Scotty and Lauren neck and neck at the finish line

By Jeffrey Jolson

Lauren and Scotty: Will they be this chummy tomorrow?

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) American Idol scored a record 122 million votes, which means over a third of the U.S. population of 310M, if you don’t count those pesky multiple voters. Scotty McCreery, the 17-year-old from North Carolina, will kick off his music career with an American Idol victory in season 10, according to oddsmakers, who says he is a shoe-in.

That is in spite of Lauren Alaina’s stunning recent performances leading up to tonight, she will be runner-up. Which is different than loser, as both will likely get recording and touring contracts. And the show promotes an anything-is-possible theme, which means Vegas could lose this evening, though not likely. When the cash is on the table, the house rarely makes mistakes – they did not last night when odds fave Hines Ward won Dancing with the Stars.

Yet no one could predict Lauren’s “Hail Mary” catch in the finals, yet most of the pundits from Nashville to New York to Las Vegas say Scotty takes the score.

Yet there is another race attracting eyes, and a lot more money. DTWS v. AI in ratings. preliminary Nielsen figures on Wednesday showed ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” becoming the first TV show ever to beat an “American Idol” part one finale.

Some 21 million viewers watched football player Hines Ward win the “Dancing” mirrorball trophy on Tuesday night, compared to 20 million who tuned in to watch country teen singers Alaina and Scotty McCreery perform on the Fox network for the 2011 “American Idol” title.

Now in its 10th year, “American Idol” has been a ratings juggernaut for Fox and the nation’s most-watched TV show for the last seven years.

If you are not in the industry, skip the next few graphs. Lots of ratings details, yet we have more to talk about.

Fox’s American Idol final performance show (20 million total viewers, 6.2 rating in adults 18-49 demographic) sank 7 percent in the key demo compared with last spring’s performance finale, according to preliminary numbers. Though viewership remained steady (20 million vs. 20.1 million), Idol has retained 95 percent of its viewers in adults 18-49 (8.3 vs. 8.7) and is up slightly in total viewers (24.8 million vs. 23.9 million) from the time period last season.

Idol’s ratings performance helped Glee‘s (12.1 million, 4.6) finale numbers improve double digits — and trumped NBC’s freshman series The Voice in the demo. Fox easily topped the night, averaging a 5.4 rating and placed a close second in viewers, averaging 16 million.

ABC’s Dancing With the Stars (19.9 million, 4.5), which crowned professional football player Hines Ward as the champion, sank 15 percent from its fall finale last year — but most notably, DWTS topped Idol in viewers. But at 9 p.m., it still ranked as the highest-rated non-scripted program. The network led off with a DWTS recap show (10.3 million, 2.0), down 17 percent. ABC was Tuesday’s most-watched network, averaging 17.4 million.

The final performances from Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina drew about 20 million viewers Tuesday, according to USA TODAY reporter Gary Levin. That’s down from 21.7 million the previous week and roughly even with last year’s performance finale. But voters created a new record for Idol — more than 122 million, or some 6.1 votes per viewers. Can I do that at political elections without ending up in cuffs?

That means Lauren and Scotty saw their combined vote totals increase by approximately 75% from the previous week. (Ryan Seacrest reported a total of 95 million, and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe later tweeted that 25 million of those votes had gone to third-place finisher Haley Reinhart.) It’s also considerably larger than what Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox garnered last season, when the finale vote count actually went down from its Top Three week.

We finish with our pre-game edition with a few quotes from judge and Aerosmith lead man Steven Tyler.

On first hearing Lauren Alaina:

“It was the second city and we were sitting there… you have to go through so many kids, and she sang  and I stood up and said, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ Because when she sings, she doesn’t try to hit the notes, they just fall in her lap. The words go to that place. Everyone else is trying to hit the notes, and we’re supposed to be judging them – like you didn’t sing  that good, you were pitchy — she’s never had a problem with pitch, maybe bad songs… I circled her 8 months ago and said ‘American Idol.’ I saved it. Her and about six or seven others. I loved her.”

On Lauren’s strained vocal cords…

“She was hoarse but they have steroids for that. The next day, it’s not so good, though. She didn’t sing that much tonight. Tomorrow she’ll nail it.”

On Scotty McCreery and the country connection…

“Both of them are very much country which gives it up to life and things — what’s going on with their dog, their back porch, real love stuff. What they both picked tonight was just brilliant. It was really beautiful. Mom’s apple pie, it hit America right in the midriff.”