'American Idol' wins on Wednesday, TV ratings still down

FOX's "American Idol" won the night against a lineup of reruns, according to the Nielsen television ratings for Thursday, February 28, 2013.

With the February sweeps ending Wednesday night, reruns dotted the lineup again.

Related: Five things we learned from the February sweeps

FOX was first in the ratings (3.8 in the 18-49 year-old target demographic) and also in overall viewers (12.467 million) with a new episode of "American Idol" (3.8 rating, with 12.47 million viewers).

CBS was second in ratings (2.0) and also second overall with 8.918 million total viewers. CBS was all reruns, with "The Big Bang Theory" (2.8), "Two and a Half Men" (2.2), "Person of Interest" (1.9), and "Elementary" (1.6).

ABC was tied for third in the ratings (0.9) and third in total viewers (3.709 million) with a new episode of "Zero Hour" (1.0) followed by reruns of "Scandal" (0.9) and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (0.8).

NBC finished tied for third in the ratings (0.9) and fourth in overall viewers (2.834 million) with a new episode of "Community" (1.1), followed by reruns of "Parks and Recreation" (0.9), "The Office" (1.0), a new "1600 Penn" (0.9), and a rerun of "Law & Order: SVU" (0.9).

The CW was fifth in the ratings (0.3) and also in total viewers (0.996 million) with reruns of "The Vampire Diaries" (0.4) and "Beauty and the Beast" (0.3).

-- Reid Kerr hates the post-sweeps barrage of reruns. Follow Reid on Twitter and yell at him.