Much ado about nothing
‘American Idol’ season 11 debut hits sour note.
LOS ANGELES:
The audience for “American Idol” dropped by some 18 per cent to 21.6 million viewers when the TV singing contest returned for its 11th season, according to early ratings figures on Thursday.
The drop was even bigger — about 27 per cent — among viewers between the ages of 18 to 49, which is the audience group that is most coveted by advertisers, Nielsen figures showed.
In 2011, 26.2 million viewers watched the season premiere when new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez made their first appearance, but the 11th season in 2012 could only manage to get 21.6 million viewers.
Fox television chairman Kevin Reilly said last week that the network was expecting the audience for “American Idol” to be down this season because of the show’s age. But media watchers say “Idol” — the most-watched show on US television for seven years — faces the stiffest competition ever in 2012 from rival singing contests “The Voice” on NBC and the debut season of “The X Factor” on Fox, which ended just one month ago.
After years of growth, “American Idol” premiere ratings peaked in 2007 with a massive 37.4 million viewership. It has declined nearly every year since, except in 2010 when there were considerable headlines about Ellen DeGeneres joining the show.
However, despite the fall-off, which Fox television executives said they had expected, the two-hour “American Idol” season premiere was still the most-watched show by a huge margin on US television on the night of January 18 and outperformed all of Fox’s rivals combined. “Idol” will almost certainly rank as this week’s top-rated entertainment programme.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.
The audience for “American Idol” dropped by some 18 per cent to 21.6 million viewers when the TV singing contest returned for its 11th season, according to early ratings figures on Thursday.
The drop was even bigger — about 27 per cent — among viewers between the ages of 18 to 49, which is the audience group that is most coveted by advertisers, Nielsen figures showed.
In 2011, 26.2 million viewers watched the season premiere when new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez made their first appearance, but the 11th season in 2012 could only manage to get 21.6 million viewers.
Fox television chairman Kevin Reilly said last week that the network was expecting the audience for “American Idol” to be down this season because of the show’s age. But media watchers say “Idol” — the most-watched show on US television for seven years — faces the stiffest competition ever in 2012 from rival singing contests “The Voice” on NBC and the debut season of “The X Factor” on Fox, which ended just one month ago.
After years of growth, “American Idol” premiere ratings peaked in 2007 with a massive 37.4 million viewership. It has declined nearly every year since, except in 2010 when there were considerable headlines about Ellen DeGeneres joining the show.
However, despite the fall-off, which Fox television executives said they had expected, the two-hour “American Idol” season premiere was still the most-watched show by a huge margin on US television on the night of January 18 and outperformed all of Fox’s rivals combined. “Idol” will almost certainly rank as this week’s top-rated entertainment programme.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.