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People age 35-49 watched the seventh season of American Idol the most, making up almost 29 percent of the total audience. The most-watched episode this season was the premiere episode on Tuesday, 1/15/08, averaging 33 million viewers, according to a new report from the Nielsen Company (via MarketingCharts).
Highlights of the data issued:
TV Ratings
American Idol’s highest viewership was Season 5, when more than 30 million people watched on average, compared with 12 million the first season and 27 million this season.
The East Central part of the United States has the highest viewing levels above the national average, while the Southwest has the lowest viewing levels below average. (See table of viewership by region.)
People age 35-49 watched American Idol Season 7 the most, making up almost 29 percent of the total audience. (See table of audience broken down by age groups.)
The most-watched episode this season was the premiere episode on Tuesday, 1/15/08 averaging 33 million viewers.
The most watched American Idol episode ever was the final hour of Season 2 on Wednesday, 5/21/2003; more than 38 million viewers tuned in live to watch the face off between winner Ruben Studdard and runner-up Clay Aiken.
Advertisers
Top Advertisers
(View tables of top 5 advertisers for season 6 and part of season 7.)
Coca-Cola was the top American Idol season 7 advertiser for the first quarter of 2008, followed by AT&T and Ford. Procter & Gamble and Apple rounded out the top five.
All five of these companies have advertised on American Idol since 2002 and, with the exception of Apple, all of them also held slots among the top five American Idol advertisers in season 6 (Jan. 16 - March 23, 2007).
Product Placements
(View table of top product placement by brands.)
During season 6 (Jan. 16 - May 23, 2007), American Idol featured 4,349 product placement occurrences. As of March 31, 2008, the number of placements featured during season 7 was surging—American Idol had already racked up 3,291 occurrences.
Coca-Cola and AT&T Wireless were the top two featured brands on American Idol during the first quarter of 2008. In season 6, Cingular Wireless rounded out the top three - but in early 2008, Ford claimed the third slot.
Coca-Cola, which has an ongoing advertising association with American Idol, far outpaced all other brands’ product placements on the program, beating second-place AT&T Wireless by more than 2,000 occurrences during both season 6 and the first quarter of 2008 (season 7).
During both seasons 6 and the portion of season 7 included in this analysis (Jan. 15 - March 31, 2008), product placements on American Idol appeared most often in foreground shots. In season 6, there were 3,030 foreground placements on the program; in the first three months of 2008, there were 2,154 foreground occurrences.
In season 6, background placements (372 occurrences) and prop placements (234 occurrences) rounded out the top three, while in the first quarter of 2008, call to action placements (310 occurrences) and wardrobe placements (206 occurrences) claimed second and third place, respectively.
For coverage of mobile, music and online data, see coverage by MarketingCharts.
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