Paula Abdul's Gaffe Sends Ratings Tanking Further

The television show American Idol has been experiencing a ratings slide. The show that once pulled in 33 million viewers, is down to 22 million per week this year.

After Paula Abdul's gaffe a few days ago, they lost over 1 million more viewers:

"Idol" slide continues after judge mix-up
Fri May 2, 2008 4:07am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A night after Tuesday's much-discussed on-air blunder by "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul, the results show of the talent show lost 1.2 million viewers from the previous week.

With "Idol" (22.1 million viewers vs. 23.3 million) already having dropped in nearly every episode in recent weeks, however, that means the reality show has once again hit a five-year low. A year ago, the show averaged 29 million viewers.

On Tuesday's episode, a last-minute procedural change resulted in the judges critiquing contestants' first round of performances instead of waiting until the end of the second round. Abdul gave a negative review of contestant Jason Castro's two songs.

The only problem: Castro had sung only one song.

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