Idolator
According to preliminary Nielsen ratings, about 29.5 million people tuned into last night's American Idol finale—or about seven million fewer viewers than last year's finale, and nearly 8.6 million viewers less than the highest-rated Idol finale in history, which crowned Ruben Studdard as the victor in 2003. Fox is claiming that the show's nine-minute overrun into the 10 p.m. hour will result in the final numbers actually being higher, but we're not so sure, especially since we've gotten at least 10 IMs today complaining about the fact that their DVRs changed the channel at 10 p.m. on the dot. (They were probably just as appalled by the Sgt. Pepper medley as we were.)
'American Idol' ratings sing sour note [Reuters via CNNMoney.com]
Earlier: Live-Blogging The Finale, Part II: Please Tell Us That We Make You Proud
Comments
Can we get the IdolLawyer in here? I want to know what made the producers - who've failed to get McCartney on the show for years and have been wary of letting the kids cover Lennon-McCartney songs re: the licensing costs - pony up for all those Sgt. Pepper compositions last night.
With all that promotion, you'd think EMI/Apple Corps was about to announce an official 40th-anniv. edition of Pepper, or the long-rumored iTunes release, or something. What's the marketing tie-in? Who paid whom? (Is it Sony-BMG, because they bought the other half of the Northern Songs catalog from Michael Jackson last year?)
Anyone?
@dennisobell: Apparently McCartney was supposed to be on last night, but he pulled out last-minute -- maybe there was a plan to have this double as "Memory Almost Full" cross-promotion? (That could explain the Joe Perry double-duty.)
@maura: Sounds logical. Thank you.
Man, McCartney has a better bullshit detector than I give him credit for.
That, or McCartney is really, really old and got lost on his way to the studio.
I missed the liveblog, so pardon me if someone has pointed this out already, but is Randy now a part of a mariachi-themed Journey tribute band? Perhaps called "Luces?"
That suit is hideous.
Yeah, dennisobell, that was my first thought: Idol has more money than Apple to afford this. Yikes.
@ Maura
It's a lot easier to pull out of a woman with only one leg. Oops? Where is that fine line? It's always so hard to see in this light.
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