They concluded the Austin, Texas, and San Francisco audition shows Thursday night with yet another two-hour, too-long show. Ratings probably will dip again and there are reasons for that. Let’s explore…

Forestville hopeful, David Luning, passed the audition and is heading to Hollywood with a golden ticket. Click photo to read the Press Democrat article.

1 – The show is tired. The common refrain from that quotable “man on the street” goes something like this, “Oh, I watched it years ago, but there are so many reality shows on TV now. I didn’t even know American Idol was on TV any longer.” So, what can the Idol folks do about that? Answer: nothing. Take the compliment that they basically started the reality revolution and fade off into the sunset…OR do a complete redo, an Idol makeover if you will. Build a better car, put up a bigger bridge, speed up their internet connection. They are trying with baby steps (note the on-line in real time voting), but they don’t need baby steps they need a marathon.

2 – The audition shows are already in the can so there is no fixing those and they need fixing. It’s as if the judging trio of Harry/Jennifer/Keith have a quota of Golden tickets to hand out and it’s the end of the month for the Idol Police. Some of the aspiring “artists” are no more an “artist” than I am. Take Thursday night for example. There was one quickie trio of “untalent” that passed through Austin and picked up gold tickets that were very undeserving. It should have been like “Hello, good-bye” but no it was exciting jumping up and down. Ridiculous.

3 – The allotted performance time is generally dragging on way too long. One can only envision the old days of Idol and Simon closing the door at least 30 seconds quicker. In the past, as the show progressed the leaders of the pack only received 90 seconds to perform. Now some of the first-timers are getting that much or maybe more, at least it seems that way.

4 – And, finally, the two-hour time slot. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is coming up soon and it lasts two hours because there are an awful lot of dogs to be seen. Hummm? Are we witnessing something similar here?