While executives at Fox (NWS) may not be able to explain it, they probably don't care, as "American Idol" scored huge again in its Wednesday night special with an estimated 36.9 people tuning in to watch the two-hour special in Seattle. That's only a little down from their record-breaking premiere of 37.3 million on Tuesday night.
"We're fortunate it's on our air and we take good care of it and it rewards us with good ratings," said Preston Beckman, Fox's executive vice president for strategic planning.
The numbers for Wednesday were up 17 percent from last year's same night, 
according to Nielsen.
Rival networks were hoping that history would repeat itself, as most shows entering into their sixth year would begin doing a disappearing act with dropping numbers. "Idol" is changing history as it continues to expand rather than contract from season to season.
With the show continuing to launch the careers of extremely popular pop and country stars, there seems to be no end in site to where it may end up growing to.
Beckman added that "In some ways it's become like a sporting event. There's baseball season, basketball season, football season and `American Idol' season."
He's right. And if it keeps producing numbers like it has been, Fox will be a power to contend with for years to come.
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