When the sixth season of American Idol ends tonight with the crowning of a new winner, no one will mourn its departure more than local TV station executives such as Bill Fanshawe.
For five months, Fox's megahit talent show has boosted late local news ratings on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings by an astounding margin - in some cases by more than 300 percent. Indeed, the show, which this year commanded an average nightly audience of 29.8 million, is so powerful that it has reshaped some local Fox newscasts.
"American Idol has a huge impact on local news - and it's not just here, but across the country," says Fanshawe, general manager of Baltimore's Fox 45. "We draw audiences for our late news on Tuesday and Wednesday nights after Idol that are sometimes three- or fourfold what we normally do."
Industry professionals for years have been aware of the much-touted "Oprah Factor" - the documented power of Oprah Winfrey's afternoon talk show to increase ratings for early evening local newscasts that follow.
But this year, the ripple effect of American Idol during its 20-week season surpasses that of the syndicated daytime talk show by far. While the Oprah Factor typically boosts newscast viewership by up to 25 percent, increases for newscasts that follow American Idol can be as high as 325 percent. And those gains are being made with young viewers, the ones advertisers want most.
Even the competition acknowledges the power of Idol to rearrange the local news landscape.
"American Idol absolutely has a pronounced effect on local news ratings," says Jordan Wertlieb, president and general manager of market-leading WBAL (Channel 11), the Baltimore station that carries The Oprah Winfrey Show. "It is similar to the Oprah Factor, though I'd point out that Oprah is on all year delivering those ratings, while Idol only airs from January through May."
Nielsen ratings for WBFF offer a vivid snapshot of what's happening in local markets coast to coast: Last November, when Idol was not on the air, WBFF's 10 p.m. newscast on Tuesdays and Wednesdays drew 23,408 viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 - the demographic most desired by advertisers and the most difficult to attract.
In February, with Idol up and running, that audience jumped to 99,792 young adults.
Overall, WBFF's Tuesday and Wednesday night news audiences more than doubled, from 84,134 viewers in November to 179,124 in February, making the 10 p.m. news program the highest-rated late local newscast on those two nights. (By nearly every other measure, WBAL is the overall leader in late local news.)
