I got about 5 e-mails and one phone call about what will Paula Abdul's absence from American Idol mean to the ratings. My first thought was, 'Damn, can't a man watch Hell's Kitchen in peace!?" By now everyone has heard this news.
Paula Abdul announced her decision to the world on on her Twitter account when she said:
With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to IDOL[...]
And by now you've seen one of the 812,239 reports of the joint statement from FOX, FreemantleMedia and 19 Entertainment:
"Paula Abdul has been an important part of the 'American Idol' family over the last eight seasons and we are saddened that she has decided not to return to the show. While Paula will not be continuing with us, she's a tremendous talent and we wish her the best."
Can't Paula Abdul be at least as big of a diva as Brett Favre?
Of course she can!
I'm still not completely convinced it's over. I don't think she was lying, but I didn't think Brett Favre was lying the first time he retired and cried, only to unretire, then retire and cry again. I think he absolutely means it when he says it. But then later changes his mind. It won't surprise me to see him running around the field by November.
Would it shock me if Paula Abdul is every bit the diva Brett Favre is? Uh...no. But it also wouldn't shock me if somehow, magically she's reunited with the show in the next month. Once the auditions start and Abdul isn't there, it's another story.
But unlike Bill, I won't be surprised if she has really quit and is staying quit. Bill's line of reasoning makes sense if you're being completely rational. Unfortunately, people aren't always rational, especially it seems, if they are show business people. Bill's line of logic is that they're offering her way more money than she could make doing anything else -- and I'm pretty sure that's true -- so why would she give it up?
F-You Money?
But she's made a lot of money already and will certainly be able to find work. It all adds up to her being in a position where she can afford to satisfy her pride and her ego if that's what she needs to do. It may not be rational, and it may be a poor choice, but, it's also about as completely human as it gets. Ego. Pride. Diva. Who can really be surprised?
Ratings Impact?
I've never really watched American Idol, so I can't offer a decent opinion on whether the show will be more entertaining, less entertaining or as entertaining as it always was without her, but my peripheral sense makes me think that it will be at least a little bit less entertaining without her.
Will Paula Abdul obsess over American Idol ratings next year?
That was the original title of this post, and I'm guessing if she stays quit she will certainly obsess over Idol's ratings next year. Being a completely selfish prick, I hope she stays quit, that the ratings go down by 25% and she writes a weekly guest column for us that goes something like:
Me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha.Me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Me me me me me me. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Even if the ratings are down only 3%, I'd love to see it come to that. And of course, with Abdul out, there will be more obsession over Idol's ratings in general, and haters of reality TV* will rejoice, it will be a good time for a site that's obsessed with ratings. But I'm still not convinced they won't kiss and make up, so I don't want to get my hopes up.
*I am not a hater of so-called "reality TV" (hello, I LOVE Hell's Kitchen and thought the most recent season of Survivor was top notch!), but many of the commenters here absolutely loathe it even if they don't realize that in a roundabout way it winds up financing scripted content they do like.
Mark my words: She’ll be joining Dancing with the Stars.
Wooooooooooooooooooooooo Survivor rocks.
It’s good she quit, both for her declining health and her public persona. I don’t want to sound PC, but Paula Abdul scarily sounded like the next celebrity death we’d encounter, and I’m just glad now that the pressure and the public scrutiny of this show won’t stress her out as much. She is a human being after all despite being made into a monster by the soulless vampires in Hollywood. So what if she takes pills for her back injury pain, so does every other 50 year old person but just because she’s a celebrity, it’s okay to ostracize her. God bless America.
I was one of the four people who watched her short-lived reality show on Bravo, so I can say definitively that YES, Paula Abdul is a bigger diva than Brett Favre. She’s probably a bigger diva than almost anyone, which is made even worse by her public persona as The Nice One.
I think she’ll hold out this season, American Idol will decline again in ratings (though I think it’d continue to lose viewers even if she returned), Fox will offer her even more money, and then she’ll return for the next season.
Favre vs. Abdul seems like a surprisingly apt comparison considering that the judges salaries are at a level that probably guarantees that Idol will have a similar operating budget to an NFL team at this point.
I don’t watch Idol but if the reports are true that she was getting paid significantly less than Randy I can understand why she left. As the show’s creator I can understand Simon getting paid more but why Randy. Its not like he was famous before the show. Neither was Seacrest for that matter. At some point you have to stand up for your pride and say I’m worth more than that. Its not about how much she makes relative to the rest of us but how much she makes relatives to the other Idol cast. If she was being underpaid then she made the right move.
@Dead
PC about PA, funny!
I hope she has quit for good and I think she is really over estimating her importance. AI will do fine with out her.
~Lanie~
There is only one explanation for this…Ted Thompson doesn’t want Paula on Idol anymore, and Ted ALWAYS gets his way.
Or not…
If you take a few days dredging message boards you get a pretty solid feelign that folks like idol because of its mix of personality conflicts and faux industrial reflexitvity, idol will be fine.
What about Kara’s salary??
FAVRE for the diva win
didnt get any of the teams he wanted so he decided not to play at all
From what I read, Paula is a lunatic, so who knows what she’ll actually do in the end?
If she goes, I doubt she’ll affect ratings too much, though it may piss off many of the message board users. I’m sure the ratings will fall a bit, but for the same reasons it and many other shows’ ratings have been falling. I don’t really feel that many people watch solely because of Paula.
Now, if it was Simon that left, I’d have no idea whether that would kill the show or not, and even then I don’t think it’d be a huge ratings blow, though I definitely wouldn’t be comfortable calling one way or the other. I think American Idol still has a few more seasons left in it regardless of what happens.
who cares? Find a real story.
Estimated ratings impact = Zero
Agree with the poster above who said she will end up on DWTS
Brett Favre isn’t a diva. I don’t get it Micheal Jordan retired 3 times and you never hear anyone ssy anything about him, why is it because he is black and Brett and white? Don’t get me wrong I grew up watching the Bulls and the Packers and MJ and BF will always hold a special spot in my heart. I really don’t care for Paula Abdual she had one good song almost twenty years ago but for some reason has been able to stick around.
O I always just want to add I hate you Robert and American Idol as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paula Abdul is not a “diva”. Money talks, money walks. She was being offered millions less than Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell and wanted her fair share, and I don’t blame her — she was a judge on the country’s most popular series and instrumental to its early success. Without the buzz that surrounded Paula’s actions and comments, I don’t think American Idol would be the same.
And claiming Paula has one hit is completely false. She has sold millions of records on multiple albums and set many Billboard-chart records for high-charting singles. “Straight Up” wasn’t her only single. She had a widely successful career that was set back by a painful disease.
I do hope Paula goes to DWTS, a competing reality series, or starts her own show. I don’t think this is the end for her. That being said, American Idol is likely to retain much of its regular viewership, but I do believe this is just another nail in the coffin. Ratings have begun to erode, the new judge Kara is relatively unpopular, winners have had less impact on the charts, and finales haven’t drawn as many viewers as in the past. Without Paula, I think the show just cut its lifespan.
The spin doctors over at Fox are what make Idol such a big hit. They’ll do just fine without Paula. The fake fights and contrived controversy will keep coming with or without her and the minions will eat it up just like they always do.
Brett Favre has never made a bad movie. He did There’s Something About Mary and walked away triumphant.
He got a little bit indecisive with the football thing, but Brett Favre and Stanley Kubrick have the most perfect records in the history of cinema.
Do judges have an impact? I’m not sure. Look at the three idiots they have on So You Think You Can Dance? That show is a “hit.” Same situation on America’s Got Talent. Maybe people turn in to see the three on DWTS. Can you have a talent show without judges (with America voting) – that would be interesting.
The only judges that seem to be really contributing to the quality of the show are on Project Runway & Top Chef. On those shows the judges actually make the decision. (Actually the same on Next Foodnetwork Star – and look how that finished this season!)
It’s somewhat difficult to imagine her being able to make more money than she was offered on Idol. However, given her role on the show from the beginning and the cash machine that the show has become, I can understand wanting a bigger piece of the pie. Besides, I wouldn’t be happy either if Seacrest was making more money than I was working at the same place. To this day I cannot understand why Seacrest adds even a cent of value to the show and what he does to justify that salary.