A couple of things…
While I struggle to finish my recap, here’s my Cliff’s Notes summary of last night’s finale…
Too much time given to pointless “special guests” (Green Day and Tony Bennett get a pass) at the expense of the Top 12. Last year, all the guest stars, except Prince, performed with the contestants. It gave each Idol ample time to perform one last time on the Idol stage. Boo to the person who deprived 4th place finisher Lakisha Jones of her Idol duet.  Props to the producers for bringing back all the former winning Idols they could. It was cool to see them all together on one stage.
Congratulations to Jordin Sparks. I’m sure she’ll wear the mantle of American Idol gratefully and proudly. She’ll probably also sell many many units of her Idol CD, making the old man Clive Davis very very happy. He sure loves his units, as he made very clear last night.
Speaking of Clive. Talk about bringing the show to a grinding, screeching halt. Nothing would have pleased me more than if a trap door had opened and swallowed him up during his tedious gloat-fest. Now THAT woulda been Good Tee Vee.
Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis Performance mp3s-Now Available for DownloadÂ
While the bottom 10Â Idols’ performance singles are no longer available at americanidol.com, you can purchase Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis’s mp3s there until June 20th.Â
For you pod people, the downloads are also available at iTunes.
But here’s the deal–both Jordin and Blake have 10 songs available.  Five of them are bundled in an EP (including Jordin’s craptacular coronation single, “This Is My Now.”)  The other 5 are available as singles. I’m not quite getting the logic here. It seems rather random.
Season 6 Finale Ratings Down 19%
I’ll be posting a ratings wrap up as soon as I have final numbers. In the meantime, it is interesting to note that Season 6’s finale ratings dropped 19% from Season 5’s ratings. 29 million people watched last night’s finale, according to preliminary data by Nielsen Media Research. That’s versus last year’s 36.4 million.  Wednesday’s numbers were the lowest 18-49 numbers since its original cycle in 2002 and the lowest viewership since the third season.
The preliminary numbers do not include the viewers who tuned in after the 10 pm cutoff. The show ran about 9 minutes long.
However, the voting totals were up 17% from last year–from a total of 63.4 million votes last year to 74 million votes this year.
the claimed voting totals - call me skeptical.
I can believe the voting totals. I think people discovered the ease of text messaging and the relatively low price of go phones.
ETA: I think that explains why people have been saying it was easier to get through, more people were texting more votes. That would also explain the decline of the reliability of dial idol.
“Wednesday’s numbers were the lowest 18-49 numbers since its original cycle in 2002 and the lowest viewership since the third season.”
Wow. I knew the ratings were down from last year but didn’t know the erosion in the 18-49 numbers was so bad. This Season wiped out the gains from the past 4 years. I thought the ratings were back to Season 4 levels but (for the finale) at least) they were worse. Two explanations: 1)show is running out of steam 2)terrible season or a combination of both.
I think the numbers were low because it was an overall crappy season. The lack of more than 1-2 talented singers, the lack of a really good season finale with huge names (not has beens). Clive Davis needs to go. And he should take Carrie with him. She got more time on that stage than the idols and it is their show. Hers was season 4.
I’m not so sure the numbers are as bad as they seem. I’ve read recently that all the show’s (not just Idol) numbers are down and a big reason is that people are using dvr’s more and watching live less. Here’s an interesting article that talks about it. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/08/entertainment/e133646D41.DTL
I do think the phone #s are legit. I think they opened more lines this season and I myself got in 100s of votes for Blake each night as opposed to the 20 or so each week last season.
What will they do if the voting totals keep going up but the ratings go down? I find that weird.
I agree with a contestant who posted earlier saying that part of the reason for the ratings dive is that this year is less focused on the contestants and more about the guest hosts and guest vocal coaches. We never really got to know much about the contestants other than that Melinda is shy, Blake likes to beatbox and hug is dad and Jordin is the daughter of a former NFL football player and has been singing since she was 18 months.
The 18-49 is not going to tune in to watch Tony Bennet perform or Barry Gibb. A lot of my peers who are college aged do not really know Diana Ross other than ‘Stop in the Name of Love’… And British Invasion Night had a lot of unfamiliar songs and weird guest hosts as well…
On another note, I am worried about what 19 Entertainment is going to do with Jordin. I hope they don’t make her do provactive R&B, but then again Clive is all about selling records. I will just scream if I look at a Jordin CD and it includes tracks like “Everywhere I go I see the same ho”, “Taste my honey” and “I got more back than you baby”… cause that is not her at all.
I agree totally about the special guests, MJ. I felt they overshadowed the contestants. I was kind of hoping that they might have Sherman Pore on with his cd coming out this past Tuesday. I went to Walmart today and picked it up. He has such a nice pleasant voice. I really enjoyed the cd.
Oh, and I actually did write a song called “I got more back than you baby” and I submitted it to the songwriting contest. Sadly it did not place in the Top 20.
Here’s the link to my blog where you can see the lyrics:
http://mosheeakasblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
The special guests were over the top last night and I think all the special guests all season harmed it. People were not invested in the contestants, because we didn’t really get to know them. So, it just became a modern day variety show. Something that can easily be missed if the competition puts on something good or your socks need washing.
I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do this, but if you compare last night’s finale with those from previous seasons, this season’s finale just didn’t measure up. The focus was completely taken of the contestants and we rarely saw or heard them. What happened to the mini-solos? What happened to all the duets?
American Idol has had a definite downturn in viewers this year. Sure, television viewing in general is down, but even if you take that into consideration, AI has lost a greater percentage of it’s viewers than the average show did.
I just hope that they fix the show next year, but I do not have high hopes. All season, people have been griping about not getting a chance to know the contestants and too many “special guests”. What do they decide to do for the finale? Did they decide to address it? No, they made it worse.
Props to you MJ, for bringing up Lakisha, or the lack thereof on last night’s show. What up with that? And she sounded amazing, too, when she got her tiny little bit to sing.
I also agree too much time was given to, uh, other things and not enough to the 24 contestants and giving them their last opportunity to sing on TV.
That trap door for Clive sounds like an excellent solution to the problem he presented onstage. (Why do I always think of Mr. Burns from “The Simpson’s” when I see him?)
As to voting up, viewers down. I am thinking they remedied some of the problems people had getting through from past years so that more votes did get registered. That and probably an increase of text voting over last year. Many, many more customers to draw from - Cingular ATT as opposed to only Cingular last year. Just a thought there.
One more point…they need to do SOMETHING that MAKES it important to actually win this thing.
The lack of drama and attitudes of the contestants is watering down the excitement (read: veiwers) and drama of the finals.
I don’t begrudge the “losers” a record deal, but add something to make it damned important to win 1st place.
I too want to know a ton more about the contestants and MUCH less about the mentors.
I also want to let the contestants pick more of their own songs. I want to know what kind of CD they’ll put out and who they really are as artists.
I saw Nigel at some point in my viewing of all things Idol I think Wednesday or Tuesday. Anyway, he said that they had made a mistake not focusing more attention on the contestants this year. I seriously hopes he remembers that next year. He needs to read this blog.
Speaking of ratings, while I was typing this, my local fox just reported that even with their dropping ratings, the AI finale was the most viewed finale this year.
Great point. I couldn’t agree with this more.
RollTide, you’ve given me hope. I am SO glad to hear that at least Nigel’s aware of the problem. I want my Idol back!
I agree there was a little too much of Carrie. But to Carrie’s credit, she did seem a little embarrassed about the award (what was that for, exactly?) and it was evident in her “acceptance” speech when she said at the end something to the effect of “this is not about me; let’s go back to the show.”
From TMZ:
I see that Jordin’s EP (the 5 song package) is #2 at itunes POP and Blake’s is #4. I think they pick what are considered the best songs and put them as a mini album for $3.99–you save about a dollar that way. You can buy any of them as singles if you want. I already have all of Blake’s and really don’t want and any of Jordin’s…no, not even “This is My Now”. She has a nice voice, but not one that I would probably buy.
I watched the show in full only last night, and considering that the comments I’ve read here and from the articles posted by Lisa seemed to indicate a less than stellar show, my expectations were pretty low. (Besides, I’d always felt Jordin would win, anyway.) It’s a delight, therefore, to watch and enjoy the show more than I expected to. Except, of course, for that Clive segment, the relevance and propriety of which simply evades me. And I agree, I would have wanted to see and hear a little more of the contestants. I wasn’t particularly crazy over any of them this season, but they are still the reason I tuned in to the show all season, after all.
The finale was a mess. It was all kind of like they said, eh, who cares? Let’s just throw together a random show. And would it have killed them to at least introduce last year’s idol? Good Lord. Then they spent so much time on all the stupid crap, like their golden idol awards, that they barely had time to squeeze in the announcement of this year’s winner! I almost forgot what show I was watching!
For next season, I hope we get to know more about the contestants, even if they have to fake a personality or a story, it makes for great T.V. I still don’t know who was responsible for such a bummer season. Was it the people who auditioned this season were just not very interesting or did the judges do a poor job of selecting this year? Heres to a hopeful season 7.
the songs they have available at itunes, are they the little clips from the show or did these guys sing a version of the whole song?
Scooter:
They are the full studio versions of the songs they performed this season.
Well, since 100,000 people auditioned, I’m sure they could find more interesting people. I think it’s the producers’ fault. I highly doubt the judges actually decide on who gets through, considering the fact all the auditioners meet the producers before being sent to see the judges.
Besides, would YOU put your trust (and potential success/failure) in the three stooges?
I always thought the judges are there just for show. If I were to choose three people to give 100 (or whatever number it was) golden tickets out of 100,000 auditioners I would choose people with more credentials, artistic merit and variety in their taste. Simon is legit, Randy less so, and Pauler.. come on :D
I think that other than a few of the top 24, most of the singers were pretty good. It’s unfortunate that some of the better ones didn’t go as long as they should have (Brandon, Chris S, Sundance, Stephanie, and even Sabrina who wasn’t my favorite but was still pretty good) but some just seemed to have trouble with the format such as song choices and nerves.
I do think the biggest problem is that the producers chose to pump so much filler into the show and give us less of the actual idols. I did like some from the start but would have loved to know more about them like we did once they got to the final 4.
The judges didn’t help. Randy was meaner this year but at the same time more biased toward his favorites. He and Simon both were so inconsistant and what they wanted one week would change by the next. I know some of the idols were frustrated by it and so were fans. Paula seemed to be much the same although even she would pull out a critique at times. Simon seems bored much of the time. I was surprised to see the difference from his British show. He seemed nicer and more talkative on it but maybe some of it is Paula & Ryan cutting him off so much.
I agree that Simon seemed bored a lot of the time. He seemed especially bored and a little angry on final 3 night (think he knew Melinda was going). His boredom may have rubbed off on the viewing audience.
Too much “filler” in the finale. Would love to have seen more of the current idols. Duets with past idols might have been fun.
I agree that they focused too little on the contestants, both on the finale and during the whole season.
As far as the votes being up. I think as people have pointed out here, they upped the phone capacity and text messaging is more prevalent. Go look at the busy percentages at dialidol for last year’s finale and this years. Taylor was getting percentages in the 80s and Kat in the 60s last year. This year I think it was in the 50s for Jordin and 30s for Blake. I think a lot more votes last year bounced on the busy signal.
I think the vote totals could be real if they opened up a lot more lines this year to allow for Idol Give Back and just left them open. I remember that last season I couldn’t get through at all and had to buy a GoPhone to text. This season I power-voted for Melinda (fat lot of good it did) and got nary a busy signal. This week I voted a bit for Blake and didn’t hit many busies either.
I also think some folks just decided to text and not bother with the phone lines at all.
There’s a new thread in the TWoP AI forum called “AI7 PTB Suggestion Box“. I posted this over there, but think it might be a relevant subject starter for here as well (hope that’s okay MJ):
I noticed Simon’s lack of interest (which waxes and wanes, depending) starting last year. I doubt he will get better. Probably worse. I always feel bad for the contestants because you know they can see the judges’ lack of interest, talking, goofing off, while they are singing.
Word, Nostradamus. Once they reinforced that winning means nothing, I think they lost a lot of the momentum generated by the show being a contest that actually rewarded the person who won. Now they reward whomever they feel is the “real winner.”
I do think viewers still get invested in the actual contest (and the entertainment) and the cachet of saying “your” guy/gal won, but I think the ultimately meaningless victory has turned off a lot of people.
I didn’t think the finale was horrible at all. I mean besides Clive’s ego tripping that is. I think the problem was that you can’t fix a bad season with a finale. Next year there should be fewer guests who have no affiliation with the show. No top 40 showcases. It doesn’t fit, and certainly didn’t help it to grab more youthful demographics.
The mentoring is a part of the show, and as such the mentors should have a spotlight….I just think the mentors should be more appropriate perhaps? I mean Tony Bennett is fine for standards night, but as much as I revere Diana Ross and she was in fact a great mom/mentor, her night was too restrictive. As a matter of fact, this years genres were too restrictive. WTF was Gwen Stefani night all about? What could have been totally modern and interesting was in fact a snoozefest. Who really cares who she was inspired by?
They rested on their laurals this year and they paid in depleted ratings. Had they had Elliott, Taylor, and Kat on earlier in the season I bet their ratings would have been better. Maybe not to last years level, but better for sure. I also think that the stupid, insulting, auditions, which lead to the sillyass awards at the finale should be tapered. No more stupid awards, a montage of the sillyness, and weirdos would be good enough. Hollywood week should be longer, that is the way we bond with the contestants, this year we were not bonded with anyone and that is why everyone is left a bit dazed and confused. That being said, it’s still the number one show in America. So even if this year was off, many would kill for it’s numbers.
Ladybug, unfortunately the only was to fix it now is to make sure that no one else from this season “wins” except TCO.
In other words, everyone but Jordin would have to be Guarini’d.
eta: they would also need to have more flexibility in the coronation song.
The inevitable decline of AI has begun. It can’t stay on
top for ever.
And as the AI sinks further into mediocrity give the show back to the contestants and take it away from the record company executives.
Still, I loved Wednesday night’s show.
And now Sony/BMG apologizing to Kelly Clarkson because Clive so obviously suffers from short term memory loss. Because Kelly gave this enterprise instant credibility. Because her single ‘Because of You’ is simply the best single released by any AI contestant.
Its one thing to dismiss Katharine and Taylor, but Kelly, that’s inexcusable.
There are so many avenues for improvement for next season. I agree with a lot of what has already been said.
– Auditions: Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the top 24 contestants already chosen before the show airs on TV? If so, PLEASE let us see ALL of the auditions of the top 24 contestants and let us invest interest in them right off the bat. Then, once Hollywood week starts, then we all already have a few folks to root for.
Go ahead and throw in a FEW crappy auditions. Some folks like them, some don’t. I like a few terrible singers but in moderation, and NO insults to them as people or to their looks. That to me is inexcusable. I just can’t stand the endless parade of weirdos and disillusioned they show during those long audition week shows. LESS crappy auditions and MORE Hollywood week. Ab-so-lute-ly.
– Themes: Correct me again, but wouldn’t it benefit the contestants immensely if they had broader themes? That way they’d be free to choose songs they are more comfortable with, and give record companies and idea of who may be successful in what genre?
Broad themes are so much more appropriate. I agree with the ideas already mentioned. I like country week, standards are great, 70’s and even 60’s offers so much versatility, etc. etc. Absolutely do away with songs of so-and-so.
– Guest mentors: For the most part I’m OK with them. They just need to again, keep focusing on the contestants more all season. Sure, let the guest mentor perform on results night (which should be ONLY 30 minutes thankyouverymuch), but stop choosing people who just happen to conveniently have released an album recently. Too much self-promotion for my taste.
– Release the vote totals.
– I actually liked IGB, but I think a neat spin on it would be to have all the contestants choose their favorite cause/charity, and feature something on each one during that night. And it has to be a separate night not related to the results.
I agree that if they are going to have another IGB type show, it needs to be seperate from the results. That way, we avoid the awkward carry over of the vote totals to the following week.
Well, she is the winner afterall. That being said, I had to put myself on an iTunes diet or else I would have already downloaded Blake’s EP. First week of June I will treat myself to it. I predict Blake will have more staying power of the two on the iTunes charts, but we shall see.
I’m happy that they’ve put 10 songs of Blake’s on iTunes. I’ve already bought most of them but good that others may check his and Jordin’s out.
I do see how the voting totals could be up. Remember back in the old days we had to dial using our little fingers but for the last few idols more & more are starting to use Dial Idol to make their calls. I know I got in over 600 votes for Blake compared to 4 for Reuben & 8 for Bo.
Is there any place I can download the Sgt Pepper Medley from the show? Anyone? You guys are much more savvy than I when it comes to finding such things. Any pointers for where I should look?
MJ:
I just realized today, after reading your great Cliff Note’s, that YOUR SITE is the reason I got through this Idol season. So you gotta either accept the props for that or the blame!
Seriously, it was as at least as much, and maybe a whole lot more fun, dishing this stuff with you and all these other virtual wits, than it was fast-forwarding through the commercials, the info-mercials, etc.
Boo to the person who deprived 4th place finisher Lakisha Jones of her Idol duet. YES! YES!
Nothing would have pleased me more than if a trap door had opened and swallowed him up during his tedious gloat-fest. TRIPLE YES!
Agree too totally about the shilling superstars — can’t there be a separate show (new variety hour anyone?) for them to pimp their latest singles?
And it would be have been more fun to see Tony duet with Blake, Smokey with LaKisha (Ooh, baby baby), etc.
Fewer people watched, the people who did voted more …..I think the big msg here is that the show is turning into something less interesting and genuinely engaging than it was when it wasn’t such a mega-ultra-turbo-franchise. Or maybe I’m just noticing it more, because I gag at the mere mention of Gwen Stefani. I was even disappointed by Maroon 5, who were pitchy as hell as Randy might say.
And I’ve also learned through this dubious addiction that I CAN STILL LOVE POP MUSIC — though probably not the corporate kind. There’s a whole alterna-world out there of great young music, and thanks to everybody for sharing it…..
RE: others singing on the finale:
The last couple of years I LOVED seeing other performers on the finale. Why? Because the Idols were paired up with people they loved/were influenced by. I still get chills when I think of the joy Bo had singing with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Last year: Taylor with Toni Braxton was a bit WTF, but who could forget Chris with Live?
If they tried hard enough, CLive et al could have their cake and eat it, too. They can feature stars hawking product. But isn’t there almost always a spike in sales for people who perform on the show, new album or not? Everybody goes home a winner, and I don’t have to suffer through Gwen Stefani lip-synching something I’m not going to by in a million years anyway.
And yet, over six billion votes were cast during the course of the AI6 season. Interesting juxtaposition. And we know who’s reapin’.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10372169
The PTB better enjoy it while they can given the consensus amongst fans and critics alike. A change-up next year is in order. I agree that Simon looked extremely bored…it was interesting to read that he was more spirited during the other competition. AI has so many deals and contracts, they seem to have lost sight of the precise reason why the show took off in the first place - everyone loves good music. Where were their visionaries? They’re there, I believe, just cannot call the shots. Ever since William Hung, AI have latched onto the sensational, regardless of talent. Why not, since they pocket major bucks very quickly?
I could not agree more. In fact, agreed on all points.
I can’t help but think that all of the top 4 are winners - Jordin who is so young and can gain so much from winning the title; Blake who can make the music he wants to make, and really had nothing to lose yet got so damn far; Melinda who the consensus believes is the best performer/singer of them all and who will IMO have the most satisfying career of them all; and Lakisha who doesn’t have the best image of herself, but may have the best voice, and who definitely deserves a great contract out of all of this. Kudos - a very weird season, but the right people made it to the top.
Randy reminds me of the Foreman character on “House”. For the first few seasons he was this nice, very cool guy. Then he suddenly has a personality switch and he’s mean and full of himself.
I totally agree with what everyone said here about needing to change up the way this show is handled next season. Of course, I won’t be watching because I despise how they treat certain contestants that actually won!
What they need to do is make sure that the winner has all the glory at least 3-6 months after they have won Idol. Nobody else should be allowed to release a CD until AFTER the winner’s CD has been out for several weeks.
The reason Season 6 bombed is also due, in part, to Season 5 - allowing everyone in the top 10 a chance at a record contract and to release their CD’s before Taylor. TPTB have made it unimportant to win the whole damn thing.