7 ways 'American Idol' changed television

Love it or hate it, American Idol has changed TV and society more than any other television series this decade.

While industry watchers are constantly reading the beginning of show's demise in every ratings dip, gaffe by judge Paula Abdul or the winner whose post-Idol career goes bust, the Fox juggernaut continues to flatten the competition night after night, averaging 27 million viewers a telecast.

As the seventh season of the Fox powerhouse comes to a close this week with a showdown between the two Davids (rocker David Cook and teen heartthrob David Archuleta), here are seven ways that American Idol has changed television and society - for better or worse - since its debut in 2002.

No. 1: Shifted when networks broadcast our favorite shows

American Idol wasn't the first reality TV series to be launched outside the 50-year network pattern of debuting new programs in the fall. That distinction belongs to CBS' reality-TV franchise Survivor, which premiered in the summer of 2000.

But it was the phenomenal success of Idol that led Fox to embrace a 52-week programming cycle built around a January launch of TV's most popular show.

Serialized dramas like Fox's 24 and ABC's Lost, as well as talent shows like ABC's Dancing with the Stars, now come in concentrated bursts rather than span from September to May - Idol-like scheduling unheard of five years ago. And with NBC's move to a year-round schedule - as well as the other networks announcing only a handful of new shows for this fall - the trend is accelerating.

No. 2: Brought black and white audiences together

Ten years ago, the list of top-10 shows favored by black viewers and the list of top series among all viewers shared only one program: ABC's Monday Night Football.

At the end of the last season, the two groups shared eight shows among their favorites - led by both the Tuesday and Wednesday versions of American Idol and Monday and Tuesday editions of Dancing with the Stars. Black media analysts and scholars attribute the change in large part to the multicultural casts of performers and the sense among black viewers that talent matters more than ethnicity, gender, race or social class on shows like Idol.

No. 3: Helped introduce young people to voting

In recent years, there has been much hand-wringing over estimates that more people were voting for contestants on American Idol than in presidential elections. It was seen as another sign of cultural decline attributed to reality TV.

But this year, participation among young voters is on the rise, and some analysts theorize that seven seasons of socialization to the joys of voting might have helped lead some young people to the voting booth.

"I wonder if much of the interest in the Democratic presidential election among young people has not been jump-started by the reality shows that allow you to vote," says Sheri Parks, professor of popular culture at the University of Maryland, College Park. "I think young people were introduced to voting on shows like American Idol and found out they liked it. And now they are doing it in the presidential primaries. The two processes are more analogous than we might want to admit."

No. 4: Made TV more commercial than ever

In addition to being the highest-rated show last year, American Idol led in product placements with 4,349, according to the Nielsen Co.

Think of the endless shots of Coca-Cola cups and stars of struggling Fox TV shows seated conspicuously in the audience week after week, not to mention the Ford commercial masquerading as a "music video."

While ratings are down this year compared to last year (27 million viewers versus 29.8 million per episode), it looks as if Idol will wind up the year tomorrow night with even more product placements than last year.

No. 5: Resurrected the variety show

That might not seem earthshaking to some, but media analysts say Idol's success has played a major role in determining what kinds of TV shows do or do not get made these days.

Related topic galleries: Paula Abdul, Popular Music, Elections, Judges, Literature, David Cook, Polls

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