Lots of older songs because this is a very s l o w m o v i n g chart.

tatiana- I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t for the life of me figure out why some people act like Idol is dropping like a bomb, when it was still one of the hottest shows on tv this year. It is natural for a show after 7 years to drop a little in ratings. People have very little attention span and lose interest, but for goodness sakes, the show was still very highly rated!!

LK – it’s ridiculous. When you consider the show had been on its 7th season (even popular shows follow a peak and then slow descent pattern) as well as the overall decline in Broadcast TV ratings due to increased Cable use, DVR’s, online streaming, etc, its crazy to blame the contestants of all things when the whole industry is in flux right now

And I agree that they should let the contestants sing some newer songs. I know that DA tried to get many songs approved and couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t for who knows what reason. Can you imagine if he had been allowed to do 1000 miles for the show or some other newers songs?!!!

I’m SURE he wanted to do this song, maybe even on finale night. I think Idol should stop the “manipulations” and let things play out fairly and naturally – but then they might not get the story arc that they want out of the season. And who knows, they have produced the top rated show for all these years – maybe there is some method to their madness.

IGetCranked – I agree with you, the themes were ridiculous this year! They didn’t even get to sing semi-modern songs until what was it, Inspiration Week or Mariah week? And I think one week they should have to all write and perform their own lyrics/melody to the same backing track (they did this challenge on Rock Star and it was really cool!)

HDD gifted us with a chart after telling us last week that there wasn’t going to be one this week. And the chart is so very, very nice. Makes me downright cheerful. (Probably abetted by the wine.)

And I agree that they should let the contestants sing some newer songs. I know that DA tried to get many songs approved and couldn’t for who knows what reason. Can you imagine if he had been allowed to do 1000 miles for the show or some other newers songs?!!!

Wow, Cookie gold after 4 weeks and Archie gold after 6 weeks. Truly amazing. Congratulations to both Davids!!!!! No lumps of coal for these two guys in their stockings for Christmasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦..gold nuggets all around.

:clap_tb: :jittery_tb: :drunk_tb: :thumbup_tb:

Now, with these two guys doing as well as they are, can the peeps who work at Idol please stop blaming the TALENT for the drop in ratings, especially for Season 7? I’m so sick of hearing Simon say they were boring, “too many blonds” (??!), etc. The issue is with the show, clearly, and not the performers, as the public is embracing this year’s winner and runner up! Put a sock in it, Cowell, and let Season 8 contestants sing something from this century, please! *end rant*

Congrats on Cook’s awesome success as well.

HDD really surprised everyone by posting these up so soon!

132k? Way to top the HDD predictions yet again, David Cook! If this holds, he’s at ~714,500, and that’s a pretty pretty number for 5 weeks out. *proud tears for Cookie*
Hopefully this holds and next week doesn’t see too much of a drop.

Congrats to Archie on reaching gold for his birthday, too!

They lucked out with two amazing talents who seem to have be developing a growing fanbase outside of AI. Letà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hope it continues strongly for them both in 2009.

Truth!