The End Of 'American Idol' Ahead of its fall programming presentation to advertisers this afternoon, Fox announced today that the 15th season of American Idol, which will begin in January 2016, will be the last. Ratings for Idol have slid precipitously over the last few seasons, but in the words of Joe Adalian at Vulture, "Idol was, for much of its run, the most dominant show on television — by a mile." It's hard to remember now, but there was a time when putting up a show against Idol was close to announcement that it was unimportant to whatever network was airing it. It was the broadcast television version of a stomping monster that took out small cities. The original dream of propelling star after star into the heavens didn't pan out as producers might have hoped, but the show has its list of famous alums: winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood went on to be straight-up superstars, Phillip Phillips grabbed onto the popularity of Mumford-and-Sons-y Americana as it flew by and did well for himself, other finalists like Fantasia Barrino and Constantine Maroulis went to Broadway, and a lot of others have had perfectly good careers putting out records even if they haven't been as widely recognized as the grandest of champions. Clay Aiken even ran for Congress. (And Jennifer Hudson! Who won an Oscar! And who I originally forgot because that's how much I no longer associate her with this show.) It seemed at one time like Idol was a show that would ebb and flow but never die, like Saturday Night Live. But Fox has other plans and other priorities, there's competition from other performance shows and other competition shows, and as it turns out, very few things are Saturday Night Live. So now, Ryan Seacrest will be the man who only seems to have 99 jobs. We'll have much, much more about fall schedules as this week of TV news progresses.
NOOOOOOO PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just kidding, I don't think I have ever watched a full episode. 50-60 year old couples all across the midwest will have to find a new show to watch.
Interesting. Thought they were still making a ton of money like 300 million is gross profits each year. That's a cash cow no matter what the ratings are...
I know I've never seen a full episode. I didn't even know the show existed in its first season, and am surprised seemingly every year to see it still comes on.
Sad sad day. Without this show we would've never experienced Ruben Studdard and his classic timeless hit: "Sorry for 2004". Sad sad day...
Idol should have ended whenever Simon Cowell decided to leave the judges' booth, back in...2011? Never seen the Voice, but I heard it was good because of the judges' relationships with each other, along with how the competitions were set up (Teams in Voice vs free for all in AI). There's just too much saturation of singing contests these days.
Hopefully The Voice isn't next. I say that because every Monday and Tuesday my wife and kids are watching that horse**** upstairs and it gives me ample time to watch my shows or play my video games. :grin:
American Idol's demise was not evolving the format. The Voice came in and took advantage of that. I'm a bit bummed for nostalgic reasons. It's hard to imagine a show as recent as American Idol even be a nostalgic thought.
Good. I'd like ABC to can Dancing with the Stars, and NBC to kill The Voice. Neither will happen any time soon though. These "singing competition" and "dancing competition" TV shows are just a fad that is well past its prime.
Cast salaries and ad dollars eventually converge, I think O'Neill and Applegate were pulling $100k per ep each when Married was burning off eps on Saturday night. They really should have figured out how to keep Abdul and/or Cowell, the multiple casting changes just diminished any celeb appeal and diminished any ongoing dynamic or narrative. Of course, I never watched the show (or any reality) and almost vomited when I was flipping through and saw Tarantino in the audience, but business-wise Fox is going back to the wilderness.
I guess; but NBC is busy gassing and disemboweling scripted sitcoms, so Puttin on the Hits might not be going anywhere.
