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In a turn of events best filed under the heading "Showbiz's Lil' Ironies: Celebrity Ego Check Edition," last night's airing of American Idol trounced the Grammy Awards in the ratings:

Nearly twice as many people watched "American Idol" than the Grammy Awards Wednesday when the two music programs went head-to-head in prime time, according to preliminary estimates by Nielsen Media Research.


The "Idol" audience on Fox was 28.3 million while the Grammy Awards were being watched by 15.1 million people from 8 to 9 p.m. EST, Nielsen said.

Former "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson won two Grammys, but didn't mention the Fox show in her tearful acceptance speeches.

For those who couldn't take one more second of Mary J. Blige's yell-singing mutilation of U2's "One," Mariah Carey displaying her much celebrated five-octave vocal range within every single bar of "We Belong Together," or the perpetually erupting Mt. Saint Ego that is Kanye West, American Idol's "Hollywood Week" provided a welcome respite. Yes, you had to suffer through recurring montages of sobbing contestants and Ryan Seacrest reminding us ad-nauseam of how "grueling" this level of the competition was (though to us it kind of looked like a bunch of kids sitting around waiting to sing a song on a stage), but ultimately, no one should be surprised that viewers tuned in for their compelling formula of raw, unspoiled, and hungry talent, over the well-fed, self-congratulatory and over-packaged stars the process poops out the other end.