Sliding “American Idol” Ratings Face Their Biggest Test Yet: An Election That Actually Kinda Matters
In the first few weeks of its season, American Idol has helped Fox win many Nielsen wars, but there’s no denying that the ratings have been off their game from last year, with each episode’s numbers being down by 10-20 percent from last season. And even after the blaze of Idol cross-promotion that took place during Sunday’s Fox-televised Super Bowl, the televised talent search has an even bigger obstacle to face tonight: the returns from Super Tuesday, which will be blanketing all the major networks throughout the evening. “If you had to pick just one political story to go up against ‘American Idol,’ this is it,” Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer was quoted as saying to the New York Post. (Which, as a subsidiary of Fox owner NewsCorp, surely doesn’t have a dog in this fight!) Perhaps the Idol producers can try and fool the channel-flipping political junkies by ditching tonight’s episode in favor of some Obama Girl footage that’s been stitched together with Simon’s droll reactions? It’s not like it would be all that hard for them. [The Caucus]
