May 22 2008
American Idol Finale Out-FOXes DVRs
We watched the American Idol Finale on our flaky little Comcast DVR last night right up to the big moment. “And the Winner of American Idol is, David…” and then the recording stopped. What!?!? I knew it was going to be a David, that’s all we had. Which David?!?! Here’s what it looked like for DVR users.
Yes, Fox ran long with their American Idol Finale and the DVR stopped as scheduled.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Idol’s numbers were down; Wednesday’s finale drew an audience of 30.7 million, compared with last year’s 36.4 million. However online chat groups and other fan sites were sprinkled with complaints yesterday because the megahit ran several minutes over its scheduled two hours of programming, causing many DVR and TiVo users to miss recording the selection of Sparks as the next American Idol.
Should have seen that one coming a mile away. That’s one way to make sure people are watching your shows live, mess-up their recorders. Ironically, the FOX plan may backfire. To find out what happened, I’m sure most DVR users turned to the Internet which is exactly what the networks want to avoid. Maybe they out-FOXed themselves.
