Television: "Idol" wins Wednesday Ratings

Source: Variety.com

On the shocking scale "American Idol" coming in on top in the ratings is just slightly more predictable than "Slumdog Millionaire" taking home Best Picture. The ratings juggernaut continued its usual dominance with its two hour episode pulling in an 8.9 rating/23 share in adults 18-49 and 24.3 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m. This was enough to beat out all other major networks combined share for that time period.

ABC's "Lost" continues to hold it's own against Idol scoring a 4.5 rating/11 share in adults 18-49 and about 10 million viewers. It was the number one scripted series in the key demos of 18-49, 25-54 and 18-34.

The other big winners were CBS's "Criminal Minds" (3.4/8 in 18-49, 14.0 million viewers overall) and NCIS (3.1/9 in 18-49, 12.7 million viewers overall).

And NBC managed to scrape out it's best 8 oclock numbers in 13 months with "The Biggest Loser" (3.3/9 in 18-49, 8.7)