It Doesn’t Really Matter That Fewer People Are Watching Idol
There’s much hissing about American Idol’s swandiving US numbers—lowest finale ever! down 10% from last year, which was already low!—but in this modern world, it’s really nothing to worry about. (Or, if you hate Idol, to get excited about). Idol is still winning where it counts.
Where it counts is the margin it wins over its competitors, a large percentage that keeps canyoning open wider and wider as the years go on. See, ratings numbers are in the first curling and browning stages of being rendered useless. Because people are stopping watching television all across the board—from Animal Planet to Zoey 101—what with DVRs and magic television-playing computers and so much choice that one just sits staring blankly at the black screen, overwhelmed with having to make a decision.
So it’s not the millions, whether they be 34 or 23, that are watching. What’s important is that Idol beat the number two program on the air (Desperater Housewives) by a whopping 72% in the key adult demo. Basically, anyone who was watching TV last night was watching American Idol. And that’s all that advertisers can have the power to care about anymore. If there were only three people left watching television the whole world over, the show that two of those people were watching would be the golden goose.
Idol is reaching that event horizon where all of its subsidiary offshoots are the real cash crop, and TV advertising is reaching the sad, hobo point where it becomes about quality, not massive slobbering quantity. So a 10% ratings dip from last year really means bupkis. It’s still the most dominant show the Nielsens have ever seen, and it’ll continue to be so until that terrible marketing/merchandising house of cards crumbles. Which could be soon! Or it could be ten years from now! Either way, don’t look to the stand alone volume to augur Idol’s demise. Only when some new young buck comes strutting along and knocks the karaoke kompetition off its number one block should anyone start worrying.
Or, you know, celebrating.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@allyzay: It kind of looks like G, double O, backwards F then Y over Taylor. What does it actually say?
Go Goofy!
I was watching a baseball game because I don't want to see people who were over the hill 20 years ago be resurrected from the dead, painted with lip gloss and shoved in front of an admiring no-taste audience.
I was certain the addition of that 4th judge what's-her-name was the nail in the coffin, but hell, they let her write the ultra-lame final song... They most love her.. or ..um.. Simon's fucking her.. :p
The fire alarm in my building went off in the middle of the show (during Allison and Cyndi's duet, annoyingly enough) and when I went outside, it was clear from the conversations going on that every single person inside had been watching American Idol. Then, two seconds after they announced that Kris won, Comcast interrupted broadcasting for an Amber Alert, which I suppose was kind of brilliant for the max number of viewers...
DahlELama
Isn't every show on television down? Watching the ratings numbers this year has been truly depressing, slots in the top ten that used to be consistently 20-30 million barely make it to the high teens.
fuzzywhat
I've always wondered how long the "phenomenon" could last. It's seemed like the show has been dead so many times in the past three or four years, but it keeps getting insane ratings. And my sorry ass keeps watching it too, so I guess I should just shut up.
i read that sign ten times before i realized it did NOT say "gooty over taylor"
The day American Idol goes off the air forever will be a good day.
@lrubemp: "I hate how things are. I wish they were how I want them to be".
Good luck with that.
@Fry_Bread_Power: Oh! That makes sense. Well, it's still a stupid sign, but now I get it, at least. I figured she was just a really big fan of Disney.
@lrubemp: I agree. The glamazon's loss is truly a sign of our decline.
Have always thought Idol symbolizes this utterly backward, decaying culture we're living in -- mediocre, pompous, retreaded, egotistical and, most of all, cruel and sadistic. That so many watch only shows how far social relations have coarsened in general. Will only go away when people regain hope for a better world, and a new generation is inspired to create new and better music. I'm not holding my breath.
lrubemp
@allyzay: And then it took me forever to understand what the sign holder was saying:
"Goofy versus Taylor? Who is Goofy? It can't be the Disney character...was there someone on Idol with the last name 'Goofy'? An unfortunate last name but I've heard worse. Anyway, who is Goofy? OOOOOOOOHHH! She's goofy over Taylor, who ever that is. That's dumb. And the 'F' is backwards. And it looks like a 'T'."
@allyzay: Zing!
@BxgrlJeri: kiss doesn't wear lip gloss. you take that back!
m4ximusprim3
Idol makes tens of millions of dollars each week on call-in voters, then the tour and the actual music sales for the winner (who gets, what, $150,000?)... then there's Ford and Coke placement deals. I doubt they've paused long enough from counting their money to consider the ratings yet. And don't forget, the show is dead cheap to produce.
@DahlELama: I can just see that conversation:
"sir, a convicted rapist has just abducted a virgin 13 year old and is somewhere within the city! We need to broadcast an amber alert to notify people that he has an easily identifiable scar"
"Are you fucking nuts? It's american idol time!"
m4ximusprim3
@BxgrlJeri: you've been really incredibly proud of this fact, repeatedly. let me give you a tip, as a yankees fan: the baseball game was also full of people who were over the hill 20 years ago, prancing around with lip gloss in front of morons. rivera is, what, 700 years old?
@mmstk101: pretty sure you are right, "goofy over taylor" but wtf at that so-called f?
@allyzay: HEARTED. I don't even care if you were just talking about the Yankees or MLB in general (tho I am a baseball fan), that was hilarious.
miss melis is a bee girl for the 21st century