Skip to main content

Twitter makes ‘American Idol’ even more interactive (content quality still questionable)

idolFor years, “American Idol” has been one of the most popular shows on American television. It’s also one of the most interactive; how many other shows – except various live music reality competitions – allow viewers to have a say in the outcome of each episode, after all? To kick things up a notch, the Fox series will become just that little bit more interactive, as viewers gain the ability to participate in on-screen polls via Twitter.

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter broke the story that, as of Wednesday, producers of the show would invite comment on the show in real time – or, as close to it as possible, considering the time zone delay for those in different regions of the country. Fox reportedly plans to repeat the polls in each broadcast, allowing for different results depending on geography, via on-screen questions for viewers to respond to using the micro-blogging network.

Recommended Videos

“Graphics on this Fox singing competition will include questions like ‘Do you agree with the judges tonight?’ and two hashtags with differing answers,” Stelter wrote. “Viewers with Twitter accounts, if they want to participate, will post a comment with one of the two hashtags, and the network and its production partner, FremantleMedia, will update the graphic almost instantly as the results come in. They say it will look like an online tug of war.”

The idea, it appears, is to increase the appeal of watching Idol live, as opposed to saving to for DVR viewing at a later time. “Part of the objective is to say, ‘The best possible experience is when you watch it live,” Fox’s president of digital, David Wertheimer, told the NYT. “Ultimately, you can see how this dynamic experience could potentially influence the show in real time.”

Many network shows have tried to leverage the social-stickiness of their programmings before – The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” has famously found some level of success doing so – and it’s possible that this kind of experiment is exactly the kind of thing that could give Idol the bump it’s needed … especially if the producers go to the extent of allowing viewer tweets to appear onscreen. If we can have live tweets appearing during the presidential debate, why not, right?

In order for it to fully have the intended impact, however, the interaction would require viewers to input more than simply voting in a meaningless poll. Instead of asking whether or not viewers agree with the judges, why not place Twitter votes in with the already-established phone votes to judge whether or not certain singers make it to the next episode?

Graeme McMillan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A transplant from the west coast of Scotland to the west coast of America, Graeme is a freelance writer with a taste for pop…
Topics
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more