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Passions Discussion Group
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Heavy weighs the karaoke crown. Many weeks, American Idol has ranked No. 1, 2 and 3 in the Nielsen ratings.
But are those cracks we see beginning to emerge in Idol's mighty battlements? Last week, the charity special Idol Gives Back drew 17.6 million viewers. Last year, the same show attracted 26.9 million viewers. Is it just compassion fatigue?
No, Idol's erosion is significant. In Philadelphia last week, more people watched CSI than watched the Tuesday performance edition of Idol. (In the national ratings, Tuesday's Idol narrowly edged out CSI.) And three other regularly scheduled series episodes had higher ratings in Philadelphia than both Idol's Thursday results show and Idol Gives Back.
This Tuesday, 23.7 million viewers tuned in to see the top seven sing Mariah Carey songs. That's the smallest audience for an Idol performance show in three years. All told, Idol is down 7 percent from last season and nearly double that among young adults.
Why the decline? Simon Cowell is blaming it on the lack of personality among this year's contestants. And the wicked wasp of pop music has a point. Every time I see the sanctimonious Brooke White go into her Mother Teresa act I want to throttle her until her eyes bug out. (Gee, did I just type that?)
Other problems need fixing as well. These one-artist theme nights are tedious. How do you make the Beatles sound boring? This batch of kids managed to do it - twice! But Dolly Parton night? Mariah Carey night? And next week, Andrew Lloyd Webber night? Please make it stop!
Maybe the judges should stop anointing David Cook as the most "original" and "daring" artist since Bob Dylan. Week after week, Cook simply roughs up well-known pop songs so they sound like anguished rockers Filter. That's not exactly reinventing the musical scale.
The most annoying thing about Idol is the way it has allowed Ryan Seacrest, over time, to appropriate a bigger and bigger role on the show. It's like giving Don Pardo a telethon. The guy is an announcer and not a very good one. But most nights, Idol plays out like the Ryan Seacrest Show. And nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to watch that.
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