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Forums > American Idol > American Idol & Celebrity Lounge
Subject: AI 6 'Idols Live' tour now facing empty seats
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Username: Amanda
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Katharine Addict
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09/05/2007 9:16 AM Alert 
 
'Idols Live' tour now facing empty seats
 
Jordin Sparks & Co. didn't fill the seats like the Idols before them.
  Getty Images
Jordin Sparks & Co. didn't fill the seats like the Idols before them.
 96% VS. 63% CAPACITY

The 2007 American Idols Live tour is not doing nearly as well as last year’s edition.

Number of shows
-2006: 59
-2007*: 30

Gross receipts
-2006: $35.2 million
-2007: $12.1 million

Total attendance
-2006: 645,782
-2007: 200,047

Seats filled
-2006: 96.1%
-2007: 63.3%

* = To date
Source: Billboard Boxscore

--USA TODAY research by Anthony DeBarros
 
By Ken Barnes, USA TODAY
At the halfway point of the 2007 American Idols Live tour, ticket turnstiles are, to an alarming extent, standing idle.

Reports of attendance and gross receipts for the first 30 of the 57 shows scheduled for the tour, as recorded by Billboard Boxscore, show this year's crop of 10 Idol finalists is falling short of last year's concert performance.

•No sellouts were reported for the first 30 shows, and only one topped the 93% of capacity mark. (That was the show in Glendale, Ariz., Idol winner Jordin Sparks' home turf.) Of the 2006 tour's first 30 shows, 17 were sellouts and another 10 exceeded 93% of capacity.

•Nearly half (14) of the shows were below 60% of capacity. (Lowest was 38.9% in Birmingham, Ala., hometown of 2006 winner Taylor Hicks and 2003 champ Ruben Studdard.) In 2006, the lowest-capacity figure in the first 30 shows was 89.3%.

•The 2006 tour was the most successful to date, but 2005's was a lot healthier than the current version. Of the first 29 dates of 2005, 11 were sellouts and four more topped 93%.

So why is interest declining? Representatives from tour promoter AEG Live declined to comment, but Gary Bongiovanni, editor of touring trade publication and website Pollstar, says, "There are always intangibles that motivate people to see something live, and maybe there was something about last year's tour that people wanted to see vs. the acts this year."

That may be an understatement. According to former Variety music editor Don Waller, who served as a USA TODAY American Idol commentator over the past two seasons, this year's lineup is "not a compelling group of acts. There was no must-see live performer and not a lot of diversity."

He says last season's top four — Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry — were much more of an attraction than the leading finalists this year. He also believes there was less of a buzz this year. "I don't think people were that enthused. It was, 'Oh, here's the Idol tour again.' It was bad casting."
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09/05/2007 11:40 AM Alert 
Wow, well I'm not surprised, I never even bother to watch a single ep of that season.
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09/05/2007 2:10 PM Alert 
Yes and to me the change in format from last year's show was not an improvement.  One note, Blake Lewis, not Jordin Sparks attracted the most fan applause at the almost sold out show in San Jose!
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Katharine Addict
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09/05/2007 4:13 PM Alert 
Interesting... I think this just goes to show how AI is fading! Sad, because I still LOVE it! I actually went to the show this year too... and honestly, though I liked last year's contestants better as far as talent goes, this years show was better in my opinion. I absolutely loved it!
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09/05/2007 5:01 PM Alert 
I think last year's Idol was self indulgent and over inflated and was more about the show than the contestants.
Of course nothing could compare to season five for me, I'm just blindly prejudiced, but even the controversies
got old really quick. Even Sanjaya's hair, Haley's legs, and Antonella's... whatever... couldn't quite do it.
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09/10/2007 4:29 AM Alert 
That just goes to show who the star of the show was last year. Even so, I'm a bit surprised people didn't want to go see Jordin and Blake live this year. Not that I'm complaining that 'AI' is getting a bit of payback for being so sure that they had it made on the tour circuit.

For the record: I didn't go to the show this year in Portland--and probably never will again. Last year's show was well worth the money, though, but I intended it to be the only one I'd ever attend. It IS a good family event, however, and it's too bad that concert events where all ages can attend together may be dying out to some degree. As it is now, parents just drop off their kids to Top 40 concerts they don't give a damn about (or ones they fear they'll get tinnitus at from the teenybops screaming). The 'AI' touring show wasn't much different on the screaming levels--yet I saw every age group in the audience there, which is rare.

So I'm a bit mixed about the news on that. Hearing Jordin live must have been a thrill though--along with Blake keeping people entertained. This might be the final nail in the coffin (hopefully temporary) with power ballad singers with big voices being in the forefront of popularity. People's sense of what makes a great singer is evolving into strange directions lately--and 'AI' may have to take that into consideration when they say it's a "singing contest."

It's basically getting to the place where perfect singing is becoming annoying for a lot of people who spend money on concert tickets. In that regard--'American Idol' may have to take the title of that popular British show with Simon (more stealing from British television) and call it the 'X Factor.'
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Katharine Addict
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09/10/2007 6:36 AM Alert 
The Idols tour seats are pretty expensive and lately not worth the money. Greg, you may be right when you speculate that the days of the big power ballad are waning. The buzz behind Jordin, Blake, Melinda, Lakisha et al seems to be scarce if non-existent. We may see our girl stick to the movies.
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09/10/2007 7:32 PM Alert 
Wow I am coming out of my hiding to post here. hehe. I must say those results are shocking. I won tickets to the show this year and I must say it beat the other concert I saw this summer. They were really entertaining but I can see where people are coming from. The tickets are ridiculous prices and I am not going to lie, I didnt attend last years show because of the price. I am still kind of shocked that nobody wants to go to this years show though. Chris and Blake are a kick and Jordin blew it out of the park. I found it well worth th money that
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09/15/2007 1:30 PM Alert 
Posted By sweetestdisaster22 on 09/10/2007 7:32 PM
Wow I am coming out of my hiding to post here. hehe. I must say those results are shocking. I won tickets to the show this year and I must say it beat the other concert I saw this summer. They were really entertaining but I can see where people are coming from. The tickets are ridiculous prices and I am not going to lie, I didnt attend last years show because of the price. I am still kind of shocked that nobody wants to go to this years show though. Chris and Blake are a kick and Jordin blew it out of the park. I found it well worth th money that


I'm glad you came out of "hiding" to post.  What is a bit misleading is the revenue number above should have a  "*" denoting To Date as well, omitting that will leave the implication that the gate revenue has dropped from $30,000,000 to $10,000,000 when in fact it will be close to $20,000,000.

A lot of people did want to go to the show but won't because the price increase takes it out of their range price wise.  Although the T.V. rating were down this year the fall off in Idol's Live Tour attendance is more about lack of buzz and ticket prices.  There are still a lot of people in the Idol fan base that just didn't put in the  ticket order this year.

I'm not surprised that Jordin "blew it out of the park" and I'm so glad she won after what happened the year before.  
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09/15/2007 8:30 PM Alert 
In the Seattle area, the tour played a ~10,000-seat arena for the AI4 tour, then went to a ~23,000-seat arena for the AI5 & AI6 tours. Now it was a sellout or near-sellout for Kat's tour (which I sadly missed), but I don't think they came close for this latest season's contestants, even though it was the hometown stop for Blake and Sanjaya. The tour's promoters might have been a little too greedy in booking the bigger venue again.
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09/16/2007 1:34 PM Alert 
It really wasn't fair for the promoters to use AI5 as a bar for success of the tour. AI5 had bona fide stars performing, but a 10,000 seat venue is big enough for any Idol group. The bigger the venue, the worse the acoustics. The AI6 Tour hasn't been doing that well anywhere. A bit surprising considering the talent. I'm thinking Melinda, Jordin, Lakisha, Gina, not really Sanjaya. JMHO, but it's disrespectful for a performer to have a poor turnout in their home town.
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09/17/2007 9:43 PM Alert 
IIRC, the Seattle stop drew about 12,000 fans, so it would've sold out the previous venue, but not the one used nor the 17,000 arena for the local NBA team. And I don't consider my town an especially nurturing place for local talent. If more of the finalists came from the Southeastern states, maybe there would've been more local support and then national buzz.
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Forums > American Idol > American Idol & Celebrity Lounge > AI 6 'Idols Live' tour now facing empty seats


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