HispanicBusiness

It's as if viewers everywhere can't get enough of American Idol. The show, which graced the top two spots of Hispanic viewers' Top 10 English language programs in last week's count, did so again for the week of February 9th. Dateline NBC was a surprising third, followed by top-five regulars Grey's Anatomy and CSI: Miami.

On the Spanish speaking networks, Eternos Rivales swiped Fuego en la Sangre's number-one spot, squeaking through with slightly higher ratings. With little surprise, Cuidado con el Angel ranked third, followed by Tontas con el Angel and Cristina Mon.

There was good reason for why Idol Wednesday outflanked its competition: the February 11 episode announced the show's top 36 contestants. In classic Idol dramatics, the four judges lounged in august thrones and called each singer in one by one, greeting their victims with stoic faces and flimsy words before pausing one, two, three, four, five seconds and then disclosing the contestants' fates.

Dateline NBC managed to nab the third spot due to its in depth interview with Nadya Suleman, spotlighting her recently born octuplets and family that now weighs in at 14.

For the first time Suleman's six pre-octuplet kids, who range from two to seven years old, were introduced to the public. Suleman was given all of Dateline's hour to tell her life story and to respond to the massive public criticism she has received for more than doubling her family's size in one pregnancy.

The ratings for the week of February 9 are as follows:

English language program ratings:
1. American Idol Wednesday (FOX, 8pm) 7.3
2. American Idol Tuesday (FOX, 8pm) 6.0
3. Dateline (NBC, Tues. 10pm) 5.3
4. Grey's Anatomy (ABC, Thur. 9pm) 4.7
5. CSI: Miami (CBS, Mon. 10pm) 4.3
6. Desperate Housewives (ABC, Sun.10pm) 4.2
7. Family Guy (FOX, Sun. 9pm) 4.2
8. Private Practice (ABC, Thur. 10pm) 4.1
9. Heroes (NBC, Mon. 9pm) 3.8
10. The Mentalist (CBS, Tues. 9pm) 3.8

Spanish language program ratings:
1. Eternos Rivales (UNI, Wed. 7pm) 22.3
2. Fuego en la Sangre (UNI, M-F var.) 22.1
3. Cuidado con el Angel (UNI, M-F var.) 20.0
4. Tontas no van Cielo (UNI, M-F 7pm) 17.5
5. Cristina Mon (UNI, Mon. 10pm) 16.4
6. Aqui y Ahora (UNI, Tues. 10pm) 16.2
7. Rosa de Guadalupe (UNI, Th-Fri. var.) 14.0
8. Mujeres Mandan Barrio (UNI, Sun. 8pm) 13.1
9. Sabado Gigante (UNI, Sat. 8pm) 12.2
10. Hora Pico (UNI, Sun. 7pm) 11.1

The previous 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.