You've heard the saying before -- all good things must come to an end. While "American Idol" isn't quite ready to meet its demise yet, there are signs that the reality show juggernaut is slowly running out of steam.
Despite consistent No. 1 finishes for its Tuesday performance shows and Wednesday results shows every week in the Nielsen ratings, the numbers have been generally down from last year.
The show will try to get some of the magic back this week, though, as the top two finalists, Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks, face off for the "Idol" title for the show's sixth season.
With the ousting of the near-flawless powerhouse singer Melinda Doolittle over the inconsistent beat-boxing Lewis (Sparks' inclusion in the finals, given the strength of her top 10 performances, is no surprise), the ratings for the show's two-night finale extravaganza could take a huge hit.
Last year, according to Nielsen, the finale performance show drew 36.3 million viewers, while the 35.1 million watched the show crown Taylor Hicks over Katharine McPhee. It was a monster leap over 2005, when 31.7 million watched the finale performance show, and 31.1 million saw Carrie Underwood win over Bo Bice.
A Big Start
According to Nielsen, "American Idol" pretty much picked up where it left off in 2006. Attracting an astounding 37.4 million viewers with its Minneapolis audition debut show on Jan. 16 (up 1.4 million viewers from 2006's debut), the audience dropped slightly the next night as the Seattle auditions show drew in 36.9 million viewers.
However, the following Tuesday, Nielsen reported, the show's viewership tumbled to 32.6 million viewers before jumping back up to 33.9 million viewers the following night for the New York auditions. Throughout the rest of the audition shows, the numbers ranged between 31.9 and 33.7 million viewers before taking its biggest dive yet on Feb. 6 with 27.9 million viewers for its "Best of the Rest" show.
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