Idol's surprising turnaround

REBORN: The tenth season of American Idol has “defied television gravity,” as the N.Y. Times put it, gaining total viewers for the first time since 2007. The show pulled 21.8 million viewers Wednesday night as the seven remaining contestants sang songs written in the last 10 years. That was enough to win the night but less than this season’s average of 25 million viewers. So it seems Idol has not only survived the loss of Simon Cowell but actually benefited from the “kinder, gentler” approach of new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler—making Lucian Grainge and Jimmy Iovine look like really smart guys. (4/22a)