Sarah Kebea
Arts and Entertainment Editor
With
the sudden cancellation of the U.S. X
Factor and the declining ratings of the other singing shows, TV producers
are assessing the decline in viewer interest.
Huge
stars have been created through television singing shows including country
singers Scotty McCreery and Carrie Underwood (American Idol) and boy band One Direction (U.K. X Factor). When competitions are cancelled, potential
stars are left undiscovered. With the U.S. X Factor, the constant change of judges
may have caused their ratings to decline; but in the case of The Voice, replacing Christina Aguilera
and Cee Lo Green with Usher and Shakira seemed to help their ratings. The
Voice’s season five premiere had a
total of 14.98 million viewers but this season’s premiere (season six) had
almost a million more viewers, at 15.86 million.
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| The Voice Logo |
The
premiere of the U.S. X Factor on
December 22, 2011 was viewed by 12.57 million, most likely due to the recent
success on the U.K. X Factor and
Simon Cowell’s reputation on both the U.K. version and American Idol. But sadly,
those ratings hit an all time low last December with the ratings barely hitting
six million viewers. Fox announced the
cancellation of the show on February 7, 2014 claiming the cancellation was due
to both the low ratings and the resignation of Simon Cowell on the U.S. version
of the X Factor.
The
U.S. X Factor isn’t the only singing
show going downhill, last year’s ratings for the season twelve finale of American Idol were the lowest they have
ever been, at 14.31 million viewers: Another hit singing show, The Voice, has seen the opposite in the
ratings. The kickoff of the show’s sixth
season on February 24 had 15.74 million viewers, making the show the most
popular singing competition show. So is
it the audience’s lack of interest or have the shows lost some of their
freshness?
One
factor in the decline of most singing competition shows is due to the fact
producers aren’t keeping the shows constant.
In an effort to increase ratings, producers change the show into
something it’s not, but they end up cutting short some of the more entertaining
parts of the shows. For instance, the X Factor’s first elimination rounds were cut short by sending more people
home than ever before, changing the organization of the show. The original audiences watch the shows for
what they have seen since the first season.
Major changes in the show might cause the show’s original audiences to
stop watching.
Another
factor in the decline of some shows is that they aren’t as entertaining. They lack the “curb appeal” needed to pull in
large audiences. The public need to be
pulled into the show by big names they know, such as The Voice season six judges Adam Levine, Usher, Shakira, and Blake
Shelton. The judges are important to the
shows. The banter of Shelton and Levine
on The Voice gets people involved in
the show and offers comic relief to the reality of contestant’s dreams either
being made or crushed.
In
order to keep the audience watching, producers should keep the contestants as
the main part of the shows. Simon Cowell,
the prominent figure of the X Factor,
took away from the talent, and he ultimately caused the U.S. X Factor to come to a cancellation when he decided to leave. Another
negative trend producers of singing shows should watch out for is focusing too
much on the premiere of the shows.
Despite The Voice’s popularity,
their season five premiere had a rating of 5.1 but the rest of the season had unstable
ratings ranging from 2.5 to 4.7. Singing
shows, as a whole, aren’t going downhill, since The Voice’s ratings show that their show’s popularity has increased
since last season. If producers stop
focusing on making the shows as popular as possible, they will be able to focus
on what really makes the show-the talent of the contestants.
