American Idol - boosting the economy

In 2001, Pop Idol started off in Britain and turned out to be one of the most successful programs on TV. Then in 2002, the American version American Idol was broadcast on Fox and since then it has been just as popular as the British show.

The concept is easy. One girl or boy out of thousands has the chance to become a professional singer with a more or less great career. Every participant shows his talent in front of a jury and the recipients at home phone in to determine who should should continue in the contestand be in the next round. From week to week there are fewer people competing with each other until there is just one left.

But what actually makes people watch it? Some argue that the show has a strong emotional character, which makes it interesting. You can see people handling extreme stress situations. They are put under huge pressure, not least because of the big competition. Others say that the show is popular because the viewers can take part in the process by voting for their favourite candidate. The program is also appealing because people appear on stage and on television that are like you and me, so everybody can identify with the participants.

The enormous media presence of American Idol is outstanding. If you enter "American Idol" in Google you get 24,200,000 hits! The show is also marketed through products advertised everywhere, particularly online. You can buy books and magazines on the current season, DvDs with the best moments of the show, clothes, accessories and much more.

Talking specifically about the economic side of American Idol, we definitely must mention product placement. The judges, for instance, drink Coke from mugs on which Coca-Cola is written. To draw the audience's attention to the product, they place the cup so that the label faces the recipients. People will notice it consciously or unconsciously, but either way they will keep the trade-mark in mind, especially when purchasing beverages.

When so many people watch the program, the channel has a higher audience rating. This again, of course, leads to the broadcasting stations' earning more money. In the end, the channel's economic profile is enhanced. Because of the stars, American Idol creates, even other broadcasting stations profit from it because they have new, already famous people to report on. Many of the fans want to make sure that they know as much as possible about their idols, so they track the stars' next appearances on television and turn on the TV then.

With regardt to the music business, the record companies make money because the newborn stars have to sign contracts in which they confirm that the companies have the right to take most of the money earned. Usually not just the final winner is offered a contract; even the eliminated contestants are approached by labels. Some American Idol winners even sell so many CDs that they place in the charts and receive awards for their song.

And how American is American Idol? Not only is it based on a British model, but also it is produced by Fremantle North America, a subsidiary of the the German Bertelsmann Verlag. Nonetheless, it has proved to be a real boost to the American media economy!

(Bob Englehart. Not Your Father's America. . 28.02.2006.)

Links:
 http://www.americanidolmusic.com/
 http://www.idolonfox.com/
 http://www.idolunderground.com/pages/welcome.aspx

Who wants to drop a Millionaire?

In August 1999 ABC premiered a game show that had proven to be a success in Great Britain, called "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" After an intensive search for a host, ABC went in-house with Regis Philbin, who had hosted the Disney-produced Live! The show became an instant hit in the US when it began in 2000, aired three times a week with 35 million people tuning in for a celebrity special edition. In 2001 it was even shown four times a week and dominated the ratings charts. But ABC then claimed that the ratings were sinking dramatically, and Millionaire was dropped just two weeks into the new television season in September 2001. Why did the ratings drop so drastically? Nobody - except ABC - knows. They announced that the American public simply grew tired of the game show. There are, however, voices that say the ratings did not really drop. A satirical statement from a "bogus news" internet site maintains that ABC took the show off the air because the broadcasters received a judgment from the court. Some people had submitted a grievance saying that the show was racist. Only a small part of the society can play the game. People who are not so well educated, particularly minorities, have no chance to win the prize money. Could there be any truth to this report??

Variants of the show are broadcast all over the world. The German version with its popular host Günther Jauch has won at least four prestigious awards. The program has broken all television records in India and is watched around the globe by the Indian diaspora. After the first episode had been broadcast, the producer Star TV received 20 million phone calls from fans across the world. What's more, the Indian superstar host, Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood legend, has made history by becoming the first Indian actor to be immortalized with a wax work figure at the famous tourist attraction Madame Tussaud's in London. In Australia, the local Millionaire rules permit only one phone call per person per week because of the flood of calls. The British show offers the largest prize money because of the high value of the pound sterling.

Why did Millionaire have such international success? The show, the music, the effects, the entertainer and the guests work together to create a suspenseful quiz show. The spectators enjoy seeing whether they too could have answered the questions correctly, and they have a chance to apply as contestants, who are selected from all parts of the country. It seems unlikely that such a popular concept would be canceled from week to the next without real justification. Any court case would surely have been public knowledge. Perhaps too many people were winning the prize money, making the show unprofitable for the network??