Posted on 05/17/2013 2:10:35 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The bad dream of a season for Fox’s “American Idol” ended Thursday with a ratings nightmare, as the singing competition lost a staggering 7 million viewers from last season’s finale.
Thursday’s finale, in which Candice Glover won the coveted prize, averaged 14.3 million viewers, according to overnight ratings.
That’s down a third from more than 21 million last year — and the news gets worse.
Two years ago the finale had more than 29 million viewers, meaning “Idol” has shed half its audience in two years.
And from Fox’s viewpoint, that’s not even the worst number. Thursday’s share of the 18- to 49-year-old viewers most coveted by advertisers went into free-fall, dropping 44% from last year.
Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, speaking earlier this week before the network’s annual “upfront” presentation of its fall schedule to advertisers, said the producers will go to work “Friday morning” to consider ways to stem the audience exodus.
Original judge Randy Jackson has already said he will not return next year, a decision Reilly said was “mutual, with absolutely no hard feelings on either side.”
Judge Nicki Minaj was reported leaving at midweek, and it is widely expected remaining judges Mariah Carey and Keith Urban will also depart.
Reilly said it is “likely” the show will revert to a three-judge panel next year.
But he also said he thought the audience erosion was tied less to the judges than to the format. He said the “boy/girl” episodes in midseason were not well watched, suggesting there will be some changes next year.
At its peak in 2006, the “Idol” finale drew more than 36 million viewers, and for years the finales drew more than 30 million, making it the most popular non-sports broadcast TV show of the 21st century.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Maybe, just maybe, their target audience has night jobs (part time). n/s
I have been a pretty reliable Idol fan since season two. I hardly watched at all this season. Reasons:
1. Nicki Minaj - The voice, the hair, the attitude...the total lack of respect for music genres other than her own...
2. Mariah Carey - Annoying diva. Great voice, but so full of herself that she made me ill.
3. The Agenda - it was obvious from the outset that they wanted a female to win, particularly a POC female. Very weak, mostly gay male singers put up against very stong female singers. Snooze city.
4. I miss Simon - Yeah, his ego was huge. Yeah, he could be very opinionated, but at least he was entertaining and he knew what he was talking about.
The fix - three judges. One a singer, one an engineer/producer, one a talent manager. I am thinking someone like Jacquire King who has worked with lots of talent, won a few Grammies himself and knows what he is talking about. They need a female singer with talent and some attitude, maybe Pink. As for management, there are a bunch, just gotta find someone with some personality.
I’ve never understood Idol.What little I’ve seen of it seemed to be curiously devoid of talent or entertainment value.
Time to cancel the show! It hasn’t been good for two years.
I only payed attention toward the end because Cree is a friend of my daughter’s in Nashville. I wish she had won.
Let’s look at it this way — The winner of the show does not necessarily become the most successful ( see for instance, Jennifer Hudson or Clay Aiken ).
Kree might be the eventual winner yet...
I have been a fan in year’s past but watched very little this year and completely blew off the finale.
1. The judges, just because you can entertain on stage doesn’t necessarily mean you are a good judge. (I agree with the poster who thinks a producer and a talent agent might be better) I am not interested in what any of the people who judged this year have to say. I was also offended last year when JLo lectured the people at home for not voting for “the best.” (ie her favorite and I really didn’t like that contestant)
2. Song selection. The reality is that unless the contestants are singer/song writers they aren’t picking their songs at this stage in their career. That’s why you have a good producer. Giving these kids random lists only shows their poor judgement.
3. First round gets old earlier and earlier each year. Unless they find another William Hung, they aren’t going to get me. It also frustrates me that we don’t get to see the decent voices that don’t make it past the first round.
5. I kind of like The Voice when I catch it this season. They have a couple of amazing female voices. One young woman has this fantastic over-the-top personality to go with it and I am routing for her.
6. No WGWG’s. (That is a joke)
You know what ticks me off about those shows? They focus mainly on singing, if not 100% on singing. Why? What is the point? Having a contest to find somebody who can sing is like having a contest to find somebody who can eat. What is the point? Is the singing market not over-saturated enough? Good singers are a dime a dozen. Not even, a penny a million. They are as common as a communist in the Democrat party. And what does this winner get? A record contract and an awful song to sing. Why? Because nobody focuses on songwriting. So what you get is one generic assembly line singer after another singing songs that sound like commercials for food or energy drinks. I can ever listen to the radio anymore it’s so bad.
Are you Malcolm ‘X’? LOL You obviously haven’t seen the show, and no I don’t consider rap to be American. It’s vile, misogynist hate speak that glorifies promiscuity and turns teen girls into single mothers. Maybe if rap artists could play an instrument I’d consider it music.
Eliminating fan voting would be the best thing Idol could do. Maybe solicit 100 music industry professionals to vote anonymously every week.
The only good thing to come from AI was that “Pants on the Ground” guy.
Well to me Simon’s live performance ability was simply being himself in his chair. The dude is larger than life somehow, but indeed he is not a performer in a traditional sense.
I was also very surprised to see Randy “Yo” Jackson on stage playing bass. I did not know that he did this, so I give him props for that. That Randy was on stage even further highlighted that Minaj was not.
I am not sure of favorites or anything like that, but I will leave open the possibility that this is true.
With regard to Candice, I do believe that she was the best this year. Her voice is bound for the big leagues, she is quite talented. I thought Angie should have been @ #2. I think she’s very easy to look at and a pretty good singer, but she did not exceed Candice’s level of talent.
I will say this though...if they bring in Justin Beiber and P. Diddy as judges, I’ll never watch it again.
Dick Clark promoted talented singers to national audiences that at least already had a public following at a local level. Today, promotion is based on a formula, and has virtually nothing to do with real public opinion or talent.
Plus J.P. Morgan...
I had a thing for JP....
Randy Jackson was in the band Journey.
Yep, it seems I knew not one damn thing about Randy, including that he was born in Baton Rouge, La..
So having just been educated, Randy is alright in my book.
I saw exactly **one** program of American Idol. It was the year’s grand finale. Lady Gaga simulated intercourse on stage.
I was DISGUSTED!
Losing viewership? GOOD!
( We were staying in a hotel that night and happened to turn in.)
Very good point.
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