Even though it’s still a monster hit, American Idol suffered a decline in ratings during the recent season. In a “How wrong could he be” type statement, Ryan Seacrest is pointing fingers at Simon.
When asked about the drop, Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that Seacrest replied, “Well, the knee-jerk reaction would be Simon.”
He says there’s just too much of the acid-tongued judge: “Clearly there’s an over saturation of his character.” When asked about rumors that Fox wants to change some of the “Idol” judges. “That’s clearly rumor,” he said. “I’m positive you can’t recreate the chemistry that we have with the group on ‘American Idol.’”
This is so blatantly wrong that I find myself doubting that Ryan Seacrest ever said it. Must have been a lookalike!
Simon’s one of the most consistently amusing and entertaining things about the show. I can tell you why the ratings were down in two words:
1. Taylor
2. Sanjaya
A singing competition in which Taylor Hicks could actually be the last one standing loses all it’s credibility. He was up against the likes of Chris Daughtry, Ace Young, and Kat McPhee. Vote for the Worst handed him a title that should have gone to one of those three. Fans who had any sort of faith in the show lost it. Taylor proved that any foolish thing could happen, and that it leaves you with a sick feeling of injustice.
The fact that it came anywhere near close to happening again this year, with Sanjaya, probably sent fans who were on the fence running in the other direction. Don’t get me wrong, Sanjaya’s more likeable AND a better singer than Taylor….He also has a much better stage presence. But, still, if he had outlasted Blake, Jordin, Chris Rich, Phil, Melinda, and Lakisha – I’m not 100 percent sure I’d ever watch again.
Hopefully, Jordin and Blake (and the other amazing singers who lasted past Sanjaya) have given the show back the reputation it had pre-Taylor.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
what????taylor was at fault for the collaspes of AMERCAN IDOL bull crap..taylor was the reason we stop watching season 6..it was boring..and everytime you turn around ,,simon had to say nasty comments of taylor hicks the last straw when he told a contestant to put gum on taylor’s face..it kept getting ugly..a few of Taylor hicks fans watch and gave his blog info on the continue ditching,,disrespect of the winner of season 5..and when they picked daughtry song Home..will we knew..that the show favorite one Idol over the other…
you lost viewers because of taylor but it was because of the disrespeck..dissing ..never bring up his name unless to say rude and negative statements
no amaerican Idol ,..you lost a big chunk of your audience because of your total disrespect of taylor hicks not for anything else amnd you will never ever get us back again
it is american idol’s fault
Another disgruntled “my favorite got robbed” Pleeeese let it go Taylor Hicks won because he was the best of season five. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. I don’t think that the larger part of 63 million voters are tone deaf and they fans of the ” got robbed” idols are the only ones who know good music. When it comes to good music and real musicians America got it right in season five.TAYLOR HICKS!
Have you lost your mind?????? The reason the show is losing viewers is just the opposite of what you said…after season 5 and Taylor Hicks the show is boring, boring, boring…..I have had so many people say this to me. They say it is boring after watching Taylor perform. He brought excitement and talent to that show that it had never seen the likes of before. All the season 5 contestants were unique, but Taylor was special and everyone knew it and that is why he won. Taylor Hicks brought an all time high to that show that can never be matched, so it will continue to go downhill. You don’t even know what you are talking about in this article. You have no clue..
I actually agree with Ryan. I stopped watching Season 6 early because Simon was so horrible. I am thoroughly sick of the man. Taylor was actually what made Season 5 great. Sanjaya made Season 6 a laughing stock. I’ll tell you another thing: I’ve been watching Canadian Idol, and although they do have a “Simon” of their own he isn’t half as horrible as the real one. Makes the show a heck of a lot better to watch when the judges aren’t such total JERKS.
Your analysis is all wrong regarding the ratings. Taylor Hicks was in fact the BIGGEST DRAW in Season 5 which was about the season American Idol peaked.
The American Idol tour of Season 5 ( featuring Taylor Hicks with more performances than the other idols ) was 96% filled and grossed and all time high of 35 million dollars ( equal to Season 1,2 and 3 combined ).
As for blaming Season 6’s drop in ratings on Sanjaya, what a crock ! Sanjaya got voted off at #7 and the ratings did not go up anyway. In fact, you will notice a slight dip after Sanjaya got voted off.
How do you explain that ?
RE:
——————-
Hopefully, Jordin and Blake (and the other amazing singers who lasted past Sanjaya) have given the show back the reputation it had pre-Taylor.
——————
Has it not even occured to you that the reason why Season 6’s ratings were down was PRECISELY because the last 5 standing were not as interesting as last year’s last 5 ?
People watch the show because they are emotionally invested in the contestants. If the contestants can’t even get the viewers to be interested in them, how the heck do you expect them to even bother to watch ?
And here’s the thing that you missed — whatever you say, Taylor Hicks et. al. in Season 5 got viewers emotionally intvested not only because of their back story but because of the PASSION they gave to their music. Singers like Jordin and Melinda were technically good but it takes more than diva-like technique to draw people in to your performance… it requires PASSION, EMOTION. In other words — ability to CONNECT. Those are the qualities that Taylor Hicks gave that garnered him the Soul Patrol ( not vote for the worst, which accounts for less than 3% of the votes).
BTW, are you willing to change your tune if Jordin and Blake’s albums don’t reach platinum sales level ( or as Clive Davis says — a million “units” ) ?
Oh please the writer is a flipping idiot, vote for the worst backed a lot of different people who did NOT win the competition, such as Kellie Pickler and Kevin Covais, how long did they last? Their votes did not count for much, so therefore they did not get Taylor the win! Sour grapes, eh? Don’t complain if you did not vote, everyone had the same opportunity to vote as much as you like for your fav, don’t blame someone else because you didn’t vote! Taylor was the best, he won, get over it!
Anyone who would say that Sanjaya is a better singer than Taylor obviously has no ear for music. I was an Elliott fan in S5, so I’m not part of the “patrol” (who I imagine you’re poking at just to increase ratings for your blog). But everyone knows that Sanjaya is the worst singer the show’s ever had.
If you want to be taken seriously as a music blog… well your list of “artists” to the right already tells me you don’t care about that.
you are entitled to your own OPINION, but obviously you have not been keeping up with Taylor’s concert tour all over the country……the concert’s are sold out all over the country and Taylor is starting his summer concert series and they are getting sold out too…..maybe I should buy you a ticket and you can see for yourself why Taylor is the best thing that ever happened to AI…..ratings were the best ever in AI Season 5….and Taylor won by a landslide and was never in the bottom to be voted off…..VFTW was backing Kevin and Kellie Pickler before they were voted off and Taylor was still getting the most votes back then too……the reason AI6 ratings dropped is that the show was boring and could not compare to the excitement Taylor generated last year and viewers lost interest……Oh yeah, Ryan loves Taylor….have a nice day……
This analysis is wrong on so many levels.
1) Firstly, Season 5 was the MOST WATCHED American Idol season of all 6 seasons. The data also showed that the audience viewership peaked during the finals when Taylor Hicks won the contest. I don’t know how you can blame Taylor Hicks’ victory to this years’ drop in viewership. If any, the data tells us that that it is precisely BECAUSE we don’t have a Taylor Hicks character this season that caused the drop.
You may not personally like Taylor Hicks, but an unbias look at the figures tell us that he brought in the ENTERTAINMENT and PERSONALITY factor that so many contestants lack. He also CONNECTED with lots of people with his raw and passion filled singing.
Hence, the conclusion has to be OPPOSITE what you present — Taylor Hicks HELPED INCREASE audience viewership.
2)American Idol 5 concert tour was 96% sold out and sold over $35 Million in concert tickets. It was one of the best selling concerts of 2006 and ticket sales equaled the COMBINED ticket sales of the first 3 seasons added together.
Given this fact, it should be asked, WHO was the main draw of the concert ? Answer — Taylor Hicks. Inspite of the fact that Kat Mcphee missed the first third of the tour, it was Taylor who compensated for it by singing 1/3 of the songs in the concert tour.
So, if audiences hated Taylor Hicks, why did they flood the Season 5 tour in droves KNOWING that Taylor Hicks ( who you called undeserving ) was headlining it as the winner ?
3) Taylor just did a successful 55 city SOLO tour last spring to mostly jam-packed attendance. Very few former Idol contestants can match this ability ( perhaps only Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken could do it ). This should be another argument against your thesis that had Taylor Hicks not won, this season’s viewership could not have dropped.
4) Finally, a word about Sanjaya causing viewership to drop… If this thesis were correct, then Sanjaya being voted out at #7 should have caused viewership to increase after that episode. Sadly, IT DID NOT. In fact, AFTER Sanjaya left, viewership continued to drop.
In other words, there is very little correlation between what you said and what is observed.
This entire blog entry is a bunch of fresh bullshit.
Just for your info Vote For The Worst did not vote for Taylor because he was the worst.It was because Simon was so nasty about him and wanted someone else to win.
You need to check the rating for the year Taylor Hicks was on the show. It was the best year for rating. And to say that Sanjaya could sing better and had better stage present. I think you need to have your ears checked and get you some new glasses cause your must be fogged up.
Well it looks like all the Taylor fans (all 12 of them!) told each other about this post so they could make their little statement. “..he’s entertaining!!… he’s passionate!!”… they can keep telling themselves that if it helps them sleep at night. People use those two words when they don’t have a leg to stand on about the performer’s musical abilities.
That “passion” isn’t entertaining, it’s hard to watch. He’s trying to get attention for his convulsions….. the disaster he calls dancing. He does all that carrying-on to get attention away from his horrible caterwalling.
Taylor fans should never come out of hiding and actually claim to be fans of his screeching. Katharine should have won that year… and he should have won the Golden Idol for WORST audition, WORST hairstyle, WORST wardrobe, WORST dancing, WORST attitude, and WORST little fanbase.