Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Is This the End of the American Idol Era?

As you know, I don’t like reality TV. It pisses me off that it is making my beloved scripted programming an endangered species. Reality TV gets ratings, it is dirt cheap to produce, and people talk about it. I understand why the TV executives love it. But, I will get off my soap box and turn to the issue at hand.

Today, I’m interested to see if American Idol’s dominance of the TV landscape is truly over.

According to USA Today, the ratings were stinkers compared to last season’s finale. And, they note that the continued watering down of the talent pool has led to some milquetoast winners in recent seasons.

The Dancing with the Stars finale nearly beat the AI finale in the ratings, which many industry people are pointing to as the end of AI. Don Reisinger, TV Squad, offers tips to AI as it contemplates its post-Simon Cowell future. They are all based on the keys to the success of DWTS.

I think AI will continue to limp along for a while longer, giving us fewer and fewer interesting artists and more and more generic pop-rock.

What do you think? Is the end nigh for AI?