"American Idol" tops Thursday night ratings

Judges Steven Tyler (L), Jennifer Lopez (C) and Randy Jackson take part in a panel discussion for the show ''American Idol'' at the Fox Broadcasting Company Winter Press Tour 2011 for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, California January 11, 2011.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The "American Idol" ratings-watch continues. And after a 5% week-to-week drop in the 18-49 demographic for Wednesday's installment, last night's episode showed less erosion - down 3% in the demo and total viewers compared to its first Thursday installment on January 20.

"Idol" averaged a 7.6 rating with 22.2 million viewers from 8-9 p.m., more than enough to power U.S. network Fox to a win on Thursday. Meanwhile, the "Idol" bump propelled Bones (3.9, 12.1 million) to its highest-rated telecast in more than four years.

With new episodes of its all-comedy Thursday, NBC was second for the night (2.5, 5.1 million viewers), despite the fact that almost all of its sitcoms showed week-to-week declines. "The Office" (4.0, 7.9 million), which featured a guest turn by Ricky Gervais, was down 11%. And while "30 Rock" (2.2, 4.5 million) easily prevailed at 10 p.m. -- against reruns of CBS' "The Mentalist" and ABC's "Private Practice" — it was down 19%. Only "Outsourced" (1.9, 4.1 million) showed improvement, up 6% compared to last week's season low.

With most of its Thursday line-up in reruns, CBS was third for the night (2.1, 9.6 million). Only 8:30 p.m. comedy "$#*! My Dad Says" was new, and without an original "Big Bang Theory" to lead into it, "$#*! My Dad Says" sunk to a 2.3 with 8.8 million viewers overall for a series low.

ABC (1.6, 5.1 million) was also mostly in reruns, though a new episode of "Wipeout" (2.4, 7.0 million) at 8 p.m. was enough for a second place finish from 8-9 p.m.

The CW had new episodes of "Vampire Diaries" and "Nikita" averaging 3 million viewers from 8-10 p.m., for its most-watched Thursday since last November. "Vampire Diaries" averaged a 1.4 rating in the net's target demo of 18-34-year-olds. And Nikita had its best rating in the younger demo (1.0) since last October.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)