American Idol Fan Site | Who got voted off American Idol

So they want to Change American Idol Audition Process

Looks like the Well Oiled Idol Machine is looking to revamp some parts of their broadcast. Namely the Audition shows. Here is the part of the original article. More commentary after the jump.

Fox executives are already looking ahead to changes for next year.
Preston Beckman, the network’s executive vice president of strategic program planning and research, said he wants to see adjustments to the audition shows that kick off the ratings behemoth every year.

“It won’t necessarily be anything radical; we just have to figure out how to start the show next year,” said Beckman, who’s looking for a way to stem a ratings drop the network saw last month. “The early part saw some erosion and then we got to Hollywood.”

That “erosion” includes this year’s premiere, which earned a 14.4 rating in the adult 18-49 demo, down from a 16.1 last year. Viewership also dipped from 38 million to 34.5 million — numbers that nevertheless make every other network salivate.

Beckman said it is far too early to talk about any specific changes, but the show is heavily tested through market research and that will help to guide the plans. This year, the show has been shamelessly pushing the level of the talent pool after last year’s Sanjaya Malakar sideshow.

But he was not concerned about the franchise overall, which continues to dominate in its seventh season.

“The good news is that there is still enormous sentiment for the show,” he said. “If you listen to the audience, you will generally be fine.”
Source: BroadCastingCable

Ok, so FOX sees a few million less people viewing the Audition process shows and must do something about it, right. They are going to Market Research the reasons why several less million people watched the premier and some of the audition shows than prior years.

Ok Fox and Idol producers, here is a clue. Save your millions you will spend on market research, surveys, extra lattes, and power lunches. Listen up.
The American Idol Premier was on January 15, 2008 not much new there.

It’s an election year and more people are focusing on the issues of our country- NOPE that’s not it, are you kidding me?

Can we blame this on the Writers Strike? NOPE - there was little entertainment competition to be had or seen. How many re-runs of CSI can one take.

Was there competition? Nope. Survivor Fans Vs Favorites had not aired. Big Brother Til Death do us Part wasn’t even mentioned in passing. LOST your biggest competitor, was still on the Island and Ben didn’t release the satellite feed transmission to Television sets near you. So it wasn’t, “what else was on”.

Ok Fox, Idol produces, Here it is.
We fans, we Americans, we your loyal watchers, are kind of feed up of seeing all the IDOL REJECTS. Every Idol Audition show is packed with Idol Rejects looking for their 15 minutes of fame. We are given maybe views of 3-5 people of the potential 20-30 people that receive your Golden Ticket to the Hollywood Round. This is a competition but we rarely get to see the competitors.

Thanks for showing us all the scrubs, but we tune in for the stars. Tone way back on the Idol Rejects. Show us all the people that get American Idol Golden Tickets. Give us more of their back story. I don’t need to know the full back story of some Idiot that stood in line for 8 hours only to sing the most God Awful renditions of songs, and them get humiliated by Simon Cowell. You waste air time on this reject, and then we never know who else made it through from that Idol Audition city. If this was a Football Sports Broadcast, it would be the equivalent of showing us High School games during the season then broadcasting the NFL PRO Playoffs and Superbowl, without ever knowing who the teams are until it’s playoff time. Not a great game plan guys.

Yes, I agree some of the Idol Rejects are funny, but night after night on the show taking up more than 60% of the broadcast is overbearing. Once again this is a competition. Show us the competitors. That will make us watch the auditions, rather than wait for Hollywood, or Just the Final 12. Wake up people!!!

There is your market research, My Consulting Fee Bill is in the mail.

Your thoughts?

American Idol
American Idol News

Related posts:

1. American Idol 2-5-08 Season 7 Atlanta Audition Review
2. American Idol Top 24 Elimination Process–Live Blog
3. What to expect from American Idol 2-6-08 show?
4. American Idol 2007 Audition Commentary Week One
5. American Idol Audition Tips for you