Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The American Idol judges listen to a performance during Hollywood Week in Nashville. (ABC Photo)

And the victory on the first week of Monday night head-to-head competition between American Idol and The Voice — goes to American Idol, in rather resounding fashion.

The springs marks the first time Idol and The Voice have both aired exclusively on Monday nights.

Since moving to ABC, Idol has typically aired on Sundays, with random Monday episodes.

This week, Idol grew its audience for its first Hollywood Week audition with a rating of 0.45 among 18-49 year olds and an estimated total audience of 5.52 million.

That’s up 46 percent from the estimated 3.78 million viewers who watched last season’s first Hollywood Week episode on a Monday night.

Meanwhile, The Voice’s audience decreased significantly for its season premiere.

Last spring, the season premiere for Season 27 recorded a 0.5 rating among 19-49 year olds and an overall estimated audience of 5.68 million.

Monday’s season premiere had a rating of 0.31 and an estimated total audience of 3.84 million. That’s a 33 percent drop in viewership from a year ago.

I won’t be surprised if the gap grows significantly if coming weeks.

At this point, Idol is far and away the better show in terms of format.

And while voting begins within a month on Idol, fans at home will eventually realize they are going to have zero say in who wins Season 29 of The Voice.

For the first time ever, The Voice is pre-recording its finale and using in-house audience voting to determine the winner.

See also …
No fan voting on The Voice for Season 29
Song by song grades on the first night of Hollywood Week on American Idol
Song by song grades for The Voice premiere