Comments on: Updated:American Idol ratings down 10% in overnight ratings

By: dan

dan — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:24:32 +0000

I liked the bikini!!!!Everything else is stale–

By: Bruce Stevens

Bruce Stevens — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:24:09 +0000

life has evolved into keeping up and one big appointment. with few exceptions people have had it with appointment entertainment and shows you must watch every week at the same time. i feel they want to turn it on, be entertained and be gone

By: Randall Fuselier

Randall Fuselier — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:15:57 +0000

30 million people watched American Idol?? Wow, but what I would like to
know is what were the other 33 million Obama voters doing last night?

By: lb

lb — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:15:01 +0000

Last season was the best season yet for talent. Some people are never satisfied and expect too much. Idol is far better than all the idiot game shows, the bachelor, biggest loser, on and on. This is the best variety show we have today. Idol gives us a break from all the situation comedies stupid reality shows. Hasn’t anyone noticed the talent and established stars on the show last year? Doesn’t anyone see the growth of people like Carrie Underwood from the beginning to her triumph win. This show is a great success and continues to provide great entertainment.

By: flyover

flyover — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:14:46 +0000

Watching that hack Hannity now. Boy, he’s enlightening…

By: Daystrom

Daystrom — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:13:11 +0000

Dave says:
January 14th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

30 million idiots watching crap like this.
This is 30 million that should not be allowed to vote.

It’s too late, they already voted for B. Hussein Obama.

By: LateGreatUS

LateGreatUS — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:10:28 +0000

And while Rome burned Nero fiddled.

By: bill

bill — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:06:01 +0000

Who cares? It’s TV for the Insane/STUPID anyway! Watch FOX NEWS and learn something! God forbid!!!

By: flyover

flyover — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:05:13 +0000

The amount of snobbery here is unreal… There’s 500 f**king channels to choose from. If you don’t like it, then don’t watch! Go watch some “enlightened” stuff and leave us “lowbrows” alone! We love our show!

By: Suzy

Suzy — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:52:48 +0000

This was the first episode I missed since Season 2! I didn’t even know it was on. Even this weekend, the Fox affiliate and FNC was advertising it “coming in January” with no specific date. So unless I look at a TV guide, how was I supposed to know it was even on????

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:32:41 +0000

Hey, I would have watched American Idol if I weren’t already addicted to Biggest Loser. With all the crap on TV, night after night, why place two good shows opposite each other? It is probably a capitalist plot to sell more TiVo’s.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:30:22 +0000

Well Dave you must have made 30 million and 1 who watched since you came on here.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:26:01 +0000

30 million idiots watching crap like this.
This is 30 million that should not be allowed to vote.

By: boonie

boonie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:03:24 +0000

Meet Simon at his winery in San Miguel, California…. He loves everyone.

By: HooHa Daddy

HooHa Daddy — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:00:14 +0000

Jason Ellis owns Clay Aiken!

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:58:04 +0000

just kidding tv expert

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:57:24 +0000

Well than “TV expert” isn’t a tv expert but “per-vert”

By: TV Expert

TV Expert — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:53:03 +0000

Just so you all don’t waste your time mis-labeling me, I’ve seen the show twice (both times against my will). I would never watch it again. I clicked the link because of some girl in a skimpy bikini and couldn’t help but spread my anti-AI sentiment after reading your posts.

By: Nivla

Nivla — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:51:21 +0000

The american idol show was awesome. The talented people gave me great entertainment and the good human story at the end was inspirational. I love good stuff… you want poop, read a newspaper or turn on the news. The wacko are funny… Hey we all know people like that …

By: bruce

bruce — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:48:39 +0000

down 10% but still # 1 in its slot? How about the other networks, were they down an equal amount, is viewership of commercial television dropping with cable and fios? these kinds of messages are never given. if there is an equal drop across the board than this show is still popular. I never trust sandalone statistics like these – they can be manipulated so easily

By: TV Expert

TV Expert — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:40:06 +0000

Nielsen gives boxes to what they say is a representative sample of the population. They extrapolate the number of viewers of a show within their sample to the total population. This means nobody actually knows exactly how many viewers any show ever had. So, no, your DVR doesn’t count. That being said, television tastes aside, AI is an affront to music. The only talented person who ever won this show is Leona Lewis, and that was the British version (that ugly opera singer dude was also amazing but I can’t say whether or not he won). We’ve been so collectively dumbed down as a nation that Fox can get away with convincing you that this show is important. In the 90′s it was called Say What Karaoke and it was ironic (we knew the contestants sucked). You should all be ashamed of yourselves for not knowing what cretins you are.

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:37:18 +0000

I thought Bikini Girl was hot!

By: Osamba

Osamba — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:28:28 +0000

Well crap, I thought they were gonna have a picture of the chick in the bikini……..

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:25:28 +0000

Ratings are so high and the show so dominant that ratings would have to fall 60-70% for the show to be in trouble. Idol still owns.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:14:55 +0000

30 MILLION people still watched the show.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:47 +0000

It is funny that everyone either pro or con for AI has come on here to expresss their views. Wow you people who are against AI I have like it or don’t. I personally like it, it is better than watching anything on MTV’s reality shows. All of us are drawn to AI because we sympathize with every contestant because we all sing and have dreams. I myself like a fresh new idea on AI(bikini girl) good for her!! She had gumption!! I am willing to bet those who replied on here that hated AI will be watching again tonight and will be on here later to comment. Fox won!! 30 Million viewers!! How many of them hate the show but can’t stay away from watching? Go American Idol!! Go bikini girl!! though she has no talent except she can rotate….LOL Be kind to one another. Later

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:50:01 +0000

Nielsen has tracked DVR viewing since Jan 2006. But unless you are a Nielsen family they didn’t track *your* DVR viewing.

By: annie

annie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:48:21 +0000

I used to watch but don’t anymore. The show is too long and drawn out. Why do we have to have so many night of AL?

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:47:23 +0000

El gato, you have terrible grammar, and are incredibly ignorant yourself.

People in glass houses…

By: DVR

DVR — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:41:27 +0000

Did that metric include my DVR? Besides viewership down in general, I don’t think these ratings count dvr recordings or not. I’d rather poke a screwdriver in my skull rather than watch Idol with all of the stupid fluff and annoying commercials. Otherwise, I’d not watch Idol at all.

So what about Tivo and all of the other dvr technology out there. I bet these metric systems are using old, outdated technology and do not truly represent true viewership. Seriously, AI in real-time…bahahahaha!!

By: bill

bill — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:36:02 +0000

the highlights that started the show almost made me not watch it we don’t care about willam hung keep the new f ups comming

By: duh

duh — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:09:19 +0000

You don’t thinks it had anything to do with some good new shows from CBS running against it do you? I was playing channel changer all night… sure a lot of NCSI and Mentalist fans tried to catch both and Idol’s first few nights are never that exciting.

By: LuckChance289

LuckChance289 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:03:00 +0000

Wow. Big news break! Give me a break. That is still a TON of viewers. The vast majority – correction – all of the people in the TV biz would step over their own mothers for those kinds of numbers. News must be slow lately. Or, maybe people are just dumbasses. By the way, no matter what, that pathetic piece of s*** has survived for years and years (I ask myself how). It never should have prospered in a descent, intelligent world. But it did. No matter what happens, the people involved with that show hit the lottery. RIP humanity, but don’t be silly haters.

By: max scrivener

max scrivener — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:32:12 +0000

You can lead a horse to water but a pencil has to be lead.

By: ItsFixed

ItsFixed — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:01:13 +0000

It all started to go downhill after the Paula gaff last year which proved that the show is fixed.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:51:21 +0000

Viktor, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Please go away.

jobiwankenobi, “Your powers are weak, old man…”

By: Viktor

Viktor — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:48:03 +0000

Julia, they didn’t make up the numbers – they “built” the numbers. If they had 10 million contacts that didn’t watch AMERICAN IDIOT, what would force them to report those numbers? They just chose to tweak the results in their favor – nothing illegal; it’s just selective reporting. That’s like saying “9-in10 doctors prescribe this drug”. It’s a real number – but how were the 10 doctors selected? Now bring up how many doctors would not prescribe this drug and then you’ll get a real perspective or the facts. But then that’s not marketing BS – that’s facts. Now bring up the number of people who didn’t watch AMERICAN IDIOT or any television and that will bring reality into the quality of current television programming – it s_cks.

And the fact that most of these posts are in favor of AMERICAN IDIOT – well wasn’t this news link targeting these type of folks? I just happened to click on it, but most (probably 60 million or more;)), probably didn’t watch AMERICAN IDIOT or won’t click on this news link or won’t take the time to comment. They don’t care about AMERICAN IDIOT.

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:45:28 +0000

jobiwankenobi, Wow, I didn’t expect someone to trot out the tired “the network didn’t promote the show enough” excuse for Idol…

By: jobiwankenobi

jobiwankenobi — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:40:18 +0000

What most people fail to realize is that the show started yesterday without much advertisement it was coming back on. I stumbled across it 1 hour before it came on and I like to watch it with my family.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:09:13 +0000

The new format is so so. Too touchy-feely for me. I personally like the early shows seeing all of the awful singers and hearing the commentary. It is very entertaining to watch Randy loose it and bust a gut laughing with the paper up in front of his face and to hear Simon’s comments. The new judge is super hot though. Nice.

By: smartypants

smartypants — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:00:37 +0000

I did not start watching AI until just two seasons ago and it is already getting somewhat tiresome to me. There is a lot of repetitiveness to the whole thing, and the comments of the judges are predictable at this point. The new judge is cute and all, but it is awkward having four judges; they kind of stepped on each other’s comments quite often last night. At times, they did not seem to know whose turn it was to talk. Despite all of this, AI is not going away anytime soon. The format works. It draws a large and diverse audience and it helps garner not only advertising dollars for FOX, but it give the network a chance to plug its other programming to a big audience. They would have to be idiots to give that up anytime soon. It might be a good idea to give Idol a rest for a year or so, to help build up demand, but my guess is the network experts know whether that is a wise decision or not.

By: Bob Santoro

Bob Santoro — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:57:32 +0000

Yes! Finally! The bane of our existence is crumbling! I am waiting however for another more exponential failure to embarrass me and our country.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:52:22 +0000

Viktor, I’m not sure I understand what you are saying. Are you claiming that American Idol did not get 30 million viewers and that FOX made up the number? If so, why don’t the rest of the networks do this so they can all have shows with 30 million viewers?

And if you’ve been around this site for a while, you’ll have seen many posts disproving the theory that the internet is stealing viewers from broadcast TV. This is a nice post summarizing that point.

By: Kings of A&R » Wednesday Music Business Links

Kings of A&R » Wednesday Music Business Links — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:47:52 +0000

[...] Although, American Idol suffered a slight rating slip, down just under 10%, it still dominated the evening by a long shot. Also, The press is beginning to swarm around the new Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, she gets her first stab by The New York Post. [...]

By: Viktor

Viktor — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:45:43 +0000

How do you think they come up with the 30 million viewers? They get their numbers through very controlled questions and “stupid” math to “make it look good”. Do you think they would pay for or make public a “real” number? I’m in marketing and it’s a lot of BS and I stay away from these type of BS clients. And to say that it is still the most watched show on television is another or better way of saying “it’s the best crap on television” – it doesn’t make it quality.

And yes, we can change channels but there’s nothing on – it’s all crap. So, if you want to look at real numbers, people are leaving television in droves and going to the internet so they can “get what they want” versus what some AMERICAN IDIOT “thinks” they want. Trust me, a lot of marketing depends on “stupid” people – they’re the easiest to attract.

By: Ellen O'Day

Ellen O'Day — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:41:41 +0000

Some help for the afflicted:

1. Don’t watch it if you don’t like it and don’t be a snob

2. 30 Million viewers is still very respectable

3. The new judge, Kara, has a good pedigree (in the pop business) she will be successful

4. AI has become a way of uncovering new talent. In that respect it is successful.

5. Watching Americans with absurd overestimates of their own talent and ability and with zero self perception is still hypnotic and in some small way mirrors the decline of the US. It – alas – confirms the prejudice of us non-Americans that many Americans confuse confidence with ability.

By: Bonzai

Bonzai — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:36:58 +0000

I thought I might not watch AI this year, but I watched and liked it. Sure, it’s not as new as it was a couple years ago, but it’s still great entertainment. The new judge is a great addition. I think it’s such a great window into people’s personal narratives: everything from the deeply delusional to the genuinely talented. I think AI lost some credibility when the grey haired guy a few years ago (don’t remember his name) won. He was talented, but certainly not in the same league as someone like Carrie Underwood.

By: GRD

GRD — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:12:24 +0000

Starzzguitar, you know this “for a fact”? How? Been talking to Simon?

By: Mars

Mars — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:02:42 +0000

Isn’t this still the most watch show on television?

By: Steve in Texas

Steve in Texas — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:57:05 +0000

I was conned a few years ago to watch AI by my wife. Liked it, and watched it for about three seasons. It seems now “Jerry Springer Show”-ish now. The “over singing”, too many commercials, tiresome personalties have defeated me. I’m out, never to return.