Dismal Ratings for FOX Michael Jackson Themed American Idol Rerun

Unless you’re a die hard, watching a competition knowing the outcome isn’t very interesting.

It was also Top 13 week, so there were a lot of performances that most people probably didn’t want to sit through a second time. I DVR’d the show and fast forwarded through all but 4! And, I’m not sure how many people (who normally make a Tues. night date of the show) knew it was on!

ETA: Actually, not many people seemed to have watched TV last night in general. Welcome to summer.

To be honest I didn’t re-watch it myself so I can’t really say anything. lol

If FOX had re-packaged it in some way, rather than just running a straight-up re-run, it might have faired better. Unless you’re a die hard, watching a competition knowing the outcome isn’t very interesting.

The NBC Dateline special featuring the Martin Bashir 2003 documentary on Michael Jackson that led to his 2005 trial for child molestation won its timeslot:

But notice that another rerun of MJ stuff *won* its timeslot. And while I know that the Idol top 13 aren’t necessarily who people want to hear singing, I’m not convinced that an MJ musical tribute with a bunch of top talent would necessarily have won its timeslot either (though, yeah, it probably would have done better than this…)

Seems to me that a lot of what’s going on here is that, when it comes to what you watch on tv, many more people are going to go for the dramatic, potentially salacious life and death story of Michael J rather than for a show featuring his songs. You may buy the songs to listen to in the car or when you’re jogging. But when it comes to what people like to *watch* — distress, drama, scandal, slavering, tragedy, etc., beat out music every time, don’t they?

I turned it on at 8:37 CDT just to watch the Adam segment. Then switched it back to the Bachelorette. Plus I’m sure a lot of fans have all these epis DVR’d anyway.

They should have reworked it and only included the best MJ covers over the years on idol and for myself the best one ever “Billie Jean” by David Cook. YMMV

They should have reworked it and only included the best MJ covers over the years on idol and for myself the best one ever ‘Billie Jean’  by David Cook. YMMV

This is exactly what I said while watching the show last night. I agree about David’s Billy Jean. I told my husband that the main thing they were missing was that performance. It was definitely the best MJ song performance of all the Idol seasons.

The ratings are not a barometer of the public’s interest in MJ, lol. I’m a huge MJ fan, a huge Idol fan, and I didn’t watch. Who would watch a re-run of amateur singers on a show that has concluded–no matter what they’re singing?

Oh wow…that is terrible. I don’t believe this is any indication of the publics interest in MJ or Idol. Many people found it pointless probably to watch a show that they knew the outcome of.

I watched it, just to see Adam again. lol Enjoyed Adam, Allison, Matt, Alexis. It definitely was difficult to watch at parts, most of the best performances were at the end…

The ratings are not a barometer of the public’s interest in MJ, lol. I’m a huge MJ fan, a huge Idol fan, and I didn’t watch. Who would watch a re-run of amateur singers on a show that has concluded’“no matter what they’re singing?

Exactly, I guess the Idol producers were to busy putting together a $100 mm deal with Simon to give this much thought. :rolleyes_wp:

I’d say 4 million is plenty.

Most people wouldn’t want to sit through what they’ve already seen. I had it on the whole time, but was much more interested in my laptop until Alexis came on at the very end, and even then I could just watch on youtube.

So I watched for the music, but it was kinda boring to sit through again and I didn’t pay a ton of attention.

Besides not everyone looks at blogs online, and if it weren’t for them I would not have even known that the special would be aired.

I re-watched the show, as I missed the initial broadcast. I kind of regret it… though Simon’s quip about Jorge singing “Bad by Michael Jackson” made it worth it.

But to comment about the other aspect of the article…. does anyone else find NBC’s decision to re-run the Bashir documentary to be in questionable taste? It’s (fairly/unfairly) what a lot of people remember Jackson for as of late, but… so soon?

It absolutely wasn’t packaged correctly. It should have said “The Idols Honor Michael Jackson” and then interspersed their performances with little homages or something. This was just a performance show with the numbers edited out (and then the viewers were told to vote at the end, the recap, except without the numbers!). Just showing a 60 second clip of him at the beginning, from the initial telecast, and 5 second clips after the commercial break ain’t cutting it, FOX. It didn’t exactly get Glee treatment, you know? And it could have gotten more PR. FOX, meet BET.

I only watched it to tweet with others. I have the ep on my DVR, and a lot of Idol fans do, I bet, or don’t need to see old episodes (youtube, etc.).

Did wish Cook’s Billie Jean had been included. Frankly, I had no need to see Jorge and Jasmine again (but liked watching Alexis because I *love* Alexis, and she should have made the Tour, IMO).

The ratings are not a barometer of the public’s interest in MJ, lol. I’m a huge MJ fan, a huge Idol fan, and I didn’t watch. Who would watch a re-run of amateur singers on a show that has concluded’“no matter what they’re singing?

Yeah, I FF’ed through 90% of it because it sucked worse the second time than it did the first. Even Adam’s “Black & White” wasn’t all that impressive vocally, at least compared to what he did later in the season. Watching it again, I remember that I thought he was a great performer, but I wasn’t sold on him as a singer until he did the much-maligned “Ring of Fire.”

And while I loved Allison’s studio version of that song, I wasn’t blown away by her performance of “Give In To Me.” Kris was the only one who was better than I remembered, but I wasn’t wowed the first time by him either, so the bar was set pretty low for him from my vantage point. None of them came close to Cook’s “Billie Jean” IMHO and, other than Adam, Allison and Kris, I thought this season’s contestants were, overall, very disappointing.

Oh, well. At least not many people caught poor Anoop’s disastrous “Beat It” a second time!

^^^^^ What you said, I had no idea it was on until I watched Dance. There was no time to put out promos locally, on a friday, at the last minute. It was pretty cool they did it even, peeps who paid for first run shows had their commercials running in this but because it was for Michael, no one complained or moved out of AI. pleasantly surprised

You get what you pay for, and Fox paid nothing for that MJ tribute. It was sorry and cynical excuse for a tribute which got more viewers than it deserved.

Just one more reason for me to hate Fox, not that It was needed, Beck and O’Reilly are a million and one reasons all by themselves.

Honestly, I’m surprised it drew that large of an audience. We could just as easily spin it backwards to say that for what it was — a Summer verbatim repeat of a reality show depicting young unknowns singing MJ songs (some classic, others obscure) and being judged in a competition that has long since ended and in which a winner has already been crowned — 4.2 million viewers is fairly impressive. LOL

i think that’s impressive! we’ve already seen this episode and it’s summer. so, given those two factors, there are going to be less people watching it.

If FOX had re-packaged it in some way, rather than just running a straight-up re-run, it might have faired better.

Or maybe not. My 9-year old daughter didn’t have a clue who Michael Jackson was until last Friday … now she’s obsessed by his videos.

When we sat down to watch AI last night, she demanded that I change the channel. Her exact quote “Who cares about these people mom? I wanna watch the real thing!”

I think that’s probably how a lot of peeps feel … and I can’t say that I blame them.

I know. I watched “Holes” on Disney. (Don’t judge.)

It was so royally lazy to not repackage the show. Frankly, they could have dropped in soundbites from the idols on the impact MJ had on them as budding artists. So easy to do–they are all together at rehearsals right now anyway.

I thought that maybe they could have taken performances from all 8 seasons, but other than Billie Jean, every decent performance of a Michael Jackson song was on that Top 13 show.

I was on Itunes today. AI songs by Kris and Adam are still available and I thought for sure that I’d see their MJ perfs in the top 100. Nope. Just Michael Jackson. People want Jacko.

It’s not really surprising that it was beaten by the Bashir documentary.

It was a nice idea but it was probably already recorded or downloaded by people who wanted to watch some or all of it again, or at least the stand-out performances.

Seems to me that a lot of what’s going on here is that, when it comes to what you watch on tv, many more people are going to go for the dramatic, potentially salacious life and death story of Michael J rather than for a show featuring his songs. You may buy the songs to listen to in the car or when you’re jogging. But when it comes to what people like to *watch* ‘” distress, drama, scandal, slavering, tragedy, etc., beat out music every time, don’t they?

Actually, the viewership for BET’s musical tribute to MJ did VERY well. They had more people watch the BET Awards than ever before. I just don’t think people wanted to watch the AI contestants again.

That’s not exactly surprising… even I wouldn’t rewatch that heh. If they wanted this to work they would have had to add something more interesting to it other that AI contestants’ covers.

But to comment about the other aspect of the article’ ¦. does anyone else find NBC’s decision to re-run the Bashir documentary to be in questionable taste? It’s (fairly/unfairly) what a lot of people remember Jackson for as of late, but’ ¦ so soon?

Yes, I found it in poor taste. That documentary was horribly exploitive, and to show it so soon after his death was ghoulish, IMO. I am very disappointed in NBC.

I had it on but kept putting it on mute until Adam performed, and shut it off after his performance. Every time I unmuted it I was horrified.

I did not watch the idol show – been there, done that. I had zero interest in watching it again. If it had been a special showing Michael himself singing and dancing, I would have been tuned in for sure.

AI lost alot of viewers after the voting debacle. Most people can handle the “best at something” winning even if they don’t like that person. But, when outside factors cause someone with far less ability to win…people question the credibility and do not care anymore. I am sure next season is going to be lower on viewers because of this. Most people I know have not watched Idol til this year and say they won’t tune in again. They thought it was a joke until they saw ADam. I am sure a rerun episode would be lower anyway….but many people acted disgusted when I mentioned to them that it would be on again.

It was also Top 13 week, so there were a lot of performances that most people probably didn’t want to sit through a second time.

I agree. Also… who wants to sit through the hour and a half of judge’s comments again? NOT me!

The BET awards was live and had actual stars. Idol was a repeat and full of people that no one really cares about anymore. I could make a comment about those being low numbers to catch a glimpse of a talent that comes around once a generation but maybe the ratings spiked when Adam did his thing.

The voting debacle has nothing to do with it. Most people have already completely fogotten both Kris Allen and Adam Lambert and moved on. If even 10% of the audience that saw the finale buys their first album, they’ll be superstars. That means 90% of the audience follows the show not individual contestants.

It was pretty awful. Poor MJ, he deserves a better tribute than a recycled AI show which wasn’t that great to begin with, but didn’t seem as bad back in March. UGH! Now I’m wondering why I’m going to the AI concert!
:ponder_tb:

The Bashir doc was awful for different reasons, made one’s skin crawl. All in all, so far, BET is the only show that did MJ proud. Except of course of MJ’s dad on the red carpet.

ARRRRGGHH!

RIP MJ

Seemed more like a way for Fox to make a quick buck, and less a tribute to the Gloved One.

I don’t think many people knew about it, for one. I knew a lot of fans of the show who didn’t know, and when I told them yesterday afternoon, they excitedly wanted to watch again (but if I hadn’t told them about it, they wouldn’t have known about it).

Not sure if the repackaging would have helped, but it might have – if they made it an actual tribute with the performances, no comments, and more reminiscences from people spliced in.

Then again, maybe I’m just being selfish, but I was actually happier, as an AI fan, to see it just as is, with judges remarks and contestant bios and all. It paid tribute to MJ with his music, but it gave AI fans a repeat of the show they enjoy.

jumpstart:

***”When we sat down to watch AI last night, she demanded that I change the channel. Her exact quote ‘Who cares about these people mom? I wanna watch the real thing!’ ***

I ordered a DVD of one of Michael Jackson’s concerts for my grandsons as I thought they would enjoy seeing him singing and dancing and his appeal back in his hey day is pretty timeless. Maybe your daughter would like one too, check out Amazon.com if interested!
:thumbup_tb:

I ordered a DVD of one of Michael Jackson’s concerts for my grandsons as I thought they would enjoy seeing him singing and dancing and his appeal back in his hey day is pretty timeless. Maybe your daughter would like one too, check out Amazon.com if interested!

revcat – Thanks for the idea!!! My daughters have been watching his vids like crazy too and my oldest has been downloading MJ tunes like crazy. I’d love to have a concert DVD for us to watch!

I watched the show, but only because I somehow missed the first time around. But I agree. If Fox had repackaged the show a bit. Remove the judge comments and include more “in memory of” bits. Maybe have each contestant talk about what MJ music meant to them. Maybe include a MJ performance or video or interview. Maybe include David Cook’s performance of Billie Jean.

But packaged as is? I suspect many people watched the first 10 minutes, just to see if it was repackaged, and when they learned it wasn’t they moved on.

I forgot the Bashir documentary was on as well. Glad I missed it. It was painful the first time around.

IMO getting over 4 million people (probably 5 million when all the small markets come in) to watch a AI repeat is a good sign for Kris, Adam, Alison and the other AI8 Idols future prospects. I have to believe that most viewers were fans of these contestants, not just MJ fans.

I have to believe that most viewers were fans of these contestants, not just MJ fans.

Probably all of them… seriously doubt that the show would appeal to MJ fans that were not idol fans. As somone stated upthread – people want Jacko. That’s exactly how I feel too.

Some people are just used to turning their TV on a particular station at a particular time. I’m not sure how a fourth place finish is a good thing. Unless those ratings are better than a rerun of what’s normally shown on that night.

Listening to those boring judges and mostly uninspiring performances was pretty painful.No one seems interested in any MJ covers, only the real deal.

Re-running the show and including the judges comments was a pretty lame tribute imo. They could have edited those out and edited in some previous Idols, like ohhhh Davis Cook’s awesome Billie Jean performance instead.

4.2 mil is not a bomb during the summer….SYTYCD averages around 5.3-5.5 per each perfomance episode. the highest ranking shows on tv (NCIS & mentalist) are around 6.7-7. even the bachelorette gets only 4.6 per week

plus, a bunch of unknown kids singing MJ songs is not the same thing as an interview actually featuring the legend himself (afterall this is THE infamous interview that led to his trial).

actually i would have expected the Dateline special to receive a higher rating (not AI).

it would have been nice to repackage the entire show to feature not only the top 10 (i could do w.out jorge etc) but also cook’s billie jean and white chocolate’s i want you back….and before each performance, have the idols reflect on MJ and his career. a real tribute.

btw, considering fox is averaging 3.1-3.3 on Monday nights in the summer….a 4.2 rating is obviously an improvement

alaadam “AI lost alot of viewers after the voting debacle. Most people can handle the ‘best at something’  winning even if they don’t like that person. But, when outside factors cause someone with far less ability to win’ ¦people question the credibility and do not care anymore. ”

The voting debacle gets resurrected by some fans every year. And, “far less ability” is in the eye of the beholder. Can’t really measure and weigh musicality vs. Vegas showmanship can we?

People want Jacko.

I’d say they do. From “Hits Daily Double” …

Michael Jackson Albums Take First Three Chart Places, Nine Out of Top 50

In all a total of nine Jackson-related albums (including eight Epic solo albums and one Jackson 5 collection on Motown) made the Top 50, including Off the Wall (#14), Bad (#25), Jackson 5′s Ultimate Collection (#26), Dangerous (#32), Ultimate Collection (#35) and HIStory: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (#39).

Color me impressed.

I remember being completely underwhelmed with the performances that night, so I didn’t bother to tune in last night.

I do agree that this tribute show was poorly put together. I think it would have been better served to have played some of the best performances of MJ’s songs over the seasons especially DC’s Billie Jean and I’m not saying that just because I’m a fan of DC.

There is no doubt there is a lot of interest in MJ right now since his death but yeah, the viewing audience already knows the outcome for the most part unless they hadn’t seen any of the season 8 performance shows.

In my area I’m sure not many people knew it was being aired. The TV schedule did not show it. So unless you saw a promo on TV or saw something on the internet there was no way of knowing about it.

I watched it. It was not the best show of the season, but it was worth it just to see Adam.

I thought they should’ve added the ‘Shake Your Body’ Dance performance. And really, the judges comments re-airing wasn’t necessary. I agree with everyone saying they should’ve showed the Cookie performance too

I watched it, but I didn’t see it promoted anywhere. I was happy to get it on my DVR again b/c the first time, it got deleted. I loved seeing Adam’s performance and reaction again.

It was nothing more than a piss-poor attempt to get Idol back on the tube, out of season. Really pathetic and to call it a memorial was shameless.

I enjoyed watching the show again. It was interesting to watch from the perspective of knowing how things played out. My husband only started watching with me when it got down to the Top 10, so it was new for him. I too wish that they had done something special in place of the judges’ comments, either performances from past seasons or comments from this season’s contestants. But I can understand why it would be very difficult to coordinate that in such a short time.

Well I’m not surprised. It was when the Adam pimping started up big time and for anyone not a huge Adam fan, and yes, believe it or not there are people out there who did not get the big guy, it was not fun to watch a second time as Paula Abdul did handstands and practically declared Adam the winner at top 13. I did kind of enjoy watching some of the people who were voted off early like Alexis and even to a lesser extent Jorge and Jasimne since I hadn’t seen them in a while. Sorry but Megan’s Rockin Robin was still abysmal. I loved Kris’s Remember the Time, but it actually wasn’t my favorite night for any of the top five. It was a nice idea though, simply as a tribute.

Bootstar, I could not agree more. Other than Kris, Allison, and Adam, the others really weren’t that good. I liked Matt, but he sounded nervous and unsure. I would rather have heard David Cook’s Billie Jean and Kris Allen’s Man in the Mirror than any of the other contestants.

It’s a rerun so why would you expect it to have good ratings. They did not even inject some of MJ clips to start with every performance. It has nothing to do with judges pimping Adam (which is not his fault) or Kris having a mediocre performance. I myself had a hard time convincing myself to finish the show.

I liked watching the show again. On second viewing I had a few different impressions:
1-Alexis looked sleazier the 2nd time and Kara’s “naughty girl” was repugnant.
2-Lil wasn’t bad. I think my reaction to her later performances made me forget this one, pretty good.
3-Allison’s song, while sung well, did seem to old for her. I don’t remember thinking that the first time, but since it was one of my complaints for many of her songs, I see it started here. Simon was right, she did seem dark because of that song, especially compared to the other 16 year old, Jasmine. Dark…but uber talented.
4-Matt was better than I remembered, probably because I wasn’t comparing his to Adam this time.

A few things that didn’t change..
1-still thought Michael Sarver looked constipated while singing his song.
2-still wasn’t impressed by Kris’s performance. My mom, who has never watched an episode of Idol before but had to last night because I had gone over to visit my sick dad, said “He won???”. I told her that he had improved during the season and she hmmmmphd me.
3-Still hated “beat it” but liked Anoop the person.
4-Still thought ADAM was the best of the episode and his teary eyes touched me more this time than the first time.

Most of my friends who have watched this season did not bother to watch again, they were happy already with their music videos.

But some emailed that some of their colleagues who did not watch during the season checked this out because they were curious why they were crazy over the new guy called Adam.

I think my friends ( with their Adam Lambert obsession ) made such a spectacle of themselves in their respective companies that their colleagues wondered what got into them.

I do not know if it had any bearing, but today when I checked iTunes. Adam’s Season 8 Album was back in the Top 100 Best selling again. Mad World was climbing back up in the Top 100 ranking. Maybe some new interest on Adam ,hopefully after viewing the reruns.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/top-100/albums/