That ‘Idol’ threat was real

Wednesday’s 48th Annual Grammy Awards proved several things: Madonna can still wear a leotard, Kelly Clarkson can be forgetful and “American Idol” can put a serious damper on the music industry’s biggest night.

Ratings for the Grammys, a 3 1/2 -hour marathon on CBS that began with the 47-year-old Madonna shaking to her dance hit “Hung Up” alongside the cartoon band Gorillaz, slumped to its lowest level since at least 1987, with an average of 17 million viewers tuning in, according to Nielsen Media Research. The program slipped 10% compared with last season. As recently as 2004, the Grammys logged more than 26 million viewers.

Why the decline? Partly to avoid competing with Sunday’s Super Bowl XL on ABC, CBS made the fateful decision to switch the telecast back to a Wednesday, its perch from 1995 to 2002. But that put the Grammys in its first head-to-head competition with the smash “Idol” at the 8 p.m. hour. It was thus a TV contest between the singing hopefuls and the music pros -- and both ended up taking a hit. It’s the first time CBS has failed to win a Grammy night in the ratings in 12 years.

The “Idol” shadow hung over more than just the Grammy ratings. One of the controversies involved former “Idol” winner Clarkson, who, in picking up two Grammys, thanked her mother and others during two tearful acceptance speeches but did not mention the Fox show where she got her start. Backstage, however, she said she simply “forgot.” “Idol” creator and executive producer Simon Fuller professed no hard feelings. “I’m extremely proud that Kelly won two Grammys for this album.... No one deserves it more than her,” Fuller said in a statement issued Thursday. “As our first winner, Kelly will always be a big part of the ‘American Idol’ legacy.”

Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich sounded philosophical about the ratings in an interview Thursday morning.

“I don’t think we had any great expectations,” Ehrlich said. “Obviously we knew that when the show was moved from Sunday to Wednesday ... we were headed into some strong competition.

“We would always like to do better, but there’s a reality here: ‘American Idol’ is a very potent show, and it’s probably closer to our audience than ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’ ” ABC’s reality hit last year.

Indeed, many of the Grammy nominees are popular with the same young-adult audience that has given “Idol” its highest-ever ratings this season.

“Idol,” which has completed its audition rounds and is now in the early Hollywood phase of the competition, attracted an average of 28.6 million viewers -- impressive by any standard but still down a few ticks from its lofty highs earlier this season. During the 8 p.m. hour, the Grammys had to settle for a relatively meager 15 million viewers. Among viewers ages 18 to 49, the demographic most favored by advertisers, “Idol” won by a similar ratio of nearly 2 to 1.

The situation brightened considerably for CBS once “Idol” ended. At 9 p.m., the Grammys edged out ABC’s hit island drama “Lost” (19.3 million versus 18.6 million). And at 10 p.m., the ceremony (18.3 million viewers for that hour) had no trouble dispensing NBC’s “Law & Order” (14.6 million) and ABC’s “Invasion” (9.5 million).

“The Grammy’s have performed impressively on Wednesdays in the past, and for two-thirds of the night it was dominant again,” CBS spokesman Chris Ender said in a statement. “Like everyone else, we ran into a buzz-saw at 8 p.m. -- but unlike everybody else, we still delivered one heck of a number.”