Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Katy Perry decked out as hand sanitizer for the first at-home performance show on American Idol. (ABC Photo)

But the episode was also the least watched of any performance show so far in Season 18.

Idol scored a 1.0 among viewers 19 to 49 Sunday night and drew an estimated 6.1 million viewers.

That’s higher than the ratings for the second of Idol’s two “This is Me” clip shows, which drew a 0.8 rating and 5.5 million viewers.

But it’s also the lowest rating this season for show that featured all new performances.

The second part of the Hawaii showcase round was the previous lowest rated at 1.2 with 6.9 million viewers.

Overall, I thought Idol handled the first at-home performance episode pretty well.

Some artists proved better than others at staging. Sophia James created the perfect ambiance for her performance. Lauren Spencer-Smith had the oddest match of song versus backdrop.

We could use more honest feedback from the judges. Not all the performance were great. Or even that good.

And someone please convince Katy Perry that she doesn’t have to come disguised as a bottle of hand sanitizer Sunday night.

We won’t find out which 10 artists advance until Sunday. And there’s still no excuse for Idol wrapping up Season 18 so quickly.

See also …
Song by song grades for the Top 20

Disclaimer:
Producers, coaches, judges and hosts on American Idol and The Voice will pretend they are hosting a legitimate singing competition over the next few weeks. Having blogged about singing shows for more than a decade, I can assure you they are not.

You cannot go from a Top 20 to a winner in four weeks (American Idol) or a Top 17 to a winner in three weeks (The Voice) and call it a fair and legitimate singing competition.

So have fun watching. Vote if you want. Put very little stock in the results because they will mean virtually nothing.

Most of all, support the singers when their time on the show ends. They deserved a better showcase for their talent.