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Has American Idol jumped the shark?

When I tune into "American Idol" tonight, I will expect more of the same.

There will be the usual varieties of contestants annoyingly naive (David Archuletta), wannabe rockers (Bo Bice), pretty but talentless (Antonella Barbra), the vacuous (Kellie Pickler), weirdos (Sanjaya Malakar) and the wastes of space (Kevin Covais).

Viewers will hear Simon Cowell be biting, Paula Abdul be spacy and Randy Jackson be cool. The wildcard is new judge Kara DioGuardi who recently told Rolling Stone that the male contestants were the strongest. How seriously, though, can you take someone whose company was responsible for such odious tunes as Nick Lachay's "Best of Me?"

But will the viewers come? Of course the show is still the No. 1 program on TV, but there are signs that the program is fading. Viewership fell during the last season though 32 million people tuned into the anti-climatic season finale that featured an unfunny cameo by Mike Myers as "The Love Guru."

Continue reading Has American Idol jumped the shark?

My plan to save 'American Idol'

About every 10 seconds or so this season, "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest or one of the judges brags about how this group of contestants is the most talented in the show's history. They speak about the huge number of votes being cast and the huge number of song downloads sold on iTunes. Well, as the Associated Press points out, the American people would beg to differ.

"The 21.8 million people who watched last Tuesday's competition was the show's smallest Tuesday audience in more than five years," the AP said. "The show did better the next night, with 22.9 million, but that was the smallest Wednesday audience in three years, according to Nielsen Media Research."

But Idol fans and shareholders of News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) should not get too down since the show can be saved if producers follow my advice:

Continue reading My plan to save 'American Idol'

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