in response to an article written by Edward Wyatt
New York Times
March 11, 2008
“Yep, that sounds about right.” Edward Wyatt’s lede, describing each contestant in the seventeenth season of Fox’s hit show American Idol, concisely captures the reappearing personas in the show that even the ones who doesn’t watch the show religiously gets a good idea what this year’s competition looks like. This clever lede smoothly makes its way into Wyatt’s main point being that the show has become one of the most predictable – “if not exactly the most scripted” – tv show on the air. Although Fox was the only broadcast network with steady average prime time audience, American Idol suffers from a 10% decline in the number of its viewers. Despite its predictable outcome, Wyatt brings out an interesting argument implying that all the scandals and tabloid gossips on the darker side of the contestants – especially for being a family show – seem to have had minimal impact on the viewer counts. The real question for the show remains, ‘who will win the competition?’
As Paula Abdul continues to have trouble formulating her sentences and Simon Cowell bashes contestants, the 30 million Americans return to their living rooms each year to watch their favorite small-town-farm-girl becoming a Hollywood star or alike. Familiarities attract people as it bores people. As some may argue, ‘what better is there to watch on TV anyways?’
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3 comments:
I liked this piece--it was short but sweet, to use a horrid cliche. Anyway, I like how you hooked on to the lead and talked about it. Good piece.
I enjoyed the kicker as well! It was very entertaining to read.
i liked your review of this article, especially the kicker and your point about how you can watch the show sporadically and get the point. i also didn't know that their viewers have declined recently, so that was interesting to learn as well. good job!
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