‘Idol’ viewership goes up, up, up for Fox

WHEN Fox’s “American Idol” returned for its sixth season Tuesday night, the judges gave a thumbs down to “urban Amish guy,” a skinny, scraggly bearded young Midwesterner who showed up for his audition claiming he’d never seen the show.

Urban Amish guy’s viewing habits, if nothing else, make him an increasingly rare specimen. Defying conventional wisdom and confounding all rivals, the two-hour “Idol” opener soared to its highest season premiere Tuesday, with an average of 37.3 million total viewers, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research. In fact, it was Fox’s most-watched series or season premiere ever, climbing 5% compared with last season’s already stratospheric figure. The final half-hour logged a stunning 40% share of 18- to 49-year-olds watching TV at that time, the kind of statistic virtually never seen in an era of rampant media fragmentation.

Fox executives, who just lived through perhaps the bleakest in a long line of miserable fall seasons, had trouble Wednesday containing their joy. With successive strokes -- Fox’s drama “24” also returned this week, with a four-hour premiere that aired Sunday and Monday nights -- the No. 4 network is suddenly, and once again, the one to beat.

“Every year is a shock,” Fox Executive Vice President Mike Darnell, who oversees reality series, including “Idol,” said in a phone interview. “It just doesn’t seem possible, not just to me but to everyone in the industry, that this thing could keep going up.”

Darnell repeated twice how thankful he was that the program appeared on Fox. As it happens, the boost arrives just in time for the network. This season, none of its new fall offerings caught on, the World Series delivered lousy ratings and executives canceled the once-hot youth soap “The O.C.” Perhaps the nadir was an embarrassing misfire involving a proposed prime-time interview with O.J. Simpson, which News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch, who controls Fox, later apologized for.

In the past, Fox tried to manage expectations for “Idol” premieres by predicting a ratings drop-off that, at least so far, has not materialized. Instead, the show has become more of a cultural phenomenon with each passing year.

“A lot of hype surrounds the show, and I don’t just mean the promos from Fox,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president at New York ad firm Horizon Media. “The whole phenomenon tied into the show is really ingrained into society.”

Indeed, on ABC’s chat fest “The View” on Wednesday morning, co-host Rosie O’Donnell lambasted “Idol” for letting “four millionaires” sit in judgment of would-be stars -- singer Jewel was a guest judge.

O’Donnell also took a winking swipe at judge Paula Abdul, whose sometimes slurred speech and bizarre on-camera behavior in previous seasons has led to endless speculation about her personal habits: “Paula was very thirsty last night -- did anyone else notice?” O’Donnell asked her co-hosts.

Of course, “Idol” eventually will ebb, although Fox is doing everything it can to keep that day from arriving anytime in the next decade or so. Rumors continue to fly that the producers are close to signing a deal for an appearance by Paul McCartney, who would represent perhaps the ultimate “get” for a pop-singing audition show.

“Don’t know yet,” Darnell replied when asked about McCartney. He also said he’s “not positive” that the show has secured the rights to perform the Beatles songbook, saying that the issues involved are complicated.

But Darnell says he does know one thing: “Idol” represents the end of an era. Thanks to the trend of media fractionalization -- a trend that so far it has bucked -- “Idol” is history that won’t be repeated.

“I don’t think we’ll see another TV show like this again, ever,” Darnell said. “It’s the last of its breed.”

scott.collins@latimes.com