me across the board, though it was a narrow margin in total viewers, but that’s before the minute or so of Idol gets removed in the final numbers. I’d guess considering the hour, which also includes Criminal Minds, the second most watched program outside of Idol, that FOX is pretty happy with the results.

Source: TV by the Numbers

Here is ABC's spin on the numbers

* ABC's Wednesday night results were up sharply year to year, jumping by 2.1 million viewers (7.5 million vs. 5.4 million) and by 50% in Adults 18-49 (3.0/8 vs. 2.0/5) over the year-ago night (2/20/08). In fact it was ABC's 3rd straight week to register year-to-year young adult growth on Wednesday, finishing up or even with the year-ago night for 5 weeks in a row.

"Lost" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
In the 8 o'clock hour, ABC's repeat of the prior week's "Lost" episode defeated NBC's original installment of "Knight Rider" in both Total Viewers (5.6 million vs. 5.5 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.9/5 vs. 1.5/4), holding an impressive 27% advantage over the NBC drama in the key young adult sales demo.

"Lost" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
Self-starter "Lost" shot up from its lead-in by 5.7 million viewers and by 168% in young adults to dominate the 9 o'clock hour among Adults 18-49, beating Fox's "Idol"-fueled "Lie to Me" by a best-yet 21% (5.1/12 vs. 4.2/10). Additionally, "Lost" established itself as Wednesday's No. 1 scripted TV show for the 5th straight week in the key young adult sales demo. The fifth-year ABC drama also won its time slot in the other key Adult demos, leading its nearest competitors by 30% in Adults 18-34 (4.8/13 vs. 3.7/10 - Fox's "Lie to Me") and by 10% in Adults 25-54 (5.4/12 vs. 4.9/11 - CBS' "Criminal Minds"). In fact, "Lost" registered as Wednesday's No. 1 scripted TV program across all key Adult, Men and young Women demographics.

* Achieving season highs, "Lost" marked the series' highest young adult ratings (AD18-49/AD18-34) since last April (since 4/24/08) and its top Men 18-34 and Men 18-49 numbers in nearly 1 year (since 2/28/08 and 3/6/08, respectively).

Source: ABC