'Idol,' 'Family' set Wednesday pace

A two-hour installment of ''American Idol'' carried Fox to victory on Wednesday, but ABC's ''Modern Family'' was just a bit behind the music competition head-to-head while the two also finished neck and neck as the night's No. 1 show among young adults.According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, ''American Idol'' averaged a 4.9 rating/13 share in adults 18-49 and 17.0 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., down a smidge week to week in the demo and up in total viewers. For the two-hour block, Fox beat both ABC and CBS by 5 shares in adults 18-49.At ABC, ''Modern Family'' (4.8/12 in 18-49, 11.7 million viewers overall) was flat week to week, pulling to within two ticks of ''Idol'' for the 18-49 lead at 9 o'clock , its most competitive head-to-head finish to date; the comedy led its half-hour in men 18-49 and all 18-34 demos. Its comedy skedmates ''The Middle'' (2.6/8 in 18-49, 8.5 million viewers overall), ''Suburgatory'' (2.4/6 in 18-49, 7.2 million viewers overall) and ''Happy Endings'' (2.8/7 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) all rallied from their low showings of last week. And at 10, ''Revenge'' (2.4/6 in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall) returned from a week off at its same level of two weeks ago.For the night, ABC saw time-period improvement over the same night last year in all six half-hours.CBS held steady opposite ''American Idol'' with ''Survivor'' (2.9/8 in 18-49, 10.6 million viewers overall) and ''Criminal Minds'' (3.1/8 in 18-49, 12.5 million viewers overall) and was down a bit at 10 with ''CSI'' (2.6/7 in 18-49, 11.2 million viewers overall), though the crime vet still led its hour.NBC held at roughly the same low levels as last week with its lineup of comedies ''Whitney'' (1.5/4 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall) and ''Are You There, Chelsea?'' (1.3/4 in 18-49, 3.5 million viewers overall), newsmag ''Rock Center'' (0.7/2 in 18-49, 2.9 million viewers overall) and drama vet ''Law and Order: SVU'' (1.6/4 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall). ''SVU,'' certainly not being helped by its lead-in, did the same 1.6 rating with a repeat on the comparable night a year ago.At CW, ''One Tree Hill'' (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.6 million viewers overall) was in line with last week, while the returning ''America's Next Top Model'' looked weak (0.6/1 in 18-49, 1.3 million viewers overall), down from last year's bow (0.9/3, 2.0 million). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.9/13; ABC and CBS, 2.9/8; Univision, 1.7/5; NBC, 1.2/3; CW, 0.6/2.In total viewers: Fox, 17.0 million; CBS, 11.4 million; ABC, 8.1 million; NBC, 4.0 million; Univision, 3.7 million; CW, 1.4 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com