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American Idol Alum Explains Why Singing Competitions No Longer Producers Superstars: The Networks Don’t Care Whether The Artists Succeed Or Not
Without Googling, can anybody tell me who was crowned the winner of The Voice this week? Or who this year's winner of American Idol was? Or...well, the winner of any singing competition from the past 10 years?
I know I can't.
If you're not old enough to remember the early days of American Idol, it was the first of the major televised singing competitions, and it was a cultural phenomenon when it first came out. Idol was basically a must-see weekly event, and some of the names from those early seasons have gone on to become household names and major superstars.
The show has produced stars like Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson and Kellie Pickler. But if you'll notice, all of those names are from the early season of the show, and most people couldn't even name a contestant from the past decade.
Idol has now completed 22 seasons, after being briefly cancelled by FOX in 2016 before being brought back on ABC two years later. And of course the judges are now completely different. When I was watching Idol, it was as much for judge Simon Cowell as it was for the contestants. But now the panel consists of Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, who will be replacing Katy Perry in the upcoming season.
Meanwhile, NBC's answer to Idol's success was The Voice, which has been a ratings hit for the network with its rotating cast of "coaches" like Blake Shelton, Reba McEntire, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson. But again, can anybody even name a winner from recent seasons, much less a contestant?
These shows just don't have the same firepower when it comes to creating a superstar that they used to.
And of course the conventional wisdom is that they've just gotten old and people are sick of them. But Idol alum Clay Aiken, who is one of the show's biggest successes despite coming in second place to winner Ruben Studdard back in season 2, has a different theory about why nobody becomes a superstar from the show anymore: Basically, the network doesn't care.
During a recent appearance on the Zach Sang Show podcast, Aiken was asked whether he thought these singing competitions could ever get back to producing superstars again. And he explained how things have changed since his time on the show, with the production companies no longer having a vested interest in the artists' success:
"I think that has a lot to do with who produces the show and who owns it...
When we were on the show, the show was owned by and produced by 19 Entertainment, which was our record label and our management company also. So they were also producing the show...The people who came off the show would then become artists on their record label and for their management company, which meant that the show had a vested interest in making sure that those artists became career artists."
But the production company sold much of its stake in Idol, and at that point the show was largely owned by the network - which no longer cared about the artists' success after the show, and only worried about ratings:
"The network had really no vested interest in whether the artists became big stars or not. The network needed a good show that rated well, that now got shared well on social media, and if the artist did well? Who cares. Because they didn't have a stake in them afterwards."
Aiken says that it's the same situation for The Voice over on NBC:
"The Voice has been a successful TV show. Not trying to talk crap about it, but I don't think most people know who's won The Voice or been on The Voice in a year. But the ratings do well because they like the judges.
So it's a different thing now. They're creating a different kind of show."
Of course the only people this really hurts are the artists who go on these shows hoping to jump-start their career. And sure, if they do well then chances are they'll have an easier time finding success in the music business because their name is already out there and they have a built-in fanbase.
But as Aiken says, these shows no longer have a vested interest in whether an artist succeeds or not. What do they care if they have the next Carrie Underwood on the show if the ratings aren't good?
https://www.tiktok.com/@zachsangshow/video/7447323811717942559
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