When one contemplates the merits of television, their contemplation is focused mainly on the programming, not the complex industry that is television. In this essay, the concept of television as an industry will be discussed as it relates to American Idol and H. Jenkin's assessment regarding the "selling" of reality television as it relates to American Idol. As the most viewed reality show on television to date, American Idol is a near-perfect representation of the television industry and its effects on society.
Television possesses a unique and symbiotic relationship with many other industries due to its reliance on advertising to survive. When one watches a television program, that individual is practically assaulted with product placement. From targeted commercial blocks to in-show advertising, the industry owes its survival to the numerous product advertisements.
No show has better epitomized this relationship between advertising and products than American Idol. Jenkins opens his assessment by describing the difficulty experienced by cell phone companies to promote text messaging to an American audience in relation to European countries. He then gives the statistic from AT&T that of the 27 million individuals who now text, one-third had never texted prior to voting on American Idol. He quotes an AT&T spokesperson as saying, "Our venture with FOX has done more to educate the public and get people texting than any marketing activity in this country to date" (Jenkins 59). One statistic states that the number of text messaging users are up to at least 68.7 million in the US alone.
American Idol is unique in that it has an unprecedented number of "loyals," as Jenkins would refer to them. He discusses this concept in terms of "lovemarks and emotional capital" (Jenkins 68). By this phrase, Jenkins is referring the emotional investment required by a show to retain a loyal audience, as they must be willing to give heavily of their valuable time to follow the show. He discusses the way in which American Idol wants its fans to "feel the love" to achieve a level of loyalty "to the franchise and its sponsors" (Jenkins 70).
This concept is one crucial to the television industry as television is not very conducive to multi-tasking. For one to give up their valuable time in segments of a half-an-hour to an hour, a certain amount of loyalty must be present. But as previously stated, when one becomes loyal to a program or franchise, they often translate that loyalty to the brand sponsors. But it is worth noting that in the present day, loyalty is slightly easier to achieve with the advent of DVRs.
However, in the case of American Idol, this loyalty also extends beyond the show and its sponsers, as the contestants go on to generally successful musical careers. Through the brand loyalty and emotional bonds formed by viewers, they inadvertently become just as involved with the music industry as the television industry. One can see this shift even more in the most recent season of American Idol.
Apple and American Idol have partnered to release, each week through the iTunes store, the contestants' live performances in video format and a studio-recorded version of the song. Each video costs $1.99 and each song costs $.99, at least in the American store. It was projected that the sales of contestants' songs would actually outchart most, if not all, of the current top artists. Therefore, Apple made the decision to not even include them on the iTunes Charts. This type of interaction between the television and music industries is truly unprecedented, as not even MTV has such a solid and consistent hold over the music charts.
But the industry interaction does not stop here. The television industry has also found a way to partner with yet another major industry, that being the video game industry. American Idol has released multiple videogames with the newest being a very successful partnership with the Karaoke Revolution franchise. The game makes use of the actual voices of the judges to even further cement the tie from game to show.
With all of this partnership and advertising, both American Idol and its less successful counterparts have a somewhat complex challenge: maintaining the appearance of sincerity. One situation that has plagued American Idol is the seemingly suspicious vote count. Due to clogged lines and, on at least one occasion, an apparently mixed up phone line or message, American Idol viewers have come to suspect that just maybe there is a greedy conspiracy behind the face of this show.
Also appearing dishonest is the way in which certain candidates seem to be pushed by the judges due to their likelihood of making a better profit after the show. This was especially true of the 2006 show in which Katherine McPhee made the top two over infinitely better singers. It seemed as if the judges gave her an easy ride because of her cross-over appeal to the mainstream and non-Idol watching segments of the television and music industry due to her somewhat controversial image. According to Jenkins, "cynics saw the producers as being more interested in generating controversial and compelling programming than in recognizing talent" (Jenkins 90).
This becomes the catch-22 of the television industry, especially when dealing with reality shows and news shows. To keep viewers interested, the programming must be entertaining and engaging, yet the line between patronizing and engaging is such a fine one that the various franchises' credibility is always a delicate risk factor. Those shows that can overcome this tend to promote the highest level of loyalty, as seen by American Idol.
So as is apparent, the television industry fills a thoroughly unique role in the realm of media, as it relies heavily upon many different franchises and industries to keep it afloat, but also serves to increase capital for the industries with which it partners. The American audience has become unquestioning in their role as continuous consumers, and one has to ask whether or not this is truly healthy.
Thus the debate rages on, but I for one will consider the matter further once I return from watching tonight's episode and voting for David Cook. And as a sign of my defiance, I think I just may just physically call the toll-free number and keep my $.99.
