LOS ANGELES — Phillip Phillips winning “American Idol” was not a big winner for the show.
Preliminary Nielsen ratings show 20.7 million viewers watched the singing competition’s finale Wednesday, a 29 percent drop from the audience for the 2011 “Idol” finale.
If the preliminary number holds, it would make the FOX show’s season 11 finale the least watched ever.
Season one’s finale had 23 million viewers. The show’s high point was season two, in 2003, with over 38 million viewers.
Early Nielsen figures also show “Idol” losing more than a third of its viewers in the 18-49 year old age group, which advertisers prize.
Audience participation, however, at least seems to be at an all-time high.Â
Host Ryan Seacrest announced that a record-breaking 132 million votes were cast between the show’s finalists, former pawn shop worker Phillip Phillips and home-schooled high school student Jessica Sanchez.
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