“American Idol” Fame Gone Down
We can all remember when “American Idol” first aired. It was a fun time and a great show to watch and to be involved in. But after 5 grueling seasons people have become less impressed and less interested. We aren’t saying that “America Idol” is going to be cancelled, far from it. FOX has renewed the contract and the show has at least three more seasons to look forward to. The show may even remain at the top of the ratings chart for another season or two.
After 200 episodes, however, there are clear signs of age and fatigue in the series, ones that signal “American Idol”’s time at the top is waning. Right now, the world is talking about only two things related to “American Idol”: photographs that show a semi-finalist in different states of undress, and how boring the singers are. Nothing else has captured viewers’ attention. Antonella Barba’s popularity isn’t surprising, but considering that she was one of the competition’s weaker singers, the fact that she’s become synonymous with this season is very telling. Discussion of Antonella and those photographs has all but consumed the coverage of the show, because there really isn’t anything else to talk about.
While “Idol” has always been personality-driven, which is why it’s more of a reality series than a straight talent show like “Star Search,” the show depends upon more than just allegedly scandalous photographs of a 20-year-old. It needs incredible talent to power a stunning conclusion, and the stunning moments that will inevitably come along the way. Will anyone really care or be surprised if any one of the 12 finalists go home prematurely? Melinda Doolittle is quite talented, for example, but an undeniable part of her front-runner status comes from the weakness of her competition.
And what kind of conclusion will this season offer? Not much of one, considering how flat and uninteresting this group of 12 is as a whole, and how flat the group of 24 before it was. Perhaps one of the boring finalists will grow to mediocre and then even good, and that person’s growth will be so impressive that America will award that person the title. At best, a third of the top 12 are interesting performers with distinct styles; the others are forgettable. There’s also been relatively little drama, and the show desperately needs that to remain engaging. The auditions, all 10 hours of them, were rather dull.
There were no weirdo standouts, and not really many surprisingly amazing singers, either. The delusional singers who paraded before the judges were just like every other season’s delusional singers. America, it seems, has run out of both talent and creative attention-seekers. Viewers noticed: From the first night of the auditions to the final “best of the rest” show, almost 10 million viewers tuned out.