Audiences Perfectly Content To Let “American Idol” Live In Their Memories

The promise of seeing Sanjaya Malakar’s hair up-close is tantalizing (seriously, what I would give to have curls like that–here’s hoping he’s working on a hair product line), but apparently it’s not enough to get butts into seats on this summer’s “American Idols Live!” tour. Ticket sales have been soft, with only one date–the show in Idol champ Jordin Sparks’ hometown of Glendale, Ariz.–even approaching the sellout mark. USA Today breaks down the year-to-year decline:

Number of shows -2006: 59 -2007*: 30

Gross receipts -2006: $35.2 million -2007: $12.1 million

Total attendance -2006: 645,782 -2007: 200,047

Seats filled -2006: 96.1% -2007: 63.3%

That’s quite the drop; an analyst quoted by USA Today says that last season’s top four–Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry–were more compelling than this year’s; I’ll give them Yamin (whose decision to go indie is looking smarter by the day) and Daughtry (even though his arena-rock bombast sounds like bar-band muck), but the blandtastic, toe-serenading McPhee? Really? Anyway, given that Hicks went from helping fill arenas last year to playing much more intimate venues this year, though, these numbers should give whoever’s booking the forthcoming tours for the top Idols pause, or at least inspire them to look up the phone numbers for thousand-capacity rooms around the country.

“Idols Live” Tour Now Facing Empty Seats [USA Today] [Photo: AP]