Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Gabby Samone reacts to advancing while Thunderstorm Artis, Breanna Nix and Kolbi cheer her on following fan voting on American Idol. (ABC Photo)

American Idol and The Voice went head-to-head Monday night for the fifth straight week.

And American Idol won the ratings battle in a landslide.

Idol had held a slight edge in the ratings among 19-49 year olds each of the previous four weeks.

But on nights when the two shows aired all new footage, The Voice was drawing a slightly larger overall audience.

Not this past Monday.

American Idol led all shows on the night with a 0.45 rating among 19 to 49 year old. The Voice was third among networks with a 0.26 ratings.

American Idol drew an estimated 4.61 million viewers. The Voice: Just 3.69.

In other words, American Idol cleaned The Voice’s clock.

It’s important to note that American Idol started fan voting on April 13. The Voice will start fan voting on May 12.

And in the three weeks prior to Monday night, Idol has been airing shows jam packed with music and new performances.

In a shockingly stupid programming decision, The Voice aired three hours of recap footage and just three hours of new music over the past three Mondays.

My conclusion:

This is what happens when one show gets its top singers in front of the audience episode after episode so they can develop favorites while the other adopts a format that has its top singers disappear for a month at a time.

This is what what happens when one show has fans vote early and often to help determine the singers’ fate while the other hand picks it semifinalists and hasn’t allowed a single fan vote yet.

This is what happens when one show is focused on wall-to-wall music and the other would just as soon waste time having the coaches discuss Adam Levine’s new hair style.

This is what happens when one show knows how to put on an entertaining singing competition and the other acts like it doesn’t have a clue — or else lost it over the course of 27 seasons.

The numbers, courtesy of tvseriesfinale.com:

April 28

American Idol: 0.45 among 18-49 year olds; 4.61 million viewers
The Voice: 0.26 among 18-49 year olds; 3.69 million viewers

April 21

American Idol: 0.44 among 18-49 year olds; 4.19 million viewers
The Voice: 0.20 among 18-49 years olds; 2.57 million viewers

April 14

American Idol: 0.40 among 18-49 year olds; 3.88 million viewers
The Voice: 0.33 among 18-49 year olds; 4.14 million viewers

April 7

American Idol: 0.45 among 18-49 year olds; 4.15 million
The Voice (new episode): 0.20 among 18-49 year olds, 3.32 million
The Voice (recap show): 0.21 among 18-49 year olds; 2.91 million

March 31

American Idol: 0.39 among 18-49 year olds; 3.78 million
The Voice: 0.30 among 18-49 year olds; 4.57 million