After more than five years of being on air, American Idol received its lowest ratings on April 30 by having only 22.1 million viewers for its Tuesday night’s episode. The figure meant losing around 1.2 million followers from the previous week. The FOX reality TV talent search had been dropping in ratings in recent weeks and once again hit a five-year low. Just last year, an average of 29 million viewers watched the show, a far cry from the present situation. Despite the ratings dip, The New York Times reported that the producers of the show were not alarmed. FremantleMedia North America’s chief executive and American Idol’s executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz said, “We’re still 7 million viewers ahead of the second-biggest show.” Cecile Frot-Coutaz also pointed out the fact that AI was not alone in its boat. “Let’s face it. TV has taken a huge decline this year. All the networks are down by quite a bit. I think the writers strike really hurt. A lot of viewers haven’t come back. You can’t just look at an isolation in the environment,” she explained. In quite a number of articles posted over the net, Paula Abdul seemed to be blamed for the ratings drop because of her mistake on Tuesday’s live episode. In an interview with The Associated Press, Cecile Frot-Coutaz also clarified that nobody on their side blamed Paula Abdul and that the lone female judge would definitely not be taken out. “Why would we get rid of Paula?,” said Frot-Coutaz. “I love that everyone was talking about it. It was so unexpected. It was something that took up 2 seconds of airtime. You'd think there was no other news on television,” she added. FOX still won with 14.1 million viewers. It was followed by CBS (10.5 million), NBC (8.4 million), ABC (6.2 million) and the CW (3.2 million). For more resources about American Idol or for the full story of 'American Idol' Hits 5-Year Ratings Low, Over-Reaction Abounds please review http://www.buddytv.com