LITTLE ROCK — Welcome to the American Idol reboot for 2013.
The two-night Season 12 premiere kicks off at 7 p.m. Wednesday and concludes at the same time Thursday on Fox. Do you still care?
Idol remains the No. 1 nonsports program on television despite slipping ratings and the challenge of a number of other singing competition programs.
It’s hard to fault a series that still brings in almost 20 million viewers each week, but that’s down from the series’ glory days of more than 30 million during Season 7 in 2008.
Remember? That was the season David Cook defeated David Archuleta for the title. Nothing much has been heard of either one lately.
It has been a slow, steady decline ever since as the Idol audience aged and the competition increased.
Last Idol season saw a steep drop in ratings thanks in part to inroads made by NBC’s The Voice and Fox’s The X-Factor.
Too much of a good thing? The singing competition inundation may well have hit the saturation point.
Last year’s Idol season average viewership dropped below 20 million for the first time in eight years and the series ended up No. 2 behind NBC Sunday Night Football.
How does the venerable program, which debuted on June 11, 2002, attempt to remain fresh and new? One way is to change judges and that’s the case with the new season.
Out are Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez; in are four-time Grammy Award-winning country crooner Keith Urban, “global icon” singer/songwriter diva Mariah Carey (“the best-selling female recording artist of all time”) and “quadruple-platinum singer, songwriter, rapper and fashion icon” Nicki Minaj (birth name, Onika Tanya Maraj).
Still hanging around on the judges’ desk is “Idol’s heart and soul,” the last remaining original judge, Randy Jackson.
Another attempt at rejuvenation occurred during the latest audition process. It began with the “American Idol Small Town Audition Bus Tour.” That was a 10-town nationwide experiment that went out in the hinterlands to such places as Billings, Mont., and Joplin, Mo., to search for untapped talent.
Idol also had an online “Nominate an Idol” program that allowed folks to secretly send in a video for someone they thought deserved a shot. Expect to see episodes featuring both of these new ventures.
Of course, we’ll also see plenty of episodes from the traditional arenas crammed with thousands of goofy people trying to impress the Idol screening minions for a 60-second shot in front of the four judges. This year’s audition cities included the usual suspects - Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans - but also San Antonio;
Charlotte, N.C.; Newark, N.J.; and Oklahoma City.
And what about all those rumors of pre-season animosity between Carey and Minaj? You know the producers loved the publicity.
During the most infamous dust-up in October in Charlotte, Minaj lost her cool and ranted for more than a minute on her feelings about Carey. I watched the video four times and never understood a word she said.
Poor Urban was stuck in the middle at the judges’ table and looked for all the world as if he wanted to crawl under the thing.
Neither of the women is known for being shy and retiring. Viewers can only hope that the promised diva smack down doesn’t overshadow the contestants. The X-Factor wanted a bit of that feistiness when it paid Britney Spears $15 million to judge last season. Spears was expected to bring in the big ratings.
She didn’t. She was boring.
It’s a fine line between highlighting the appeal of the judges and their personalities and the appeal of the undiscovered singers. If the show ends up being all about the judges, then it has lost its attraction (at least for me) and will continue its ratings slide.
Watching two over-hyped narcissistic divas cat fight holds no interest for me whatsoever.
One of the other complaints is that Idol had become too predictable. Pre-season forecast: A milquetoast, “safe,” Southern white guy who plays the guitar will win.
Why do I think so? That’s been the trend for the five most recent seasons.
To refresh your memory, the past winners were, in order, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks and Jordin Sparks. Then there were David Cook, Arkansan Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips.
Granted, Cook is from Missouri and DeWyze hails from Illinois, but all five were still white guys with guitars.
The steady hand in all of this has been host Ryan Seacrest. He’s simply the best in the business at what he does. Best of luck to him trying to corral his divas.
TV Week, Pages 79 on 01/13/2013