Is ‘American Idol’ past its peak?
By Behind The Scenes TV on May 7, 2008 in TV, TV Shows
The fevered response to the latest loopy Paula Abdul episode, where she judged a phantom performance, just goes to show how “American Idol” continues to dominate television in its seventh season.
Yet while “Idol” is still a hit, it’s no longer necessarily hip.
You can hear it in the lack of enthusiasm in 14-year-old Katharine Bohrs’ voice.
“Last year I was really into it, and the year before that,” said the high school freshman from Brookline, Massachusetts. “This year in the beginning I was, but then track started up and I have a lot of homework. It’s two hours long and I don’t have the time.”
She used to watch regularly with a friend. Now her friend records it and watches only occasionally, Bohrs said.
Statistics back up the anecdote. Audience declines for “American Idol” are steepest among youthful viewers, the people who set the pop culture agenda and are most likely to buy music made by the show’s winners. These are not the people you want to turn off.
(The Associated Press)
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mxb95 | May 7, 2008 | Reply
By their very nature, programs like “American Idol”, which ride the perception of hipness to success, have a limited shelf life. As time passes and the sense of hipness fades, viewership amongst the young (and overall) is bound to fade, and the remaining audience will skew older. Recall, for example, that “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” suffered the same fate several years ago. Eventually, “Idol’s” costs will outweigh its ratings (and, thus, its potential advertising revenue), and it, like its predecessors, will pass into pop culture history. In the world of disposable entertainment, this is the first law of nature.