American Idol and Howard Stern
Radio DJ Pushes Sanjaya Malakar To Reality Show Top 10
Howard Stern uses his King of All Media status to affect the hottest show on television.
While many people believe that American Idol is nothing more than a slickly marketed version of The Gong Show, none can deny its incredible mass appeal.
American Idol's Unthinkable Success
The show currently airs in 42 countries. It charges advertisers upwards of $700,000 for a 30-second commercial. The 2007 season premiere drew almost 38 million viewers. It has launched the careers of best-selling recording artist Kelly Clarkson and Oscar nominee Jennifer Hudson. Like it or not, American Idol is a very big show.
Howard Stern takes on Simon Cowell and American Idol
While no television competitor can touch Idol, it appears that a certain popular radio talk show host just might be able to. Howard Stern, known throughout the entertainment world as the King of all Media, has decided to take on the big show. It all began about a month ago, when Howard Stern, who is a huge fan of the show, told his audience of more than 6 million listeners to phone in votes for his favorite competitor, the 17-yeard old Sanjaya Malakar. Stern acknowledged that although Sanjaya was one of the least talented competitors left in the show, he would love to see his listeners vote him all the way to the title just to burn Idol’s producers and its pompous head judge, Simon Cowell.
Howard Stern’s proclamation had immediate impact. Despite an entire month of pretty lame performances that would get him kicked out of a high school talent show audition, America has voted every week to keep young Sanjaya on the show. As of March 29, 2007, Sanjaya was among the final nine contestants left in the hunt for the championship.
Howard Stern has the Power to Affect American Idol
Some discount the impact that Howard Stern’s campaign has had on the show. Idol producer Nygel Lithgoe said recently that he does not believe that either Stern or the website have had any effect on the show’s voting results. That seems a little bit silly.
First of all, while other talent-challenged contestants have been embraced by the public – most notably William Hung during the show’s third season – no competitor has gotten as far with as little talent.
Secondly, Stern has what some might describe as an insanely loyal fan base of more than six million listeners. While only a portion of them could realistically be expected to vote, the fans who are voting have reported to Stern that they are voting up to 100 times a show. With a total of 30 million votes registered each show for all contestants, it is not too difficult to calculate that even 10% of Stern’s audience would have a big impact on voting results.
Third, to discount Stern’s ability to influence pop culture is to ignore a mountain of evidence. In 1994, he briefly ran for governor of New York and used his radio show as a campaign platform. He was actually receiving up to 20% in early polls before he dropped out of the race. Then, in 1998, Stern mobilized his audience to land one of his frequent guests, who was known as Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, onto People magazine's list of most beautiful people in 1998. Stern called on his audience to vote for Hank, and they hijacked the poll, giving the loveable little boozer the edge over Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.
Will Simon Cowell Quit American Idol?
One of the most interesting aspects of the whole affair is the effect that it has had on Simon Cowell, the show's top judge who is famous for ripping the young hopefuls to pieces. Cowell has sworn that he will quit the show if Sanjaya wins. While this sounds like an idle threat, Cowell has a track record of taking such drastic actions. He left the English version show when he decided that UK audience voting patterns were getting "out of control."
As of April 5, 2007, Sanjaya Malakar had reached the Final Eight on the show. It should be very interesting to see if the Howard Stern effect can knock the American Idol juggernaut off its course.
