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Idol By The Numbers
Lacey Rose, 03.10.06, 5:00 PM ET
 
Everyone knows American Idol is a huge success. How huge? Take a look at the numbers.

Since the show’s U.S. introduction in 2002, American Idol has ranked as the nation’s highest rated series, with a peak audience of 34 million viewers last year. This time around, it did even better when an audience of 35 million tuned in for the season premiere–Fox network’s highest rated night ever with entertainment programming. That should explain why Coca Cola (nyse: KO - news - people ), Ford (nyse: F - news - people ) and Cingular Wireless have been pulled in for lucrative sponsorship deals and other advertisers are paying upward of $600,000 for a 30-second slot.

Last month, numbers like these made Fox confident enough to run new episodes head to head against General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people )-owned NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. The result: Simon Cowell and company came up with gold, outscoring the games 27 million viewers to 16.1 million on Tuesday night and 31.7 million viewers to 16 million the next night. A week earlier, American Idol stomped CBS’ airing of the Grammy Awards 28.3 million viewers to 15.1 million. Now producers are going to try and extract even more value from the brand with the premiere of American Idol Extra, a weekly behind the scenes series airing on the Fox Reality channel.

Fox isn’t the only one cashing in. Late last year, the network renewed the show’s contract with 19 Entertainment and Fremantle Media, which coproduce the show, agreeing to pay at least $95.5 million for four more seasons.

It was a big win for Robert F.X. Sillerman, CEO of CKX, who acquired 19 Entertainment from creator Simon Fuller in 2005. Fuller launched the company 21 years ago. Since then, he has played a role in the creation of 296 Top 40 albums and 465 Top 40 singles worldwide. Among his acts, Fuller has managed Annie Lennox, S Club 7 and the Spice Girls, who have sold some 38 million albums.

” American Idol is a perfect example of where the industry is going,” says Sillerman. “It creates the type of community where creators and consumers can connect directly. Your vote counts just as much as Simon Cowell’s.”

Cowell and his counterparts boast some impressive numbers as well. A record executive at BMG for more than 15 years, Cowell’s been involved with 50 No.1 records. In 2003, Cowell sold his share of S Records for a reported $42 million to BMG.

Fellow judge Randy Jackson is a Grammy Award-winning producer with 20 years of experience. He’s worked on more than 1,000 gold and multi-platinum albums. Pop star Paula Abdul, the third judge, has recorded two No.1 albums, six No.1 singles, won a Grammy and two Emmy Awards.

As for the show’s winners–Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino and Carrie Underwood–they have six albums between them, selling a total of 13.4 million copies. That’s about $174.2 million in record sales.

Taken all together, Idol is, as CKX’s Sillerman puts it, “astonishingly successful.”

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Comments:  WOW!!!
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