American Idol tonight: do-over gets nine minutes to save nine seasons

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest has announced that the first nine minutes of tonight’s season ten debut will explain “where we’ve been & where we’re going.” That gives the iconic show, essentially, nine minutes to salvage nine seasons of effort and sell the viewing public on the promise of what is essentially a do-over. Yes, the blueprint blow-up was going to happen one way or the other, with Simon Cowell leaving because he wanted to; that alone was going to mean a different direction for the show. But with the exit of what was ultimately three-fourths of the judging panel and a pair of famous faces who have no plausible connection to the show’s past, Idol must now sell its viewers on the idea that this can work.

There’s no time, this time around, for Idol to wait for the season’s contestants to start shining brightly enough to carry the season (that formula didn’t work in the ratings department last year anyway, even after certain contestants did start shining). Nor can the buy-in which comes with fan voting be counted on to float the season, as that also comes later on. For the show’s remaining audience, and for those tuning in tonight out of curiosity, the clock will be ticking from the first second. High profile changes tend to bring a high level of interest, but that interest tends to come with a very short attention span. Fair or not, for many of tonight’s viewers, nine minutes is about all they’ll need in order to decide whether these new changes are going to sit well with them. In other words, American Idol has about nine minutes to make this work. And according to Seacrest, the folks at Idol know it as well. Here’s more on the American Idol 2011.