The larger the audience the more diverse it is likely to be.

People in the 18-49 demo are not all into the same style of music so if you want to attract as many of them as possible you better offer up as much diversity as possible. Plenty of them are not tuning in cause the show is not giving them what they want to see, and I’m not just talking about the fans of the WGWG.

A diverse cast makes all the difference S10 proved it.

Exactly, overcasting in the R&B genre does not mean that more R&B fans will tune in cause the type of R&B they’re offering is the 10+ years out of date variety that no one has listened to since 10+ years ago.

If they want younger viewers they need to feature much more current music. No one under the age of 40 wants to listen to music from the 50s-80s.

I picked Top 11 because it was a finals episode and because S2′s average got skewed by a lot of specials that had lowered ratings. The fact remains that at the end of the season, the ratings for S2 were ticking up to 23-25 million which is similar to S8 ratings (largely steady at 23-25) instead of S9 (declining to 19-20).

You are still cherry-picking episodes trying to make comparison that can’t be made otherwise.  That is not how you should look at numbers.  Average viewer number for Season 2 was 21.7 million, not far from Season 9′s ~22.5 million.  Average viewer numbers for Season 8 was ~25 million.

He didn’t sell 1.8 million albums because of a few crossed phone signals.

He didn’t sell 2.8 million album either, which is what Clay sold for his first album.   The point is that Clay was more popular, he was the main draw.

And R&B finalists continued to place in the top 3 all the way up to S8 (Yamin considered and presented himself as an R&B guy).

No one said they weren’t any R&B singer after Season 3, you can even include Taylor Hicks if you want since he can be partly described as blue-eye soul.  It would be stupid for the show not to make sure that they are well-represented (although it has to be said that the show is often stupid).  It is simply that since the R&B-dominated early seasons, the show became more diverse afterwards, and I think that what kept the show going and getting huge number for many seasons because it can draw more viewers from a wider cross-section of the public.  Trying to go back to the narrower selection of genres for the contestants is not a thing to do when you have plummeting ratings because only a narrower section of public would be interested.

It is simply that since the R&B-dominated early seasons, the show became more diverse afterwards, and I think that what kept the show going and getting huge number for many seasons because it can draw more viewers from a wider cross-section of the public.

Having back to back winners who fit on the r&b format is not the same thing as the early seasons being R&B heavy.  In my opinion, seasons two and three are one of the main reasons why AI drew a diverse and large audience, it was proof that anyone could win the show.  AI getting away from that perception has caused the ratings to fall, especially among younger viewers.

Having back to back winners who fit on the r&b format is not the same thing as the early seasons being R&B heavy.

Never said it is.  I based it more on the Top 10/Top 12 contestants.  Most of Top 10 in Season 1 can be put in the sould/R&B category (exception were Nikki McKibbin, Ryan Starr plus a couple who might be classified as pop), even all the early performances of Kelly Clarkson were all soul/R&B songs  until she hit it out of park with Stuff Like That There on Big Band night (and she might have won the show then).  6 of the Top 12 of Season 2 and 3 might be considered soul/R&B.

Right down the the odd-looking white guy (Nick Boddington and Charlie Askew would be this year’s Clay Aiken). I’m wondering if that’s the producers’ plan.

Zoanette reminds me of a very OTT version of Fantasia, so maybe there is something to it. 

The season might not be a failure, and someone from the show might do well, it’s just for me, I don’t think it will be one of my favorite seasons.  Which is ok.  I hope the show continues to do well. 

I might not be as bad as S9 but so far it looks like it’s not gonna be one of the better seasons (S3, S6).

He didn’t sell 2.8 million album either, which is what Clay sold for his
first album.   The point is that Clay was more popular, he was the main
draw.

I’m not disagreeing with that, even though it was said at the time that some of that gap was “revenge buying.” Not a million, certainly, but 100K? From the core Claymates? Possible. Aiken would still be more popular. But even if one assumes that every album sale reflected the gap in engagement, Studdard still accounted for 40 percent of the ratings for the show. A less popular competitor wouldn’t have generated that kind of interest.

My one and only point is that, as a multi-genre fan who also likes rock and songwriter-leaning contestants, it’s not inherently obvious to me that having those type of contestants have less prominence makes the show less diverse or engaging for anyone except the people whose one and only pony is to have a rock- or songwriter-leaning contestant. The producer choices and song clearances do that. And may very well inhibit the ratings. But that won’t be a direct reflection of the cast’s appeal.

In S9, though, I had definate favorites by now. Other than that I agree.

You don’t have to be a rock artist or singer-songwriter to be original.

Also, I thought the “artistry” era of Idol was seasons 7-9. That was years ago, the show has moved on.

You don’t have to be a rock artist or singer-songwriter to be original.

No, you don’t have to be either to be original, and we have seen some this season. Some that I have thought were the most original were cut, however.

One doesn’t have to be rock, a singer songwriter or even play an instrument to be original and to show yourself as an artist.

Also, I thought the “artistry” era of Idol was seasons 7-9. That was years ago, the show has moved on.

It hasn’t though, since singer songwriters are still featured this year, and won last year.  The question is if the elimination of certain genres can effect the ratings.