Was it because the two finalists didn't capture the attention of viewers or could this be the beginning or audience fatigue? Preliminary Nielsen numbers show that last night's show had an 11.5 rating and 31 share among adults 18-49. Overall, we're talking 30.4 million viewers, down from 36.4 million a year ago. There are, of course, all kinds of ways that Fox will slice and dice these numbers, but "American Idol" ratings have been down for much of the season. The season-ender of ABC's "Lost" also saw a decline in viewers from last year. Here's how total viewership stacked up:

Fox - 30.4 million
ABC - 11.0 million
CBS - 9.3 million
NBC - 4.3 million
Univision - 3.9 million
CW - 1.3 million