Nothing shocking: American Idol suffers from Jack Bauer syndrome

Spoiler alert: this article reveal’s tonight’s American Idol winner… American Idol had a surprise ending tonight, but it wasn’t shocking – in fact it was 24’s series finale all over again. In another time and place it might have been, but the era of Idol being able to genuinely surprise us has already come and gone. After last year’s stunner in which Kris Allen defeated Adam Lambert in such an utterly surprising turn of events that even Allen could only think to say that he thought Lambert should have won, this year’s results didn’t stand a chance of having the same impact, even the underdog did win. In fact the only way this season’s finale could have been more surprising than last year’s is if Crystal or Lee had instead been competing against an actual chimpanzee in the final, and the chimp won.

Actually, even that wouldn’t have been surprising so much as dumbfounding, which means that American Idol has entered a “nothing shocking” era in which the show, already having delivered the most unbelievable shocker it could ever muster, may never again be able to evoke the same level of surprise or reaction from the audience, even if something genuinely more shocking does end up happening down the road. Known as Jack Bauer syndrome, it’s the same thing that 24 ran into at some point along the way, in which we’d seen Kiefer Sutherland’s do so many shocking things, and we’d seen so many of the show’s core characters killed off in such shocking ways, that it got to a point in which nothing the show shocked us with had the intended effect because we’d simply built up a tolerance to it – which is likely why 24 didn’t even try to shock anyone with its series finale the other night. The real shock was, if anything, that none of 24’s main characters died in it. Perhaps Idol would be better off by actually having the frontrunner win next season.

American Idol differs in the fact that its surprises are generally based on voting results and are therefore out of the hands of the show’s producers. But even as the show gears up for what will likely end up being the most significant changes it’s ever made, from naming Simon Cowell’s replacement (which will be a surprise no matter who it is), to the fundamental changes to the show’s structure expected after this year’s ratings slide, none of it will truly shock Idol’s audience, as their shockability already plateaued with last year’s final and now they too have built up a tolerance to it such that no results night will ever be as shocking as it perhaps should be – and that included tonight.