HispanicBusiness

Mightier than any broadcast of NFL playoffs, more powerful than any situation comedy, stronger than the nightly news, American Idol's Season Eight has started and immediately claimed the top ratings among all English-language shows watched by U.S. Hispanic viewers.

With its broadcast of the singing competition, Fox network seized the top two spots on the 10-most-watched programs for the week of January 12-18. American Idol's Wednesday telecast attracted 1.8 million Hispanic viewers and earned a 8.4 rating, while Tuesday garnered a 7.0 rating and 1.7 million fans, according to numbers released by the Nielsen Media Group.

The show's premiere featured the usual round of emotional drama queens, ingratiating ingenues, and embarrassingly inept wannabes, along with a few genuine talents. But probably the most-watched tryout was that of new fourth judge Kara DioGuardi. Most commentators pronounced her competent.

By the end of Tuesday's night's tryouts, the television reviewer at MTV declared Judge DioGuardi to have "already developed a chummy, shoulder-slapping relationship with Randy Jackson, a girl-power bond with Paula Abdul and no major conflicts with Simon Cowell." All-in-all, DioGuardi was pronounced a success.

Rounding out the top-rated programs were an array of situation comedies and crime dramas. CSI and CSI: Miami claimed the fourth and sixth positions in the top-ten race, while The Mentalist brought up the rear with ratings of 4.3 and 4.1 to claim the eighth and tenth ranks.

The Mentalist is in its first season and has achieved surprising popularity among all U.S. viewers. The show's hero, Patrick Jane, works as an independent consultant with the California Bureau of Investigation. The bureau values his impressive record for solving perturbing murder mysteries by using his exceedingly sharp skills of observation. He also makes use of his psychological skills and supposed mentalist abilities to trick witnesses and offenders into spilling information about the crime. On January 7, 2009, the program won the award for "Favorite New TV Drama" at the 35th People's Choice Awards.

Among Spanish-language programs, the seemingly unstoppable array of popular soap operas reinforced Univision as the number one Spanish-language network in the United States. Five of the top-ten most-watched Spanish-language programs were telenovelas first produced by the Mexican media company Televisa.

Spicing up Unvision's programming and also achieving great popularity this week was the current affairs program Aqui Y Ahora with a 14.6 rating, the variety show Don Francisco Presenta hosted by television old-timer Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld, and the lively comedy sketch broadcast Hora Pico, which claimed a 9.6 rating.

The following TV ratings are based on Hispanic viewership. Nielsen's ratings include viewers who watched the program while it aired and those who viewed the shows via digital video recorder within 24 hours of their airing. Nielsen says that the Hispanic TV audience represents more than 11.63 million television households in the United States. The rating is the percentage of households watching a TV program out of the potential audience of 11.63 million households.

Top 10 English-language shows and ratings (January 12-18, 2009)
1. American Idol – Wednesday (Fox) 8.4
2. American Idol – Tuesday (Fox) 8.0
3. AFC Championship Playoff, Post-game – Sunday (CBS) 7.1
4. CSI – Thursday (CBS) 5.0
5. Desperate Housewives – Sunday (ABC) 4.5
6. CSI: Miami – Monday (CBS) 4.4
6. Two and a Half Men – Monday (CBS) 4.4
8. The Mentalist – Sunday (CBS) 4.3
9. Grey's Anatomy – Thursday (ABC) 4.2
10. The Mentalist – Sunday (CBS) 4.1

Top 10 Spanish-language shows and their ratings (January 12-18, 2009)
1. Fuego En La Sangre – Five-day Ave. (Univision) 21.4
2. Cuidado con el Angel – Five-day Ave. (Univision) 20.5
3. Don Francisco Presenta – Wednesday (Univision) 17.8
4. Tontas No Van Cielo – Five-day Ave. (Univision) 17.6
5. Rosa De Guadalupe – Thursday-Friday (Univision) 15.8
6. Aqui Y Ahora – Tuesday (Univision) 14.6
7. Cristina – Monday (Univision) 14.3
8. Sabado Gigante – Saturday (Univision) 12.6
9. Quien Tiene Razon? – Sunday (Univision) 11
10. Hora Pico – Sunday (Univision) 9.6

Next week in the ratings: Will President Obama and his inauguration break into the top ten? We think you know the answer to that one.