Back in mid-May of this year, my wife called her sister, Sarah, in Houston, Texas, only to be told that she had to hang up: Sarah’s son, Nathan, an 8 year old, needed the phone line in order to vote for Ruben.  Then she, Sarah, said not to worry, she was voting for Clay via internet to block her son’s choice. When my wife asked her what she was talking about, Sarah said “American Idol! You know!” and hung up her phone so Nathan could make his call.
        At the conclusion of its second season on Fox, the copy-cat television show, American Idol, became one of the industry’s most watched programs of the season, reaching over 30% of all viewers during its time slot.  It drew in excess of 34 million viewers for the final show of the season with 24 million votes being cast for the ultimate winning amateur performer.
        That performer was Ruben Studdard, a 25 year old Birmingham, Alabama native who sang his rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” as his winning performance.  His was one of the closest margins of victory imaginable: fewer than 130,000 votes separated him from his challenger, Clay Aiken, a 24 year old Raleigh, North Carolina resident.  By mid June, 2003, Clay had become the ultimate victor as his newly released single outsold Ruben’s by about the same margin of Ruben’s t.v. victory.  Both vocalists had been granted major recording contracts as a result of their appearance on American Idol and a guarantee that each would release a single on the same day.  This didn’t end it.  In early July, Ruben came out with his video, preempting Clay’s return to television.  In other words, the notion of winning is distinctly connected to final tallies—Clay vs. Ruben or Ruben vs. Clay is far from over. It will continue until the next American Idol is crowned in May, 2004, and could very possibly continue even beyond that.
        I refer to American Idol as a copy-cat program.  It is based on the hit British t.v. show called Pop Idol.  An import, American Idol when it premiered in 2002 was an instant success as Kelly Clarkson, a 20 year pop singer from Burleson, Texas, beat Justin Guarini, 23, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.  Their fifteen minutes of fame continued as their feature film, Hollywood style, was released during the heated climax of the show’s second season.  The motion picture, From Justin to Kelly, scored big time with teenage girls just as Clay’s and Ruben’s singles proved popular well beyond their t.v. escapade.
        In my title, I falsely claim the show as being a “phenomenon.”  It is far from that.  “Reality t.v.” as it is called today in the United States has been a “reality” since the media’s inception with some of its most noteworthy experiences resulting from same.  Examples of “reality” from the early days include original teleplays being broadcast live, ala the stage, creating what many critics have claimed to be television’s greatest moments.  Another example, similar to American Idol, would be Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour which used many of the same tactics employed by the present day version:  1) a nationwide search for talent using local and regional contests to narrow the field, 2) live telecasts of the finals with a resulting winner who upon occasion emerged as a star, and 3) the use of popular music as the preferred musical selections.  Ted Mack even used live voting techniques such as telephone calls and letters. The Original Amateur Hour predates television: it began in 1934 on radio as Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour.  Ted Mack became host in 1948 and stayed with the program as its radio voice until 1952 and as a television program until 1970.  Like American Idol, the Original Amateur Hour had its spin-offs.  Just as the contestants on American Idol compete for a professional recording contract, the Original Amateur Hour’s participants, even those who failed to make the finals, were often engaged as participants in the traveling stage show which toured the country.  At one point, there were actually five of these touring companies taking the Original Amateur Hour into all parts of North America.  The program had its successes: such talents as Paul Winchell (ventriloquist), Gladys Knight, and Pat Boone were discoveries made by Ted Mack.
        Another early example of “real t.v.” was Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, which also came to television after a major success on radio.  Beginning on ABC Radio in 1938, Godfrey moved to t.v. in 1948 where he remained as a fixture every Monday evening for ten years.  At one point, Godfrey’s half hour show was the number one rated program on the air.  The winner of each airing was selected by the studio audience using an “applause meter” to determine each contestant’s popularity.  Perhaps one of the greatest moments of the program was provided by Patsy Cline who sent the “applause meter” off the scale.  Others who emerged with stellar careers out of the Talent Scouts were Tony Bennett, Eddie Fisher, Leslie Uggams, Lenny Bruce, and Connie Francis.
        It seems that television has rarely been void of amateur talent shows.  Perhaps the most notorious of the group appeared during the mid-seventies in the form of “The Gong Show.”  At its heart, the telecast was a spoof of talent shows in general.  Each week, amateur performers with outrageous bits of exhibitionism appeared before a panel of three judges who rated each on individual merits with the winner taking home a paltry $516.  If the act was too much to bear, the judges had the option of “gonging” the performer off.  The idea for the “gong” originated with Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour radio program and was resurrected for application on the television medium.
        Even today, American Idol is not the only amateur show on U.S. television.  Star Search has been a staple on CBS for years.  Rather than a single competition as managed by American Idol, Star Search has four categories: Junior Singer, Model, Comedian, and Adult Singer, contestants in each area vying for cash prizes.  In American Idol, the prize is a recording contract, worth far more that cash, thus raising the stakes. Perhaps because of this, Star Search has not achieved the instant gratification and national response that its competitor enjoys.
        Though only in its third year, American Idol has succeeded in generating a significant audience and consequently a place in television history.  It has done this, I feel, as a result of three factors and programming decisions.  1) Contestants rely on popular music for their competition pieces.  Pop numbers require more talent and less glitz to achieve satisfaction.  Few people are going to argue the musicianship of individuals who can render classic pop songs in a fashion that is in touch with the original performances while also exposing the amateur’s uniqueness.  I recall my personal sense of satisfaction as Clay Atkins gave an excellent interpretation of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”  2) Contestants are confronted immediately by a set of three judges who are actually critics.  The judges are viewing the performances less as a contest and more as an audition: after all, it is they who will have to live with the choices made by the audience as they will indeed be granting the last one standing a recording contract and all that that prospect offers.  The commentary offered by the critics is curt, sometimes sarcastic, perhaps even hurtful, but always professional.  It gives the audience opportunities to witness and learn from slicing and sometimes uplifting criticism while watching the faces of the performers, suffering joy and sorry and even anger vicariously.  3) The viewing audience can make a decision and participate in the final choice immediately.  Perhaps, of all the elements contributing to the success of American Idol, this, the presence of electronic technology, is the most crucial.  The viewing audience is in charge of the ultimate dispensation, something that Americans have come to appreciate and even enjoy.  It parallels the political process in our country; even the producers of American Idol (back to showbiz) acknowledged this factor as the final tallies were recorded ala political election night: “Contestant A has just taken Florida in a squeaker!”
        It is this factor, the electronic balloting process, which I find most intriguing.  It is mind boggling to conceive of twenty four million people choosing to vote on who wins American Idol.  It is even more mind boggling to discover that the final decision was something of a dead heat: a 130,000 vote differential is negligible with some actually contesting the final decision since there was no limit as to how many times a person could actually vote.
        A comparison might assist in establishing the extraordinary response to American Idol and its two finalists. My comparison comes from professional baseball.  During the months of May, June, and July each summer, fans of major league baseball are given the opportunity to vote for their favorite players in both leagues and at each position in an effort to determine which big leaguer will participate in the annual mid-summer All Star Game. The fans actually select the starting line-ups for each league, having a chance to vote for each position as many times as they wish.  Ballots are handed out to fans who attend games.  But more importantly, it is possible to cast votes electronically, and Major League Baseball makes a point of this possibility each time there is a televised game—which happens as many as ten times a week once the basketball season is over.  That reflects a significant amount of air time pushing the opportunity to vote.  One would expect, due to the enormous value and respect that baseball holds in America, that Major League Baseball would be overwhelmed by the voters.
        Not so.  Most starting positions for both leagues were filled by players with fewer than 500,000 votes each.  Keep in mind that the All Star balloting covers three months, not a single night. Also keep in mind that Major League Baseball calls itself “America’s Game:” meaning, one would surmise, that professional baseball is the most meaningful, if not most popular, sport in the entire country.  Americans began playing baseball professionally before the turn of the twentieth century; it reportedly began being played by amateurs during the American Civil War.  In other words, it has been around a long long time.  And in recent days when disruptive strikes have been threatened between players and owners, Congress as well as the President of the United States has become involved, implying a certain value being placed on baseball as an enterprise, as a national pastime.  Finally, many major league players have bonuses built into their basic contracts that click in at all star time; for instance, Gary Sheffield of the Atlanta Braves received a $50,000 bonus by being selected by the fans as the starting right fielder in 2003.  Yet, in spite of all these factors (length of voting period, popularity of the event, the importance of baseball to Americans, performance bonuses), the number of votes cast by American citizens for the best players in both leagues pales when compared to the votes cast in a two hour period for Studdard and Aikens, two unknowns, two amateurs.
        American Idol and its success in a timeless effort to ballyhoo the amateur raises some interesting prospects for the successful showbiz marriage of music and technology.  It is a marriage that is founded on a sense excellence with a trust in the public, a public educated on the spot by the acerbic judges/critics and given the tools with which to decipher between that which is glitz and that which is genuinely talented.  I cannot help but feel that knowledge of and appreciation for pop music will be enhanced and perhaps propelled into a new future with the technological strategies being applied to the task with a high level of success.  Of course, these aspects of the television program are peripheral in that the only thing that really matters is the showbiz portion of my equation: the marriage of musicianship and technology will continue only as long as it proves profitable.  That’s showbiz.  But just as American Idol takes Arthur Godfrey’s and Ted Mack’s idea of amateur hour and expands it to accommodate millions of new, contemporary viewers, something new will soon come along that will extend American Idol into unforeseen arenas.  I look forward to that prospect, the next generation of musicianship and technology.
American Idol has already begun its “star search” for the next round of competitions which will reach a climax in May, 2004.  Given the enormous popularity of the recently completed event, the 2004 telecast could predictably become the most watched television show of all time.  If so, it will be a testament to the fruitful marriage of showbiz, musicianship, and technology.