"American Idol" made its debut on ABC on Sunday, and the ratings were solid . . . but not spectacular.
The premiere drew 10.3 million viewers, which is on par with what last month's season premiere of "The Voice" did on NBC. It had 10.8 million viewers.
It was also bigger than any show ABC aired last week . . . edging out "The Bachelor" season finale and "Grey's Anatomy".
And perhaps more importantly, it beat "Idol's" former network Fox, which aired a two-hour O.J. Simpson special called "The Lost Confession". Clearly, they were trying to eat into "Idol's" hype, but it didn't work. The special only got 4.4 million viewers.
That said, 10.3 million viewers is still the smallest audience for an "Idol" premiere since Season One in 2002 . . . before anyone knew what the show was.
But ABC probably doesn't mind that . . . because the show's final season on Fox started with 10.96 million viewers, so it's only down a hair from where it left off.
(On last night's episode, Katy flirted HARD with a contestant named Trevor Holmes. Here's video.)
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