Could the timing of American Idol’s return be just right?
In the age of President Trump, this schmaltz fest isn’t such a bad thing
As “Peak TV” continues its must-see reign on cable and once-proud broadcast networks find their big-ticket shows descending into a ratings abyss, ABC has done the unthinkable.
It’s taken a faded franchise put out of its misery barely two years ago by Fox and quietly snuck it back on the air.
When I say “quietly snuck” I mean with the usual bulldozing billboards and magazine puff pieces announcing that the Grand Wazoo of Talent Competitions, “American Idol,” is back.
The critical reaction: Meh. It’s a museum piece. Its day is done. Who cares?
And yet, watching its debut episode last Sunday I couldn’t shake the feeling that this historic artifact of post-9/11 escapism, with its iconic logo and feel good messaging, has come back at exactly the right time.
“Every once in a while a Martian lands,” judge Lionel Richie intoned after an endearing hyper-nerd unleashed a selfpenned anthem about equality. “And we happen to see the Martian.”
I have no idea what his point was, nor was I impressed with fellow judge Luke Bryan, a gee whiz cowpoke I initially mistook for Jethro from “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Katy Perry — whose $25-million salary is more than double that of her judging cohorts — was a smarter investment: glamorous, wacky, with a cheerful irreverence that suits the show’s absurd wholesomeness (despite a contrived miniscandal when she kissed a male contestant).
This isn’t 2006, when Taylor Hicks trumped Katharine McPhee and “Idol” hit a peak of 31 million viewers before fizzling gradually over the next 10 years.
But there’s something about a show that’s broad, funny and wallows in poignant narratives of triumph over adversity that serves as a bracing counterpoint to the outraged blathering about Donald Trump on CNN.
It’s been a riotous two years in pop culture, with a schism as wide as the ones that separated pre- and post-Beatlemania, Woodstock and 9/11, the result of tectonic shifts that, if you weren’t paying attention, would make you think you were on a dif-
ferent planet.
Since the ascension of Trump in November 2016, social mores have once again had a complete makeover, with the #MeToo, #TimesUp and #NeverAgain movements acting as impassioned backlashes to the bully-inchief’s backward stances on gender, race and gun control.
So it was no surprise when films like “Wonder Woman” and “The Black Panther,” with their embedded calls for inclusion and diversity, broke box office records or that autism-friendly “The Good Doctor” is the season’s No. 1 new show.
Nor was it a surprise when the revived “Celebrity Apprentice” pioneered by Trump a decade ago bombed when it returned with mild-mannered Arnold Schwarzenegger as host.
Who wants to watch a toneddown reality show about people getting fired when the guy who pioneered the concept is breaking bad in real life with 24-hour news coverage?
But the knife rubs two ways. And a show like Idol, which seemed like a limp, worn out echo of past greatness when it signed off at the tail end of the Obama era, now seems soothing, unifying, amiably empowering.
“We need those beautiful stories right now to help lift us up, inspire us and believe in ourselves again,” Perry told media.
In Sunday’s opener, there were segments that touched on the injustices of racism, sexism and the challenges of the disabled in a way that not only made tear ducts flow, but bridged the gap between left and right, young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican.
Contrived? Schmaltzy? Manipulative? Hey, don’t act as if those are negative things.
“People on the airwaves always preach who I should be/ How to dress/ How to talk/ Baby, how to breathe,” crooned a buoyantly energetic Joni Mitchell clone whose identification with the grassroots uprising shaking America’s core is unmistakable.
While it’s best not to read too much into mass produced corporatized mainstream entertainment, there’s no denying that a show like this, a stylized Rorschach of America, could find resonance in a post-Trump universe.
“When the TV show ‘24’ came out in November 2001, everybody said, ‘OK, we’re now post-9/11!’” points out pop culture prof Bob Thompson, noting the time-clock drama about counterterrorism was “in the pipeline” well before the infamous Attack on America.
“But because of Sept. 11, it took on a kind of focused relevance it would not have had if 9/11 hadn’t happened.”
But hold on, caution critics. While Idol’s season six première in 2007 trounced its rivals with a record 36 million viewers — earning the show its fearsome “Death Star” moniker — Sunday’s return drew just 10.5 million.
This makes it not only the lowest rated debut since Idol’s inaugural season, but lower than “The Voice,” an Idol offshoot that employs that show’s former contestants as judges.
And consider the fate of the last four Idol champs, whose names no one remembers and who went on to do, well, frankly, I have no idea.
Candice Glover. Caleb Johnson. Nick Fradiani. Trent Harmon. Ringing any bells?
On the other hand, 10.5 million is a hell of a lot of viewers for a show everyone wrote off as dead, especially when you consider the broadcast terrain of 2018 is nothing like 2002, the year of Idol’s debut.
In that pre-streaming, preYouTube age, network shows were immune to the escalating roster of niche programs that have since torpedoed the viewership of even populist spectacles like the Oscars and Grammy Awards.
“As the pool of programming chaos gets bigger and bigger, everything is going to go down in ratings,” notes Thompson, who teaches at New York’s Syracuse University.
“Since we started this conversation, Netflix has probably released five new series.”
Thompson doesn’t totally buy my premise that Idol will click in 2018 because, once again, we need it.
But he’s not disputing it, either. “Do we want this now because of Trump, or do we want ‘The Bachelor’?” he muses, comparing Idol’s feel-good vibe to the dating show that voyeuristically depicts romantic breakups in cringing detail.
On the other hand, “there is a great cultural shift in the zeitgeist that happens now and again. And certainly this election season qualifies.”
Bottom line, he says, is whatever the season, Idol is “a very wellexecuted show.”
“Even though you don’t want to admit it, they put together these stories very well and if you are even half-conscious while watching, you can’t help but be drawn into it.
“In the turbulent times we’re living in, we need a little Christmas.”