Joshua Alston
|
Jan 13, 2009 01:17 PM
The show's expanded panel of judges. Courtesy of Fox.
Television years are much like dog years. With each year that
passes, television shows age exponentially. Their narratives peter out
and their production staffs try everything in the book--stunt casting,
shocking deaths, changes of locale--to energize them. This law of
diminishing returns extends beyond scripted television, though.
Unscripted shows also have to constantly find new ways to shake up the
formula in order to stay relevant.
It comes as no surprise,
then, that the producers of "American Idol" are unveiling in tonight's
season premiere--the show's eighth--a new, fourth, judge, songwriter Kara
DioGuardi . She'll join Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell,
the judges who have lorded over the singing competition since it began
in 2002. The caustic Cowell will have a tiebreaking vote during the
audition rounds.
As
cast shakeups go, it's not a bad choice.
"Pop Idol," the British show on which the American version is based,
has always had four judges. In its second season, the producers of the
U.S. show tried to add radio personality Angie
Martinez, but she quit early on. DioGuardi,
meanwhile, is a respected songwriter, and at 37 she brings a fresh
approach to the judging of a show that frequently uses the youth and
youthfulness of its contestants as a basis of criticism (average age of
the other three current judges: 49).
But if the intent is
to stop the show's audience attrition--it dropped 7% in total viewership
last season over the year before--DioGuardi's addition isn't going to
cut it. In order for "Idol" to survive, it'll have to stop thinking of
itself as a talent competition and start thinking of itself as what it
has always been: a reality competition show.
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