I was at a film screening Wednesday night, so I missed the live broadcast of the "American Idol" finale, which revealed that young Jordin Sparks was this season's winner.
But when I came home, my wife was in the family room and about to punch a hole in our big-screen TV.
She and hundreds of thousands of "Idol" fans like her, who recorded the sixth-season finale and watched it later, experienced the same shocking faux pas. It's a funny but frustrating consequence of 21st-century technology.
The live two-hour finale ran over, and the winner was announced at 10:03 p.m. But nearly all digital video recorders and TiVos stopped their automatic recordings at 10 p.m. because that is when the machines were told the show would end.
For those poor souls watching later via a recording, it must have been like a lightning bolt striking them in the chest when they watched the playback.
"And the new American Idol is . . ." host Ryan Seacrest declares.
Blank screen.
What's worse, as my wife added, is that fans had to sit through two hours of padded fluff, a horrifying Beatles medley and, to top it off, a duet by Sanjaya Malakar and Aerosmith's Joe Perry, to get to the final announcement.
So many angry fans complained the next day that Fox had to apologize. "It was always our intention to bring the show in on
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time," a Fox spokesperson told Broadcasting & Cable. "But just as with any live sports, variety, awards or entertainment event, there is no way to absolutely guarantee that the show will end exactly on the hour."
Maybe they can fix that in the 22nd century.
"Idol" on Idle? The ratings for the "American Idol" finale were down this year, which is like a CEO of an oil company making only $475 million instead of $480 million.
"Idol" will still be the most-watched program of the year. More than 30 million tuned into Wednesday's finale, compared with 36 million when Taylor Hicks was crowned in 2006.
So is "Idol" losing its luster?
Hardly. It likely will be the most-watched program next year, too. But whether it's by 10 million or 20 million viewers depends on the caliber of the finalists.
This was probably the worst year for finalists (though Melinda Doolittle was one of the best the show's ever had), and it was reflected in the ratings.
Don't worry. Come next January, it will be the most-talked about TV show again for four more months. That won't change any time soon.
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