As Avatar recently proved—some records are made to be broken. Last night, American Idol tasted something it hadn’t sampled in some time: defeat. For the first time in six years, the reality show was beaten its own time slot.

8pm

• Vancouver Olympics coverage (8.9/23 in 18-49) had 29.3 million Americans cheering through the night.
• Human Target (7.1 million, 2.1/6) gave up 1.8 million.
• Modern Family* (5.1 million, 1.7/5) and The Middle* (4.7 million, 1.7/5) tied in the demos.
• The New Adventures of Old Christine* (1.3/4) raked in 4.9 million.
• Gary Unmarried* (1.4/4) rounded up 4.4 million.
• Life Unexpected* (1.3 million, 0.6/2) slipped by 300,000.

9pm

• American Idol (25 million, 18.4 million, 6.9/17 in 18-49) was down 6.6 million from last week.
• Criminal Minds* (1.9/5) scored 8 million.
• Modern Family* (1.7/4) pulled in 4.3 million.
• The Middle* (1.2/3) scraped up 3.2 million.
• Gossip Girl* (0.3/1) had 608,000 talking.

10pm

• CSI: NY* (2.0/5 in 18-49) registered 8 million.
• Two episodes of Cougar Town* drummed up 3.1 million (1.4/3) and 2.7 million (1.1/3) respectively.

*denotes repeat

(You can review last Wednesday’s ratings here.)