Ominous signs for 'American Idol'

It jumped the shark. We vote but we never see the numbers and it makes you believe that nothing matters. Why should we continue to watch? It doesn't matter!

Motor City Madman wrote:

Any TV show that has a mostly female audience will soon falter--you're on notice Dancing with the Stars. Women make their choices by what is trendy and what their friends think is cool. Once the first sign shows that what they are watching, wearing, eating, etc. is not cool or fashionable, it disappears. I have seen this type of behavior over the years watching my wife and 3 daughters.
How long has The Simpsons been on? How long was Cheers on? How many women watch(ed) those shows percentage-wise? Very little. How are the ratings lately for Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives? Not great. I give each show 1, maybe 2 more years, then bye bye.

Insightful and true. You should be writing fortune cookies, wise one. Any show on that I had to say "Why is this show any good???" always had a bunch of scatter brained broads yakking it up. Saying it was the best thing since sliced bread...then two years later they are silent about it.

The ringers this year were a factor. It makes a viewer think a deal has been made. Also, the fact that the No. 1 winner really isn't always the most marketable and that a No. 4 or so could end up doing better on the charts. Most of the "Idol" winners didn't end up doing much after the show. So it's not much of a contest.

Still, the early rounds are a lot of fun to watch with all the dweebs.

I think the show got boring after a while. I didn't like that Michael Johns is off the show because he was one of my favorites. My other favorite is David Cook

Robin Quivers wrote:

It jumped the shark. We vote but we never see the numbers and it makes you believe that nothing matters. Why should we continue to watch? It doesn't matter!

Not only has it jumped the shark, it hit the side, and fell in the tank.

Bury it already.

At least The Gong Show didn't take itself seriously.

I can't pinpoint exactly why, but I am completely bored with the show this year. I have not voted even once. None of the contestants have inspired me to vote so far. Yes, they are all talented, but I have yet to see a real show-stopping performance by anyone. Maybe its finally run its course!

Lori wrote:

I still really enjoy American Idol, but have a couple of suggestions, as I have also missed the show intermittently: 1) It's not easy, if you have a life, to commit to tuning in two days a week to the same show. I realize there's voting one day and results the next, but I really wish there could be a way to get the whole show done on Tuesday. 2) We should get to see the vote totals, or they should at least be published via website. 3) The results should be based on a combination of viewer vote and the judges' opinions. There have been too many instances of really good singers being eliminated early so not-so-talented teeny-bopper favorites can stay on longer (e.g., Sanjiya). 4) I've missed a few weeks this season, but I don't think there've been guest judges. Guest judges added variety to the whole judge dialogue bit, as well as another opinion, so I'd like to see them again.
That's all--still love the show, but do get tired of the same judge vs. judge or Ryan vs. judge jokes & jabs.

I agree. I think they should have the guest judges on the show again as well. It does give the viewers another opinion on the singers and I think they should definitely consider doing that again. Also, they need to cut the results show down to a 1/2 hour. Maybe what they should do is tally up the number of votes for each contestant on-line, so you can see who is ahead or behind on votes and give the viewers a chance to vote up to a minute before Ryan announces who's eliminated from the competition. This was it allows the viewers to try and save their favorites and gives more time for people to vote. Anyhow, I'm not sure how it would work, but it's just a suggestion. Lastly, I think they should keep the guest mentors, but on the nights they don't have a special guest they should just allow they contestants to sing the songs THEY want to sing, not have them chosen for them. I always thought that was kinda unfair because not all people like the same genres of music and these contestants might stand out more if they pick songs they feel comfortable with and in their style of singing and music... JMO.

"Worth contemplating"? Not at all!

Tesseract wrote:

<quoted text>
Not only has it jumped the shark, it hit the side, and fell in the tank.
Bury it already.
At least The Gong Show didn't take itself seriously.

The Gong Show.
The greatest show on earth, ever !

My advice? Have a Wild Card show and bring Michael Johns back. The public has shown their opinion of him since he left. We can't get enough of his singing, his personality and of course, his looks. It's boring, now. Even my eleven year old Archuleta fan wants Michael back.

Tesseract wrote:

<quoted text>
Not only has it jumped the shark, it hit the side, and fell in the tank.
Bury it already.
At least The Gong Show didn't take itself seriously.

Bring back The Gong Show!!!!! Also All In The Family, Mash, Cheers, SOAP and the like.

I stopped watching AI since Ramiele left.. I didn't vote for her that much cause I thought she'll be safe..

I think America has finally come to the realization that Idol is not all it's pretended to be. How could it be, when true talent is voted off without cause, and lesser performers are kept on forever? This year, they lost their biggest draw in Michael Johns. The show no longer has any sex appeal for anyone but teenagers. Meanwhile, they completelly ignore the wishes of loyal American Idol fans to bring back the talent. It is my opinion, Michael Johns was booted only to boost ratings. They use the shock factor to draw more viewere. Let's face it. The bottom line is this...American Idol is in business to make money. They must do something in order to keep the phone lines ringing. They do so by saying things like "Make sure you vote for your choice...or they might suffer the same demise as Michael Johns". It wasn't he that suffered an ill demise, as he will be fine without them. It is the American public which is deprived of that talent by their actions. As with any program, when it no longer provides what people want to see, we quit watching. But who am I to give my thoughts? Mine is just one opinion.

The problem for me with tv is - the junk. Commercials. There are far too many of them. I know without commercials there'd be no $$ for the show, but do you really need that big of an income? I absolutely would rather see people drinking drinks with labels and eating pizzas from boxes with labels than have to suffer with thin story lines and overdone (and utterly indeciperable commercials. Wouldn't (say) Lysol pay just as much to have thier product shown being used on a show as to have a spot. And, just think how much more meat the shows could have with the extra time. thank you.

I stopped watching Idol last year after Simon said that one kid looked like a Bush Baby. And if I had to hear Randy say Dawg one more time, I will scream.

1st, the show rules say a contestant can not have a major lable record deal in the works or at present when auditioning. NONE did! 2, even many who don't win go on to other forms of entertainment in the industry ex. broadway, tv, soaps, broadcating etc. 3. i don't believe the voting is fake since 80% of the ai tour shows for 2008 are sold out already. 4. it is a good show. 5. u can't believe always what u see & hear on internet & in rag mags. 6. a tech on star searc years ago said in an interview that all the crap about da's dad was not totally true, but hey it sells those rag mags.