Newest stars: Hicks and McPhee
Deconstructing American Idol
I was amused by the fact that the American Idol show wrapped up with over 60 million people actually voting for the finalists. People take more interest in this than they do politics. Maybe through this show we should pick our next President. You can have the three nasty panelists grill the candidates then make them give a speech.
While this show is a phenomenon, the concept is very old. In broadcasting it began in the 1930′s with the Original Amateur Hour. This was a kindler, gentler format that eventually used an applause meter to determine winners and losers. It did not take itself so seriously. This sort of format lasted until around 1970. There were variations on this theme that were eventually mocked by the popular Gong Show which was essentially a parody of all amateur hour type competitions. The parody essentially killed off the old model and in 1983 a new model emerged called Star Search. It introduced the single elimination one-to-one match-game tournament style of competition. In its original form it lasted 12 years and managed to discover an incredible array of talent from Dennis Miller to Britney Spears.
American Idol uses the same single-elimination tournament model but added elements of the Gong Show with three on-stage judges and scenes of humiliation. It also added a back room “behind the scenes” element taken from sports locker room interviews to add pathos and supposed insight as well as a human connection to the audience. This was topped with TV audience participation utilizing over-the-phone voting. The show also took only the most over-weighted aspect of amateur competitions: singing, and made it the specialty. Comics and dancers and jugglers could look elsewhere to be discovered. Whether Simon Cowles, the producer (and mean-spirited judge), actually knew what he was doing when this show was developed remains to be seen. His spin-off, American Inventor, seems to indicate otherwise. This show may actually be a case where network meddling resulted in a winner. A rare bird ifso.
Improving the model.
The only way to improve the current model would be to do the obvious, change the basic model from a single elimination tournament to a double elimination tournament. In double elimination you have to lose twice to be eliminated. The folks who lose the first time go into the losers rounds which are essentially death matches. This format would keep audience favorites in play to potentially win at the end in a showdown with a hated rival in the winners round. This sort of tournament style is underutilized in sports since it takes longer to complete, about twice as long in fact. But with a show like American Idol it could be added to increase the show frequency and network profits. It would add a new element of drama and the show ratings would go even higher. And the viewers would perceive it as “more fair and honest” and thus be more attracted for a longer time period.
agh
Well now John, you can participate in American Politics in just the same way… as long as you have Diebold to assist you.
Vote early, electonically, and often with no trail to reality.
I can see the headlines now: “Voter turnout exceeds the number of humans on the palnet, but all of them want GW Bush for a third term.”
Maybe it’s because I’m not a “happy-shiny” guy, but I can’t fathom ever bringing myself to watch a single minute of this show. It’s basically a long commerical geared at the equivalent intellectual level. I stunned that people openly proclaim that they have actually watched this show. It would be the equivalent of claiming you spent an hour or two watching sock puppets.
I bet the least downloaded MP3s on the web are Idol “winners”
Also, don’t forget about how easier it is to vote for American Idol than it is for the President.
All you need to do is pick up the phone and dial. You don’t need to register, you don’t need to get in a car or whatever and go down to the polling place, stand in line, cast your vote, take time off work or leave early or go in late.
There is zero hassle in voting for American Idol other than picking up the phone and hitting redial.
I have to confess… I got into this series. I hate every other reality show but my family and I had a lot of fun with that last few seasons of American Idol. It’s the only show we watch as a family.
Why?
* They do a good job of making the viewer feel like we are going on a journey with the singers.
* They do a good job of making us feel like we know the characters.
* It is really fun to judge the singing and see how compares to the show’s judges and the audience voting
* In the more recent series, they’ve done a good job of bringing in the history of pop music.
* It’s fun, like following sports, but without all the jerkiness of pro athletes. The contestants compete but they seem good natured about it.
Why is it more popular that politics? Is that a serious question? Politics these days is drepressing and mean.
you can vote more than once, and many people do. Some of the people in these small towns will vote over a 100 times. If the presidental elections did this comparing the 2 would be more valid.
Well John, you’ve already been slammed for falling for the “60 million voters” propaganda from Fox (you believe in what Fox says?), but still, it’s a fun topic.
I tried to find some estimates for what the multiple was (average number of votes cast per voter), and discovered (surprise!) that Fox was doing what it could to obfuscate that data. But it seems that the multiple is quite high, given the prevalence of speed-dial and auto-dial, plus grassroot efforts to skew the votes (e.g. check out a href=”http://www.votefortheworst.com” title=”Vote For The Worst”>). “Idol” isn’t about accurate voting, it’s not even about selecting the best singer. It’s reality TV, dude. It’s just meant to entertain.
And in any case, TV viewership is best compared to …. TV viewership. According to Nielsen Media Research, average viewership during the “Idol” finale was 36 million viewers. In contrast, the first Kerry-Bush debate in 2004 had an average of 62.5 million viewers.
American democracy is doing just fine.
could it be that US politics is so very predictable that it does not draw much interest? I mean, really, anyone steps one step off of the party line and its news! listen to ‘Meet the Press’ or ‘Face the Nation’ when they have some high-profile pol on there. if you have been paying attention at all, you know what they are going to say in response to (or how they are going to dodge) any given question.
AI preserves at least the illusion of unpredictability. predictability is comforting (thus the popularity of franchise food), but not very engaging. Thus the limited interest in politics vs intense interest in AI. it actually makes perfect sense.
I’d just like to point out that Dvorak clearly hasn’t done his research on this, I’m in no way an idol fan… I must point out how ever that the always obnoctious Simon Cowell is not the creator/producer of the show. That ‘Honor’ would go to another Simon, Simon Fuller who has also created numerous other reality shows.
Man, that guy DOES look like Leo!
rags-to-riches story? please. It’s just a stupid TV show, and that’s what’s wrong with america these days.
good GOD almighty, that looks like Leo!