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American Idol ‘winding down’

The future of 21st Century Fox’s hit reality series American Idol is in doubt after the firm’s president said the show was “winding down.”

American Idol has been a mainstay on Fox since 2002, with series finales proving to be the channel’s most-watched shows for eight years in a row up until 2011, attracting more than 36 million viewers in 2006 and 31 million in 2008.

The show’s finale last year attracted an audience of just over 14 million, however, and 21st Century Fox president Chase Carey said poor ratings for Idol and stablemate The X Factor had hit advertising revenues at the company’s TV unit.

Carey admitted during a conference call with analysts that ratings had “fallen faster than we hoped,” adding: “We know American Idol is winding down.”

American Idol was created by Simon Fuller and 19 Entertainment and is distributed by FremantleMedia North America, which coproduces with Core Media Group.

Core president Marc Graboff told C21 ahead of the latest season of Idol that he was “cautiously optimistic” the changes that had been made to the show would bear fruit, but acknowledged the format was in decline. The firm is looking to grow in other ways.

Meanwhile, Fremantle is also making contingency plans for both Idol and X Factor’s inevitable slowdown in popularity, branching out into drama and exploring a takeover of All3Media.

Carey’s comments came after the release of 21st Century’s quarterly results, which saw operating income before depreciation and amortisation at the broadcast TV division fall by 11% on the same period last year. Revenue from the firm’s cable networks rose 14%, however, and Carey was positive about the acquisition of The Simpsons for its new network FXX, which launched in September.

Overall revenue rose to US$8.16bn from US$7.11bn at the firm, which was formed last summer after the newspaper and publishing divisions of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp were split away from its broadcasting and film activities.

Part of that increase came after 21st Century’s acquisition of a controlling stake in German satcaster Sky Deutschland, which saw revenue jump by 66% to US$1.52bn.

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