Indy Idol

For the last 6 seasons, television executives at CBS, NBC, and ABC have been at a loss for words. Each year, American Idol marches over the competition like Napoleon traipsing through Italy. Time and time again, the networks have tried something, anything, to slow down the ratings juggernaut, but nothing has worked. The Idol train has rolled on, leaving a wake of destruction behind. The season premiere of Idol last week was watched by 37.3 million people - the 2nd largest number in this history of the show! But this past week, one man decided he had seen enough. He took it upon himself to not only slow down the Idol juggernaut, but to kick it all the way down to third - third! - place.

That man's name? Peyton f'ing Manning.

For the week of Jan. 15-21, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships:

1. "AFC Championship Post-Game Show," CBS, 47.7 million
2. AFC Championship: New England at Indianapolis, CBS, 46.7 million.
3. "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 37.44 million
4. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 36.94 million
5. "AFC Championship Post-Game Show," CBS, 29.39 million
6. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 21.94 million
7. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 21.41 million
8. "Golden Globe Awards," NBC, 20.04 million
9. "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 17.14 million
10. "NCIS," CBS, 15.95 million

I for one will not attempt to explain how the AFC Chamionship Post-Game Show ended up in both 1st and 5th place, but it's good to see that between the Colts and Idol, Grey's Anatomy was bumped down to 6th place. Of course Grey's is still #1 with a bullet in the highly coveted "18-49 year old homophobes who routinely call co-workers faggots" demographic. 2nd place in this demo? You guessed it: According to Jim.