What Could be Done?

American Idol has slipped in the ratings. It's not drawing the same amount of people it has in the past. For its time slot, it still usually leads, however, the decline has been noticed and commented on ad nauseum (sometimes with hand-rubbing glee).

Part of this has to be attributable to being in its 7th season. The bloom is off the rose, so to speak. It has reached saturation and is going through the natural evolution of a show that has run for multiple years. I assume (I don't really know) that Survivor probably doesn't draw like it used to. But these reality shows are so inexpensive to make (relative to other shows) that CBS is still able to make money from it despite the drop in ratings.

That's ultimately what keeps a show running - if it makes money.

One of the other problems with AI, as far as I can see, is that it has become all too predictable. Even if the judges' comments aren't scripted, they often give the appearance of being so. And it seems like they try to shape the 'contest' to go in a specific direction. This year's example would be the final David vs. David face-off.

I think it's time to retool Idol.

I think it's time to turn it into a singing competition instead of a popularity contest.

Here's a few ideas as to what sort of changes I'd like to see.

1. When it gets down to the final 6-8 (or maybe even 10?), the participants should sing the ENTIRE song - not a 90 second snippet. Or at least they should be limited to 3 minutes (this will prevent someone from singing a 10-minute song, but still give sufficient time to build to a climax.

2. The results show needs to go. It's 95% fluff with only 5% of what we want to see. I did not watch any results show beyond the top 10 this year because I am sick to death of Ford videos, group sings, special guest star sings and so on. I just want to know who stays and who goes.

3. The top 6 should have to face off against each other in a steel cage death match. Bo staff optional.

4. There should only be one vote per person. No speed dialing, no multiple text messaging. Then we will actually see that only 100 people are voting each time - not the 300 million they continue to claim.

These are a few ideas. I'm sure that others have many more. Feel free to submit them in comments.