Overnight ratings reveal that a whopping 30.1 million viewers saw the season debut of American Idol. That makes it the most-watched prime time TV show of this season.

That's the good news. The bad news, for Fox, is that the number is 10% lower than it was for the season debut last year...which was 10% lower than the number watching the year before that.

Before this, the most-watched prime time show was the first episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation back in October, which earned CBS 23.5 million viewers. In terms of events, the January 3 Indianapolis-San Diego NFL playoff is now number two for the season at 27.8 million viewers.

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