# American Idol Ending in 2016 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827 "2015-05-12T01:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/1 "2015-05-12T01:46:10Z")
American Idol will end in 2016, after 15 seasons which kicked off in 2002. FOX has decided that now was the time to put an end to the series; the last season will be a celebratory one. The article has more detail. > **[‘American Idol’ Will End Its Run in 2016 (Published 2015)](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/business/media/american-idol-will-end-its-run-in-2016.html?_r=0)** > > Fox’s singing competition, which made its debut in 2002, was one of the most popular reality shows but has lost its luster. I will say that I am not surprised, it seems American Idol has stopped being American Idol around 2010. As time progressed more competitors chipped away at it’s popularity, and all things wear off in time. Since the departure of Paula Abdul and then Simon Cowell, the rotating heads of judges sucked the life out of the show. Whereas AI finales were the subject of morning talk shows, late night news from 2002-2008, the show no longer COMMANDS much attention. Now the losers of 2005 got more attention than the winners of 2014. Everyone knew the names of the winners. American Idol is a 2000’s holdover that seems out of place in 2010’s television. Like a washed up has been. It was fun during it’s glory days, but now it is boring. Farewell AI. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/2 "2015-05-12T01:50:28Z")
good riddance to a piece of shit show. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/3 "2015-05-12T14:52:18Z")
I am proud to say that I have never, not even once, watched so much as five seconds of that stupid show. The only exposure to it I got was when it was (deservedly) mocked in clips on _The Soup_. It was horrid program, like _The Gong Show_ only taking itself dead serious… ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/4 "2015-05-12T15:01:35Z")
I am proud to say that I watched every episode from year two through year five or so, cheering on great performances, whinging at the screeches and skill-less auditions and clumsy dancing and staging, hoping certain ones win and celebrating their post-season successes. It was such a big deal in its first year that after missing the first season we needed to watch it to know what everyone else at work was talking about. It probably got more attention from my friends than the Superbowl does. Never voted, however, and stopped watching after Steve Tyler’s first season. Like a old tired dog, it’s time for it to go. (I liked the Gong Show too!) ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/5 "2015-05-17T19:25:34Z")
Eight or ten years ago, I knew EXACTLY what my opinion of American Idol was and could give you a POINTED, DETAILED reaction to the news that it was ending. The best that I could say for it was that it never reached the point of being completely unbearable. Yeah, Simon Cowell was a royal tool, yeah, Stephen Tyler was simply too creepy and spastic for this, yeah, the booing got unbelievably tiresome by about the second episode, yeah, having high school kids sing my flippin’ parents’ music didn’t make a lick of sense. And yet somehow it was a success, and for a while I (who only ever started watching because my parents and then-coworkers were into it) actually got genuinely interested for a while. It harbored no illusions over what it was…an attempt to find the next marketable, photogenic, prepackaged, harmless triple-vanilla flash-in-the-pan fluff pop prince(ss)…so it didn’t have to constantly reinvent itself and implement a hundred annoying gimmicks. Compare that to Dancing With The Stars, where every single minute is so loaded and pretentious and cloying that I get winded just goddam writing about it, or The Voice, which was never anything but a soul-numbing catfight with the “contestants” being largely meaningless pawns. Come to think of it, if you wanted an example where the reality TV format (which I affectionately refer to as “anuddah-wun-bite-da-dus’”) actually _worked_, you really couldn’t do much better. Other than season 3 and The Seventh Place Elimination Heard 'Round The World, I can’t really point to a time where there was someone who deserved the win more. Jordin Sparks earned it, David Cook earned it, Kris Allen earned it, hell _yes_ Taylor Hicks earned it, and by the time Lee Dewyze rolled around, my interest had trailed off enough that I couldn’t even _name_ anyone else who was in that season. In fact, the only real shocker I remember was Jennifer Hudson\*; otherwise, for the most part, the ones who were supposed to make it did. And credit where its due: when it comes to actually making music stars, no other show is even close. Kelly Clarkson, the legend in the making, Carrie Underwood, queen of the heartland, Adam Lambert, the insanely popular R&B groundbreaker, Chris Daughtry, the inexplicable alt-rock survivor, Jennifer Hudson, the phoenix, Jasmine Trias, unlikely diva of the Phillippines, Scotty McCreery, the next Garth Brooks, and it goes on. If The Voice produces makes even a quarter of the impact on the music world, it’ll be a damned miracle. When it comes to making a difference, building a legacy, being remembered ten or twenty or eighty years from now, there probably won’t be a realtiy show close to AI. _Maybe_ Survivor. And given that the current contest is all but unrecognizable to the initial fans, even that doesn’t look likely. - Seriously, you could make a documentary about this. You think 19 Entertainment or Company That Took Over From 19 Entertainment regrets letting her slip through their fingers? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/6 "2015-05-19T02:41:16Z")
I think I might have watched one of the audition shows back when it was still kind of a big thing, but that’s pretty much it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/7 "2015-05-19T04:03:49Z")
I never understand why people get so worked up about shows they don’t watch. Why not just ignore it? ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/8 "2015-05-19T14:24:00Z")
American Idol in its heyday was a force. Contestants didn’t have to win to be successful afterwards. That one guy who exited very early (I don’t even think he was top 10) had a TV show on the Discovery Channel. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/9 "2015-05-19T17:38:37Z")
Now they need to cancel _Dancing with the Stars_. That show has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for “stars” for years now. ETA: These days, the professional dancers are bigger stars than at least 2/3 of the celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/10 "2015-05-19T20:17:17Z")
I was into Idol for a couple of years but eventually lost interest. However. If they were to pull a Survivor and bring back a bunch of winners and audience favorites for a big blowout final season, I would so watch that. Could you imagine Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood going head to head? Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry? Let’s see if fledgling politician, Clay Aiken, still has the pipes! American Idol: Creme de la Creme. They could even have auditions for only people that had already been on the show. Oh, the possibilities! ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-idol-ending-in-2016/719827/11 "2015-05-20T00:11:15Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I never understand why people get so worked up about shows they don’t watch. Why not just ignore it? It wasn’t something you could ignore if you tried. It was clogging up the entire schedule of the network and making it impossible to watch many Fox shows while it was running. Jerks wouldn’t shut up talking about it on the talkshows or even (light) news shows. The internet wouldn’t shut up about it. No, you didn’t have to watch the show itself, I never did, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still have an utterly annoying impossible to avoid impact on anyone who wasn’t some sort of “I don’t even have a TV” hipster. Thankfully it’s been a few years since it’s had that sort of impact, but I’m still hella glad it’s ending for good. I’m surprised it didn’t limp along on cable in some sort of reduced form for a few years first, though.