Television

Idol franchise down but not forgotten   Author: eNews staff and agencies | May 25, 2007, 15:09

Some analysts call it 'ratings fatigue' others just say its familiarity with the audience becoming ‘used’ to even the most novel or striking of TV programs.

Every popular program experiences it, even once giant TV hits like Desperate Housewives, Lost, Australian Idol and Big Brother.

But whatever it is it has again struck the grand final of the biggest reality TV program of them all: Fox's American Idol.

But even though the early numbers show a sharp dip in viewers for the grand final yesterday, Australian time, there were so many million people watching that any network would 'kill' to have the sort of problem Fox is facing.

The audience for Idol again emphasises how well free to air TV pulls together a broad TV audience and why when it comes to getting more bang for ad bucks, Pay TV (cable in the US), and the internet are not in the hunt.

Early Nielsen figures show that 29.5 million people watched the final of Idol.

That was down 19 per cent on last year's final but will be adjusted upwards to take account of the late finish. Cunningly Fox allowed Idol to run nine minutes over (Yes, they do it there as well as here) to 10.09 pm Eastern time on Wednesday night (12.09 pm Thursday here). According to US reports the winner was announced at 10.03 pm, US time.

Unlike Australian Idol where the Ten Network deliberately pushed for older performers last year and viewers with 29 year old Damien Leith winning, the winner of American idol was a 17 year old female warbler called Jordin Sparks.

She was the youngest winner yet in the program's six year history.

The audience was almost 7 million down on the 36.4 million people who watched Taylor Hicks win in 2006 and around 9 million down the 2003 result of more than 38 million, which was the highest ever audience.

Idol's success in the back half of the US TV season (it starts in January) pushed Fox to a third consecutive ratings victory in the crucial 18-49 year-old demographic.

With the US ratings season finishing this weekend, CBS is on track to win the overall ratings race and finish second among 18-49-year-olds.

American idol has two episodes: Tuesday night is the performance, Wednesday night is the result. Unlike here in Australia where the performance usually out rates the result ep each week, US viewers prefer the result to the performance.

More importantly, the success of both programs has allowed Fox to launch House (seen here on Ten) and "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” the local version of which is understood to be coming here next year, probably on Ten.

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