Judas Priest’s ‘American Idol’ Performance Draws 30 Million Viewers

The tallies are in, and 'American Idol' is still the benchmark for competition-based reality television. The Season 10 finale of the Fox singing competition, which featured performances by Judas Priest and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, drew in 29.3 million viewers. That's a 21% increase over last year (24.2 million), reports USA Today.

This was the first time in three years the finale has experienced year-to-year growth in viewers and the first time in five years that it has seen a jump in young adults, according to Blabbermouth.net.

It’s no surprise 'American Idol' contestants cover famed songs by industry heavyweights throughout the season, and that’s just what happened when 22-year-old finalist James Durbin belted out to Judas Priest's classic, ‘You've Got Another Thing Coming,’ earlier in season 10.

In an interview with MTV News, Priest frontman Rob Halford said he was awestruck with Durbin’s rendition and stoked to take the stage at the finale: "Because we've lived so long and done so much stuff in heavy metal and we've seen so many crazy things and heard so many crazy things, when we heard this we went, ‘…That's incredible, man. Let's do it, you know? This is insane. That's just amazing.' So as it progressed from 'Another Thing Coming' 'till this point now, when we're on the carpet and we're about to do the show, it's just a dream come true for Priest, for metal and, mostly, for James Durbin."

Priest and Durbin performed the band’s hits ‘Living After Midnight’ and ‘Breaking The Law.’