American Idol 2012 Top 10 Week Ratings Dip

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American Idol 2012 Top 10 Week ratings took a dip compared to last week’s numbers. Wednesday’s Top 10 performance show won the night across the networks when it pulled in over 17 million viewers for its Billy Joel night, but things weren’t as good on Thursday.

Thursday night’s Top 10 results fell over 10% from the previous week when it managed to only draw in 15.5 million viewers. Of course the Jermaine Jones disqualification was quite the ratings boost to last week’s numbers and is likely skewing comparisons.

Next week the return of modern songs could welcome a renewed interest for viewers, but I’m not holding my breath just yet.

The nights of 25+ million viewers might be long gone for Ameircan Idol, but does it even matter as long as Idol continues to win its night and timeslots?

Did you tune in to watch this week’s performances and results or just one or the other? Were the results too obvious to tune in to see or do you think American Idol fans are waiting for the competition to narrow?

Source: TV By The Numbers – Wednesday & Thursday

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50 Comments

  1.  I guess if producers had to make that dirty, desprate move on Jermaine (which I think was so unprofessional and just ugly) in order to boost ratings, then I guess AI is singing it’s swan song.

  2. I watched both, but we tuned in a little late on Wed, ttytt. (Hubby had a basketball game on.) I don’t think the results were that obvious; it could have been any one of those bottom 3. I was not surprised, but I WAS disappointed in the elimination of a really good singer, however. 

    I am such a Haley fan that it really killed me that I did not like her performance Thurs night, her look, or the song itself. Whoever is giving her advice about all 3 things must be a Lady Gaga devotee. Because everything I liked about her seems to be gone. Her voice is still appealing to me, but the song itself was so labored (complicated –and I couldn’t make out the lyrics) that the whole thing was a royal mess.  What a disastrous appearance for her. Haley Girl, what is going on??

    • I couldn’t agree more! I love Haley but didn’t like the song when I heard it before she performed it on Idol and when I saw her presentation on Idol it just compounded my dislike. She better seek better advice!

      • ‘New York State of Mind is a terrible song?
        What alternate universe are you from?

      • To F Lombardo,

        I think Siculari is referring to Haley’s song,  not Erika’s song.  LOL

    • Hi Pup! I agree with everything you said about Haley and her performance. She needs to get a new promoter. Steven Tyler liked her dree I think! He is so funny. sometimes he looks like he is going to go to sleep!  Like last year. and then suddenly he cranks out something really funny. I think JLO kind of drowns him out. She blabs on and on until he just about gives out. and then Ryan Seacrest goes, Steven what did you think? I have a good one for all of you!!!! Really, Listen up!!! The judges have one save. Who do you  think they might use it on?  It won’t be Diandre. I don’t know if thats spelled right? My head hurts too much to look for it anyway.  I am going to come back to this blog to see who the rest of you think they might use the one save on. Mattew (GTB) you are allowed to vote on this on too!!!

  3. All but the final 10 minutes of the results show is pointless.  Not to mention is usually torture to watch.  And not because of the suspense of an impending elimination.  But simply because it’s a poorly produced show!

  4. I’m not really into Idol this year like I  was last year. The show is lacking something this year. I agree what have they done to Haley, did not like what they did with her hair, the song was average and I know Haley is so much better that that! Some great singers on the show, but to be honest I don’t care who wins, but If I had to choose it would be Jessica , Joshua or Colton. Would I pay to watch this final 10 in concert……..NO!

  5. In the same way as Billy Joel, for the most part, forced performers to sing ballads I wonder if there is a artist or genre out there that would force contestants to perform a more upbeat song, make them move there feet and excite the audience, maybe disco night, that would be interesting.   

    • I’d opt for a Bon Jovi week, myself.  As for Haley, while I’ve never been a fan, she was light years ahead of Mumbling Lana whoever that was.  Haley’s hair, gown and set decor upstaged the song.  She’d have been better off with just a piano.  

    • Ron, Are you saying most of Billy Joel’s songs are ballads?  Eramsus called me ignorant because I do not know Billy Joel’s catalogue. Do you think anyone who does not know Billy Joel’s catalogue is ignorant?  And I agree with Templar!! How about a Bon Jovi week. Now that is rock and roll. And he is hot too! 

      • Ron, Thank-You for your nice post! I really got a bit upset because Eramus said I was ignorant because I do not know Billy Joels catalogue. I liked some of his songs.But I am not a big fan of his. And I do not think that is a reason to be called ignorant!  I am sure your lovely wife does not know Billy Joel too well. I never said I didn’t like him. I just said I was not a big fan!  Some people just cannot debate in a nice way. Have a nice day. I like a lot of other singers too! And I don’t know their catalogue either!  Oh well?????   Sherry K 

      • Hi Sherry K,

        Did you ask Erasmus how old is he?  Most of Billy Joel’s compositions
        were done in the late 70’s early eighties before all of the competitors
        were born.  That’s one reason they choose the ballads since it is easier to follow, another is Billy’s catalogues of songs are not simple compositions and it will take a lot of skills to  do a cover song.  His songs are unique  to him that anytime it is played you know it is Billy Joel.

        Do I like all his songs, naaahhh, so nothing for you to be concerned.
        It is Erasmus that is “Ignorant”.  I am not a fan either but I know most of his songs .  I do like a few of his songs and I consider him a real great
        artist in his time.  But in the 70’s and 80’s there are tons of great artists to choose from.

  6. The contestants put on a better show than Lana Del Rey or Haley.Very disappointing; Maybe even disgusting!! Contestants had a hard time with BillyJoel tunes.Like asking them to sing Rod Stewert or Kenny Rogers.It made the whole show somewhat boring.A couple contestants did OK,but the rest were like fish out of water.Better luck next time .I’ll keep watching tho.

    • Billy Joel has plenty of upbeat songs.
      His own live shows rock the house.
      They just chose mostly ballads.
      Don’t blame Billy.

  7. I didn’t watch Idol much last year, but this year I do because of Heejun. Haven’t missed an episode so far.

    • Oh come on Heejun??????? I hope he does better this time, he has more than 3 strikes on him.

  8. I admit that I have been on the verge of seeing what else is on. There’s just something about this season that is real off putting to me. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it has to do with the contestants mostly singing nothing but ballads and it’s really boring me.

    As for results shows they normally are torture for me to sit through. I pretty much just spend most of the show just reading a book or doing something and just tune in for the last ten minutes to see who gets eliminated.

    • Shawn – so agree.   The contestants are just boring.  Some can sing, some are a mystery to me, but I just don’t see a star in the making, do you?

    • Totally. Last year, I did not miss an episode. This season I never watch live and only when bored, and instead check AmericanIdol.Net for updates. They’re on the East Coast and I’m in CA, so they’re a few hours ahead with the results anyway.
      1 point: I actually like the results shows, fluff and all, more than the live shows this season.

    •  I’m glad I’m not the only one not feeling any magic this season.  Certainly, there are some good enough singers, but I’m not picturing many getting too much past their complementary winner CD.  I do like Phillip, Jessica and Colton, but at this point in the season I’m still not particularly excited about any of them. As along time Idol fan, I have to confess this year I’ve been stolen away by “The Voice.” The most that any of these shows do for me anymore is give me some more songs to add to my iTunes library, and this year not many on Idol have sang choices I liked.

  9. I tuned in to watch both, even after knowing the lineup, comments and who was eliminated by reading this site. 🙂  Last year I only liked Scotty, but kept tuning in because I couldn’t get enough of him.  This year I have 3 in the running: Hollie, Phil and Skylar.  I do enjoy Heejun–though not a great singer (far from it), he is very entertaining.

  10. Read all the comments and so agree.  Something about this year is just boring.  I know we all like different singers but there are so few from this group that I can see as an American Idol.  And I think knowing that makes it less interesting.  No one isr eally a show grabber.  In the past have not liked a lot of contestants but I did want to watch.  For the first time in years I could not have cared less if I missed it Wednesday night.  Watched it while I did laundry.  There are so many that will neer make it to the final three that it’s almost not worth watching till the field narrows.  And of course because of the excessive coting allowed, it won’t reflect the true feeling of american anyway, just which group (13-24) can send the most texts or spend two hours voting.  In their quest to be able to say (65 million votes) they are losing the fan base.  Also I’m getting tied of the judges telling us what a great job they did of choosing hte finalists.  I couldn’t disagree more!  Like a few, love a few, think some sound like lounge singers – but is this really the best 13 of the hundred of thousands who tried out??  Also, what they did to Jermaine was disgusintg, whether or not he alluded the law (for minor infractions I might add) and was reality TV at its worst.  I lost a lot of respect for the show then and although I’ll watch, it just doesn’t have the allure it once used to. 

    • Exactly.
      Yes, Jermaine’s bit was interesting, but they treated him in an inhuman way, humiliating him in front of America!
      At least they didn’t tell him he was being elminated LIVE. That would be disgusting.

  11. Funny thing is…you are all bored, but still watching AI. You may have just 1or 2 favorite but bottomline y’all still watching.

    •  Yes, you are right! I’m still a loyal fan and just hate to see a time come when I can’t sit down and enjoy some Idol antics. There are good and bad seasons, and a couple of awesome ones.  I’m currently hooked on 3 music competitions just because I like to watch potential new stars arise, and I don’t like a lot of the other garbage on primetime TV.  Ranting and raving about Idol and it’s faults is still more enjoyable to me than watching someone get their eyes cut out, or other ugly reminders of what the world is sinking into.  I’ll take more singing and dancing anytime!

  12. I’ve never really had a desire to watch the results show. Unless there’s someone on that I’d like to see perform.. The group lip syncs are usually terrible, and there’s no reason to sit through all the rest. I’ll usually just look up who was eliminated online and move on.

    • I am just like you. I seldom watch the results show. Why sit through a hour of lip synched, corn ball music and performances by groups that are way past there prime, just to get news I can read about the following day.

  13. I am sorry! But I am not a Billy Joel fan. He had a couple of songs I liked. Up-town Girl. And piano  man. His songs even though classified as rock I am sure, just bored me to death!  I never listened to him ever. OK, Go ahead and yell and scream the ones that are Billy Joel fans. Every one has their own taste. To me his songs sound Old Fashioned!! Especially with the contestans singing them. I liked  Colton’s performance with the Piano. I really think Colton is talented. Will he win?  Who knows?  Matt can you run a poll on the contestants left?  It would be interesting at this point in the game to hear other peoples comments.
     Oh and one other song. I don’t know the name. I am sure someone will tell me. Nicely I hope.” In the middle of the night.” Well I have an insufferable allergy due to all of the icky green pollen dripping from the trees here in Arkansas. Never had an allergy in my life until we moved here. One more thing and I am out of here. I could not understand one word Haley sang for all the noise. And I didn’t like that dress on her. I am sure you men did. It was too sultry looking for her age I thought. She is very pretty. But I think she should have worn something from this era that a pop star would wear. That dress looked like a loung singer dress. Or a cruise ship.  Thats all. Hope everyone has a nice day!

    • Sorry, but it’s obvious you know nothing of Billy Joel’s song catalogue.
      Don’t flaunt your ignorance. It’s nothing to be proud of.

      • I grew up in the era of Billy Joel. His music was way out of touch with young people when it was at it’s highmark. So, it is as moldy as stale cheese today. I would love to have music from all era’s that had passion to it. Billy Joel did not have that … EVER. Now Steven Tyler’s group, “Arrowsmith” had something going on. That would be a good night, even though it is just as old as Billy Joel.

      • @96eee719adfc8164fce6b15a272c7609:disqus You couldn’t manage to spell Aerosmith correctly?  And just for the record they are hard rock and Billy Joel’s work is pop rock/contemporary.  

      • I first heard Billy Joel at Lindenwood College outside St. Charles, MO, in the winter of ’71-’72.  He got blitzed/high before he came on stage, an hour late, did a short set including “Piano Man” and sounded like a really bad lounge singer.  I certainly never bought anything he recorded — why would I do that, with so many other great artists to choose from at that time?

        When you grow up on everything from the Beach Boys; Peter, Paul & Mary; the Beatles; Jimi Hendrix; Janis Joplin; Grace Slick; and the whole Woodstock thing, just to mention a very few, Billy Joel is pretty tame.

        I agree with Foxstar:  Billy Joel was not in touch with what young people were listening to in college in the early 70’s.   Just my opinion.

    • Erasmus, Did you not read where I said everyone that is a Billy Joel fan to go ahead and scream. But I do not consider your callin me ignorant! Know what that makes you look like? An A–s!  Or a child. Cannot even debate with out calling someone names. You don’t even know me! You should be ashamed of your self.Pup knows who I am. Ed knows who I am. I have numerous friends on here from the last 10 years. What about you?

      • Sure Foxstar – no young people bought any of the 150 million Billy Joel  albums sold. 

  14. It’s time for the AI production to reformat their show. They need to offer fresh ideas and make the show interesting. The life story of the contestants will not work anymore and so with the comedy acts of the contestants just to please anybody. The AI is not looking for a comedian idol. AI is a reality singing contest who is giving opportunity to those talented and serious individual to be a star.

    My recommendations are as follows:

    1. The contestants must perform two (2) songs. 
         a. Contestant’s choice
         b. Judge’s choice

    2. The voting system must be challenging and interesting. This will make AI to be the talk of the town. There will be two options to vote. 

    NOTE: Registered account can vote to save the contender ONCE and another vote (with the same account) to ELIMINATE. Multiple votes to SAVE/ELIMINATE will not be counted as votes. 

         a. Vote to SAVE 
         b. Vote to ELIMINATE 

    The computation of votes are as follows: (TOP 7)

                          SAVE                  ELIMINATE               AVERAGE
    Idol 1         40.23%                        2.40%                      37.83%         
    Idol 2         22.77%                     28.25%                       -5.48%
    Idol 3         22.50%                     27.90%                       -5.40%
    Idol 4         10.25%                      25.00%                    -14.75%
    Idol 5            2.10%                        6.45%                        -4.35%
    Idol 6            1.33%                        5.50%                        -4.17%
    Idol 7           0.82%                        3.50%                        -2.68%

    Idol 4 is ELIMINATED…

    There will be no bottom three anymore. They can proceed to the elimination process just to save time. 

    • There must be a valid reason why voters are only given the right to vote to save,  and not to eliminate.  What if Jessica receives 50% save votes,  but receives 70% votes to eliminate because the fans of the other contestants consider her as the biggest threat to their idols?   Therefore, under your proposed voting system,  the most popular contestant might end up being the one eliminated,  and the not-so-talented contestants will stay longer than they should because voters will not vote to eliminate them since they are not threats.

  15. HEE JUN has an interesting personality! That makes AI ratings go high!
    Honestly, America should eliminate those contestants with boring personalities like Elise, Deandre, and JOSHUA! 

  16. I think it has to do with the season + 11 years is a long run.  Each season is it’s own entity.  This year, while there are some good singers, there’s no one who’s got me stoked to watch.  It’s just sort of a general good show.

    Last year for instance, I was for Haley and James bigtime.  No offense to Scott & Lauren, I thought they were decent.  Still, something about those 2 put a rooting interest in the show for me.  This year, there’s 7 who if they win I’ll be fine with it.  So there really isn’t the passion.

    Also, it’s still at or near the top in ratings.  The talk about how it’s down sorta reminds me of Wayne Gretzky’s last few years in hockey.  He was still his teams leading scorer.  He was still among the league leaders in scoring, yet people wanted to know what was wrong w/ the guy because he was no longer winning the scoring race by 80 points.

    If a new show came on and got 17 million viewers, people would be saying how great it was. 

    So while I think people aren’t as passionate about this years crop of singers, the show isn’t exactly doing terrible. 

    • ITA.  I don’t think there is a bona fide star in this year’s roster.  Some may have a middling career on the fringe, but there’s no Adam, Carrie, Kelly in this bunch.

      • Beyond singing Disney theme songs, there is zero market for Jessica.  I’m not belittling her voice, just saying I don’t think she’s commercial.

      • Hi Templar / JoeLando 208,

        I agree with Templar on this one.  It is one thing to be able to do great
        cover songs of famous artists like Celine, Whitney etc etc. but commercially why should I spend my hard earned dollars on a carbon copy if I can buy the original??

        I like Jessica, she is a good singer and at 16 years old to have that kind of voice is great.  She could win this competition but if she did! what kind of records would she do.  Her voice, as good as it is, is not unique and not different from most good singers.  And believe me there are thousands of unemployed singers today that have the same quality of vocals that she has.

        I don’t have to repeat that among the many Idol winners not many have been sucessful in multi-platinum sales in the US.  And Record companies will not be as quick to provide that kind of commitment if  you do not have what it takes to stand out and be regarded as a commercially viable singer.   Can she win this one, I say yes, can she be a multi-platinum artists, I doubt it but you never know this days, Look
        at Justin???????  just sayin………………………….

      • you hit the nail on the proverbial head.  there is no one with that wow factor (x factor?) in the final 10.  they’re great to good, but brilliant??  not a one.  a long way down the road i don’t think any one of them will still be in the biz

  17. Hi Sherry, I was never a big fan of Billy Joe’s either and I tend to agree with Foxstar. It is possible Billy does have a lot of fast, upbeat songs but for the most part they weren’t that well know, which is why the contestants sang ballads. I just asked my wife if she loved Bill Joe but what does she know she’s from Argentina.

  18. I knew their ratings would drop this year,the only reason I watch it this year is to hear Scotty’s song at the end,wait until Scotty is on next thursday,then we will see what a good rating is.

  19. I am hoping that Heejun does a lot better this week, I am very upset over Erica leaving last week.

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