'American Idol' Will End Its Run in 2016

Photo "American Idol," with judges Keith Urban, left, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr., is nearing the end of its 14th season. Credit Ray Mickshaw/Fox

At its height, American Idol minted breakout stars and drew more than 30 million viewers an episode. It was the No. 1 broadcast show for eight years, provided a boon to an ailing music industry and was the sort of appointment television that industry executives are desperately trying to recreate.

That was then. The show has aged and the singing competition genre has faded. In recent years the Idol audience has eroded at an alarming rate, with losses in total viewership in eight of the last nine seasons. This season, it is drawing under nine million viewers, its fewest ever.

Its demise seemed inevitable, and on Monday it finally came. Fox announced that it would shut down Idol, one of the most popular and dominant reality shows, after its 15th season concludes next year.

It was not an easy decision, Gary Newman, the co-chief executive of the Fox Television Group, said on a conference call with reporters, ahead of the networks presentation of its fall lineup to advertisers. American Idol has been such a vital part of Fox for its run.

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American Idol has made a habit of creating stars some who have managed to ride their Idol fame to bigger singing and acting careers, while others have struggled to make a name for themselves beyond the show.

American Idol began in 2002 and was a huge success just as reality shows began sweeping through all of television. The show not only established itself as a ratings powerhouse but spawned a series of amateur singing competitions that strove to duplicate its successful formula, including The X Factor and The Voice. Its acerbic, wisecracking British-born judge, Simon Cowell, became a star in the United States. With its strong ratings, Idol was a huge driver of revenue for Fox.

It also became influential in the cultural conversation surrounding television as its seasons gained momentum toward the selection of an eventual winner.

The show became a launching pad for talented amateur singers, giving rise to the careers of stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson, as well as Clay Aiken, Jordin Sparks, Katharine McPhee and Adam Lambert.

Photo Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell were the original judges on American Idol, a ratings juggernaut for years. Credit Kevin Winter/Getty Images

At its peak, American Idol was a juggernaut for record sales. In 2007, Idol-related titles represented 2.1 percent of all album sales, according to Nielsen.

For a struggling music industry, it provided other benefits as well, like boons for songwriters and publishers of featured music. In 2008, Sony/ATV, which publishes most of the Beatles catalog, negotiated a lucrative deal to have the show feature the groups songs for two full weeks.

And the annual concert series titled American Idol Live, which has been running since 2002 with contestants from the show, has grossed at least $217 million in ticket sales, according to the trade publication Pollstar.

Photo Jennifer Hudson in 2004. Credit Ray Mickshaw/Fox, via AP

The biggest-selling American Idol star is Carrie Underwood, the fourth-season winner, who has sold about 15 million albums, won seven Grammys and in December 2013 sang the role of Maria Von Trapp in NBCs live broadcast of The Sound of Music. Kelly Clarkson, who won the first season, has sold nearly 14 million albums and remains a major attraction; Piece by Piece, her seventh studio album, opened at No. 1 on Billboards chart in March.

But in recent years the show has provided diminishing returns in record sales. Caleb Johnson, for example, who won the 13th season in 2014, opened at No. 24 with his album Testify, and in its second week the album fell to No. 131.

Its waning influence in the music world reflected its decline on TV. As its format grew old and it faced increasing competition from other talent shows, American Idol suffered a steady drop in viewers, especially in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic that is most attractive to advertisers. The current season has drawn just a 2.1 Nielsen rating in that age bracket, down from the 12.6 rating it recorded in season 5.

Photo Kelly Clarkson on stage during the 2002 "American Idol" finale. Credit Fred Prouser/Reuters

The last season of American Idol will begin in January, Fox said Monday. The longtime host, Ryan Seacrest, will be joined by the judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr.

Mr. Newman said the final season would be a true season-long celebration.

We really wanted to do it in a way that felt special and celebratory and treat the show the way it deserved to be treated, he said.

Photo Adam Lambert performing on "American Idol" in 2009. Credit Frank Micelotta/Fox

Fox made the announcement about Idol as it unveiled its fall lineup in a format known as the upfronts. The network said that another old Fox hit, The X-Files, would return as a limited series in January, and its first episode will be shown after Foxs broadcast of the always highly rated pro football N.F.C. championship game. The stars of the original show, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, will both return.

The biggest new hit on TV this season, Empire, will return on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., and begin again this September, Fox said. The network said that it would show 18 episodes next season, up from the 12 this year, and that it would split the season in two.

Fox, which is the fourth-rated broadcast network, will introduce a series of new shows after several flops last season. The new lineup includes Lucifer, which is based on a DC Comics series, and Minority Report, based on the futuristic 2002 movie starring Tom Cruise.

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Ryan Murphys Glee ended with little fanfare this year, but he will return with a new show, Scream Queens, which stars Emma Roberts and Jamie Lee Curtis. John Stamos will lead a new comedy called Grandfathered, and Rob Lowe and Fred Savage will star in The Grinder. Both shows will be shown on Tuesday.

Also on Monday, NBC presented its new lineup of shows. They include a variety show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and a reboot of Heroes titled Heroes Reborn. Other shows that will be introduced later in the season include one with Jennifer Lopez, Shades of Blue, and two medical shows, including Heartbreaker and a show by d**k Wolf, the creator of Law and Order, called Chicago Med.

NBC will also introduce several specials, including a TV movie featuring Dolly Parton and a live production of The Wiz.

At Foxs formal upfront presentation Monday afternoon at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, the network focused on its future and spent less than a minute on American Idol.

Its bittersweet to announce next season will be its last, Mr. Newman said. Its such an extraordinary story for Fox. You could not watch television over the last 14 years without being swept up in the phenomenon.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/business/media/american-idol-will-end-its-run-in-2016.html