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33.4m viewers tuned in to see American Idol start its 2008 run on Fox, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research.
The show was the most-watched non-sport programme of the season so far but its total viewership numbers declined 11% from the 37.4m achieved by the 2007 season premiere, and are slightly lower than those achieved by the debut episodes of 2006 (35.5m) and 2005 (33.6m).
However, Fox reality chief Mike Darnell told Variety that the dip was "meaningless".
"I look at those numbers and still can't believe I can wake up in the seventh season of a TV show and see it do 12 million more viewers than the show next to it," he told the magazine. "It's such a juggernaut at this level that no one will ever want to compete with it."
