It’s been a quick and graceless fall for American Idol in Season 13. Despite having judges who actually know what they are talking about and mostly manage not to waste anyone’s time (sans Mariah), Fox’s hit singing competition series has continually slipped in the ratings. Last night, more salt was rubbed in the wound when this week The Voice beat American Idol’s ratings for the first time in history.
That last statement would obviously be more impressive were American Idol and The Voice both at their peaks and were directly competing on the same nights. What is telling, however, is that The Voice continues to be a success over at NBC, while we all know American Idol is rapidly becoming a dinosaur. On Monday, The Voice premiered its fourth season to 13.6 million total viewers and followed with a Tuesday performance that brought in roughly 12 million total viewers. Even better, the show is crushing in the 18-49 demographic, bringing in around 6 million the first night and shedding roughly a million viewers the second night.
It’s true that American Idol started out its 13th season with similar ratings, but this week things only got worse for the singing competition program. According to Billboard, on Thursday, American Idol hit a series low, only bringing in 11 million total viewers and 3.45 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic. This season, the people over at American Idol have tried a lot of marketing tactics to attempt to repeat success, including splitting the guys and gals by gender and instituting a SuperVote system. Regardless, those efforts don’t seem to be working. The Voice may never have the dominant market share that Idol had at its peak, but it is looking like Idol is finally and permanently on its way out of fashion.
