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American Idol shifted its schedule last week, but not to accommodate one its high profile judges, instead it was to help out one of their contestants. Idol switched the order for the guys and girls, and let the guys go first after doctors kept Crystal Bowersox out of the competition on Tuesday. If they hadn’t made the change for Crystal, she would have been disqualified for not performing, even though she was hospitalized at the time.
It was an unprecedented move for one of TV’s biggest shows and one that paid off for Bowersox, who swept the incident aside and landed in the Top 12. But, will her health keep her from winning it all?
Fox’s NFC Championship Game featuring Minnesota vs. New Orleans claimed 57.9 million viewers Sunday, the biggest conference title since 1982, and the two American Idol episodes finished second and third, giving Fox an average of 24.4 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Jan. 18 and Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nielsen Co.
Viewership for the New Orleans Saints’ 31-28 overtime victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday was the second largest for an NFL conference championship game, trailing only the 1982 match-up between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, which averaged 68.7 million viewers. This was thanks in part to the Saints storied run along with Brett Favre’s comeback with the Vikings.
According to Nielsen’s estimates, 29.8 million viewers tuned in to the two-hour debut of American Idol’s ninth season, its first without Paula Abdul as a judge. Although the premiere audience was down compared to the 30.4 million who watched the first episode last season. Though American Idol is still the biggest show on television, ratings have thinned the last few years. Combined with judge Simon Cowell leaving after this season, there is concern at Fox that Idol will lose even more of its viewership and <gasp> potentially come in second in the ratings.
Cowell is unlikely to say anything on the air about his move until the live episodes of Idol begin in February with new host Ellen DeGeneres.
This upcoming ninth season of FOX’s mega hit and cultural touchstone, American Idol, will be the last that viewers will see the smirking face of its top judge, Simon Cowell. The snarky Brit is citing irreconcilable differences with FOX; Idol’s production company FreemantleMedia, and 19 Entertainment for the split. Even better, he’s got his own talent show in the works on a rival network in an attempt to kill the beast he helped birth. Cowell will attempt to repeat his formula of bringing a British import and Americanizing it with The X-Factor. In Britain, The X-Factor bills itself as the UK’s biggest talent search. If Simon is successful, he could very well make the United States’ version of the show as big a hit as Idol.
American Idol judge and music producer Randy Jackson is getting a little sick of hearing about rumors of Simon Cowell departing from the hit reality show. Calling it a “distraction,” Jackson said he’d rather focus on the actual show and finding the next superstar talent rather than focusing on “wild” rumors.
Asked if the British curmudgeon would depart from the show at the end of his contract, Jackson shrugged. “I really don’t know until I hear it from him…The rumors get so wild and crazy, you just don’t know what to believe,” says Jackson. “It is pretty much a distraction. I think people get a little side-tracked with that…Let’s also focus on what we are judging and what the actual heartbeat of the show really is, and it is about finding that next superstar talent.”
To Fox, it doesn’t matter if Simon Cowell is back for another season of American Idol. The network will order more episodes of America’s most watched show. Fox’s contract with Idol producers 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia will expire at the end of 2011 and the network is hoping to seal another deal soon for another three seasons after that.
A thinning talent pool is the last thing on Fox executive’s minds since the show may be facing its biggest problem yet: no Simon Cowell. “The idea that for the next five years, I’d be doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the past five years, . . . . the thought is just too depressing,” Cowell told The Hollywood Reporter in late April. Rumors have been spreading like a wildfire over the possibility that Cowell will leave American Idol at the end of 2010, per Simon’s brother Tony via his podcast . This, along with a proposed U.S. entry of the U.K.’s X-Factor, may cause problems for ratings of the longtime television program.
Simon Cowell, American Idol and The X-Factor co-creator and judge, has his targets set on politics. Not for public office, but with a new reality show.
In a recent interview, the English music executive and television producer said he was pondering the production of a “political X Factor” in the U.K. The participants would debate issues and the public would phone in their votes before an upcoming parliamentary election. Cowell suggested that the initial series could focus on “five or six issues, which I think are really, really important in people’s lives.” He hinted that a show like this might allow him to refocus his own career. “It would be a good way for me to get involved in politics,” he said.
David Cameron, a conservative in U.K. politics, was asked today about whether he could use the talents of people like Simon Cowell in any future Conservative government.
The show is that more people vote on than the Presidential elections is back. American Idol returns for a ninth season and once again it will be full of some great voices and also some absolutely brutal ones. The biggest change to Season 9 is the departure of Paula Abdul. She is gone as one of the judges but fear not, they have another one in the waiting. Ellen DeGeneres is set to fill in for Abdul’s departure and should bring a unique and funny perspective to the show. Of course, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell will be back as well.
The Nielsen Company, a privately held global information and media company, released its annual list of top-rated TV series on Friday (the company also gauges television audiences).
Fox’s American Idol once again took the top-two positions while two new shows also made the list: CBS’s NCIS: Los Angeles at No. 6, and CBS’s The Good Wife at No. 10.
A cable-TV series also made the list — ESPN’s Monday Night Football, which tied for eighth place. Among single telecasts, all four Super Bowl programs topped the list. In fact, the only non-football telecast among the top ten was the Academy Awards telecast, which came in at No. 8. Somewhat surprisingly, the low-rated Jay Leno Show managed to top another one of the Nielsen year-end lists: “Top 10 programs with Product Placement Activity.” Nielsen counted 1,015 occurrences of product-placement ads on the NBC talk show.
A California judge has granted a civil restraining order against a man accused of stalking American Idol host and DJ Ryan Seacrest in Orange County and Los Angeles.
The order issued Tuesday morning requires Chidi Benjamin Uzomah Jr. to keep 100 yards away from the popular television and radio personality, his home and his workplace.
The 25-year-old remains in a Los Angeles jail, charged with felony stalking. He was arrested outside Seacrest’s workplace on Oct. 30, just weeks after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from an incident with Seacrest’s bodyguard after an event. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years of probation.
