By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, January 18, 2007
PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 17
Indestructible "American Idol" stormed prime time Tuesday, snaring a crowd of 37 million-plus viewers for its sixth-season opener.
With that one set of numbers, the television season is over. Fox will again finish the season No. 1 among the young viewers coveted by advertisers; other networks will move their most valued programs out of "Idol's" path no matter where Fox expands it (ABC has already placed "Lost" and the return of "Dancing With the Stars" out of the way); and program development discussions for next season, which are already in full flower at the networks, will be divided into shows that will go on the air "Before 'Idol' " or "During 'Idol.' "
"NBC will officially be ending our season as of yesterday," NBC entertainment chief Kevin Reilly joked to the press here at Winter TV Press Tour 2007 the morning after the "American Idol" debut.
"There's precedent for this," Reilly added. "Fox pretty much disregards the fall and says baseball interrupts their flow. At NBC we can say we're just going to disregard the spring because 'Idol' interrupts the flow. That's the way . . . it's going to be."
Competitors had hoped that Fox's annual aw-shucks forecast of a ratings decline for "Idol"might finally prove true this year. Reality program fans are, after all, notoriously fickle, and a series entering its sixth year could be expected to slip.
Instead, "Idol's" debut bagged about 2 million more viewers than last year's, approaching the kind of crowd that watched March's Academy Awards broadcast (39 million viewers).
Tuesday's opening "Idol" crowd doesn't threaten the record-holding final episode of "M*A*S*H," which recorded an average audience of 106 million viewers back in the '80s, or the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas" (83.6 million), the "Cheers" swan song (80.4 million) or the last gasp of "Seinfeld" (76.3 million). Still, the ability of a singing competition to collect this kind of crowd in its sixth season, in this cable-digital-Internet-DVD-VOD-iPod age, had industry mavens scratching their heads yesterday.
"These amazing numbers from our Season 6 premiere defy all reasonable expectations," "Idol" creator Simon Fuller said yesterday in a statement, while a trade paper reported the show had "defied the laws of gravity."
Of course, "Idol" is more like a five-month Super Bowl than a traditional TV series, and no one batted an eye when the 40th Super Bowl logged 90 million viewers last year. As with the football game, as long as people continue to have children who grow up wanting to watch the show and compete in it, "Idol" could keep this up for years. A sort of TV Circle of Life.
"There's no question to me the once-a-year thing helps it feel like an event -- it feels like it's the Super Bowl in anticipation," Fox's reality guru Mike Darnell told The TV Column yesterday. "There has never been this much of a gap between the biggest show and the next biggest show [on television] -- it's like 10 million viewers."
Additionally, he said, it helps that "not a week goes by that something doesn't happen" with one of the finalists from past editions. "When the fifth-place person from Season 3 wins a Golden Globe and is apparently going to be nominated for an Oscar, that's a big deal," Darnell noted, referring to Jennifer Hudson, a sensation in the movie "Dreamgirls."
"Growing up and wanting to be in television, it used to be my dream about doing a 'M*A*S*H' or 'Seinfeld' or 'All in the Family,' " Darnell said.
"And you know what -- I think I've accomplished that. Twenty years from now, professors from UCLA will be talking about this show."
And, finally, Darnell said, as he ticked off the reasons "Idol" continues to roll up gimongous numbers, "there is so much pixie dust on it."
We know what he means.
* * *
NBC has picked up "Heroes," "My Name Is Earl," "The Office" and "Law & Order: SVU" for next season; has ordered an improv comedy show for prime time; will expand the "Today" show to four hours a day . . . and Matt Lauer has officially become as dull as hair.
These are just a few -- okay, most -- of the revelations from NBC's day at Winter TV Press Tour 2007.
The "SVU" announcement was interesting because the other "Law & Order" series weren't included in the shout-out, nor have the stars of "SVU" been signed to new contracts. It's almost as if NBC wanted to send a message to Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni that their particular "Law & Order" series will go on, with or without them.
But Reilly told The Reporters Who Cover Television: "You shouldn't read into that at all."
Piffle, replied reporters, who pressed him on the status of the two stars' negotiations.
"The 'Law & Order' brand has proven before that it can be stronger than any one performer if it were ever to come to that," Reilly said. "But we're in the middle of negotiations. I can't comment on it. . . . I certainly hope they're going to be our stars for the run of the show."
Ouch!
The new improv show is called "Thank God You're Here." David Alan Grier hosts and Dave Foley is the judge, kind of. Improv comedians get into costumes without knowing why they are in that particular costume, then go through a door onto an elaborate set where they are met by a bunch of actors who exclaim, "Thank God you're here!" and they take it from there.
It killed in Australia, Reilly assured critics.
NBC News chief Steve Capus flew out to announce that "Today" will grow to four hours starting in September. "Today" executive producer Jim Bell flew out to announce that he "can't wait." Matt Lauer flew out to say:
"I'm watching some of you typing away on your laptops, and I'm not going to tell you what your headline should be. Far be it from me. But the headline, we think, should be ' "Today" Show Team Boringly Happy.' And I mean that."
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . . . . . . .
His newish co-host, Meredith Vieira, on the other hand, flew out to say: "I need to apologize at this point because I can't get over the fact that I kissed a monkey this morning on the 'Today' show, and I initiated it, and, quite frankly, I can't stop thinking about it."
Now you're talking!
View all comments that have been posted about this article.