Category: American Idol (Page 27 of 56)

“American Idol” ratings down

January 14, 2009 / John Paulsen

“American Idol” was still #1 in its time slot, but its audience was off 10% year-to-year.

Last night’s premiere pulled in 30.1 million viewers with an 11.6 rating/28 share in the 18-49 demo, according to Variety. That’s a 10-percent drop from last year’s 33 million viewers, and seven-and-a-half million off of the sixth season’s series high for premieres. What’s more worrisome for Fox is the dip in the younger demographic–last night’s show was off 16 percent in the 18-49 age group, and 25 percent in the 18-34 age group (maybe the young kids aren’t as dumb as I thought).
However, Fox can also let out a sigh of relief…30 million people is still good enough to be tops for any show this season (including sports broadcasts) and the drop-off wasn’t as much as some people expected. The concern here on out is whether the changes made to this season (new judge, less audition time) will have a positive or negative effect on the show’s ratings. As a friend of mine said, the auditions are acceptable television watching, the rest is not.

My wife and I used to watch the auditions to laugh at all the train wrecks then we’d bail on the show once it hit Hollywood. I don’t know what the writer’s friend considers to be “acceptable television watching,” but we sure got a kick out of the tonedeafness (is that a word?) and cluelessness of a good portion of the contestants. Once we heard they were scaling back on the train wrecks, we crossed it off our playlist.

I wonder if the audience will fall further now that people have had a chance to see the “new” version of the show.

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

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American Idol Season 8 Kicks Off in the Desert

January 14, 2009 / Mike Farley

It’s a cliche, but time really freaking flies. Not only is Season 8 of “American Idol” now in progress, but it really seems like yesterday that we were crowning David Cook Season 7 champ. Season 1 was in 2002, now SEVEN years ago. They did a little retrospective to kick off Season 8 last night, and at the end of the montage they showed a bunch of little David Archuleta fans screaming “NOOOOO” when Cook was crowned by Ryan Seacrest back in May. Funny, funny stuff. Reminded me of New York Jets’ fans at the NFL draft, but worse.

Anyway, a fourth judge has been added to shake things up. Songwriter Kara DioGuardi (pronounced Dee-o-GWAR-dee) who has written somewhere around 100 hit songs and from what we found out, has a decent voice too, gives the panel another female perspective and she definitely adds some spunk and even more humor to the already eccentric judging contingent.

The first month or so of every season begins with twice-a-week auditions from various cities, and last night was the round from Phoenix, Arizona, home of Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks. There is a pattern to this every season, and the producers of the show only show us the really great and really horrible auditions, accentuating the absurd. It’s a ratings party, and last night was no exception. To streamline, we’ll just highlight the good and bad as briefly as possible…..

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

American Idol bikini girl Bon Jovi Celine Dion David Archuleta David Cook Dionne Warwick hit songs James Morrison Jordin Sparks Kansas City Kara DioGuardi New York Jets NFL Draft Paula Abdul Phoenix Randy Jackson Ryan Seacrest Season 7 Season 8 Simon Cowell Stevie Wonder Tears for Fears

TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: Fox newsflash

January 13, 2009 / Will Harris

Kevin Reilly, president of Fox Entertainment, just came onstage and announced:

* The scheduling process for “Dollhouse” was considered very seriously, and the thought is that moving “Sarah Connor” to Fridays as a lead-in makes a good combo; additionally, there’s a solid promotional platform the night before, with “Bones” being moved to Thursday nights. Long story short, they’re committed to 13 episodes, and they’ll see how it’ll play out.

* He confirmed conclusively that “Prison Break” will end after this season, but that “they’re gonna finish strong.” There are four episodes and are contemplating doing a few more, but no formal decision has been made on that. “We didn’t give it the hook,” he said. “It’s just played out.”

* He described “Fringe” as “a keeper,” though he also referred to it as “a bear, creatively, because it’s so ambitious,” and doesn’t really expect it to take off just because it’ll be airing after “American Idol.”

* “Moment of Truth” has a season’s worth of episodes – 24, he reckons – sitting on the shelf, and “we’ll come back to it at some point,” but “we had other options, and we had other things that we wanted to put on more immediately. We have it as a tool when we want to go for it.”

* The idea of doing a show about a high school glee club (“Glee”) was one that came about predominantly because of one reason: it was created by Ryan Murphy, of “Nip/Tuck” fame.

* He hopes to have Paula Abdul stay with “American Idol” for the long haul.

* He described NBC as “the crazy ex-wife I can’t get away from,” but gave them credit for signing up Jay Leno and described it as “a smart, strategic move for a troubled place.”

* “Bones” works everywhere they put it and has only been growing, thanks to its base. If it does what they hope it will do for them on Thursday, however, they’ll lock it down there.

* He smirked that “Do Not Disturb,” if nothing else, made a lot of lists this year, and that they’re mostly sticking with their animated sitcoms, though they’re ordering five half-hour pilots and will see whether or not one of them will end up on the fall schedule. “It doesn’t make sense to order comedy for the sake of comedy,” he said. “Even if I have a show that we love, if we don’t think it can be protected on the fall schedule, we won’t put it on there.”

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American Idol: Did Anyone See This Coming?

May 22, 2008 / Mike Farley

So last night was the big finale, and a David was going to be crowned the “American Idol” Season 7 champ. But I think a lot of us were surprised at the outcome. More on that in a moment. First, let’s recap last night’s two hour finale in as few words as possible.

97 million votes, the most ever, says Ryan Seacrest. The top 12 perform. David and David perform.
Guru Pitka makes an appearance, a.k.a. Mike Myers, to promote his new movie. Syesha sings with Seal (damn, that dude has some pipes). Jason Castro sings “Hallaleujah.” The six female finalists sing with Donna Summer, and holy crap, she still has some pipes too. Carly Smithson and Michael Johns sing a duet. Jimmy Kimmel comes out and ridicules Paula and Simon. Then the six male finalists sing with Bryan Adams, who has aged extremely well. David Cook sings with ZZ Top, three guys who have also aged pretty well. Graham Nash sings “Teach Your Children” with Brooke White, and I just know Brooke his crapping her pants as we watch. The Jonas Brothers perform, and I admit it’s the first time I’ve seen these kids, who appear to be extremely talented. Then they show a tape of the bad auditions, including Renaldo, who is invited back to sing that train wreck, “I Am Your Brother,” complete with marching band. I love the fact that a marching band had to learn this song. One Republic sings “I Apologize” with David Archuleta. Jordin Sparks performs her new single. Gladys Knight, with the help of modern technology, sings with her new “Pips” (Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr.). Carrie Underwood sings “Last Name,” a song about a one night stand…you go, legs! Keep shocking us with your lyrics, because your music sucks. The 12 finalists then perform with George Michael, who I think is still singing. Note: I’m so glad they didn’t do those lame “Golden Idol” awards this time.

Finally, we have the results…David and David standing side by side. We all knew it was a foregone conclusion that Archuleta was the winner, right? Maybe not. Simon Cowell even admitted last night that he didn’t think it was as lopsided as he initially thought, and apologized to Mr. Cook. Well, big shocker, David Cook was actually the winner. Archuleta feigned a smile, and scooted off the stage like a puppy. Meanwhile, David Cook started crying. I mean, he had to have no idea that he was going to win. But here is what happened between Tuesday and Wednesday……America raised its collective middle finger to the music industry, and said “No, not this time…..no sappy balladeer is winning….we want the ROCKER.” They may have screwed up a few years ago with Chris Daughtry, who made everyone realize it’s the rocker that’s going to make the best Idol. Kudos to you, America. We voted for David Cook in our house, and I’m glad most of you did as well.

It’s been a great season, and the final two were arguably a couple of the most talented singers the show has ever produced. Thanks for sharing this space with me this season, and please feel free to spread this post and share your comments! Otherwise, see you all in January.

American Idol, Reality TV, TV

American Idol: Archuleta Delivers a “Knockout”

May 21, 2008 / Mike Farley

Sometimes I hate making predictions and rooting for one side over the other, because that inevitably leads to disappointment. Last night was no different. I wanted David Cook to bring his best effort against young phenom David Archuleta in the “American Idol” final performance, because I thought Mr. Cook had the goods to win. But after last night, it’s just a technicality that Archuleta will be crowned the Season 7 champ tonight.

The show began with that “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble” dude firing up the Nokia Theatre crowd and all of America, and both Davids coming out in boxing robes. Yeah, I don’t think that would have worked with Syesha. It barely worked with young David. And while these guys showed that they are too nice to not like each other, the little guy showed that he wanted this more than David Cook. It was, as Simon Cowell put it, “a knockout.” I mean, it was so lopsided that all of America could only be let down.

Here is how it went down. Thankfully they changed things up Continue reading »