"Idol" Missing Chicken Little?
By Joal Ryan1 hour, 3 minutes ago
The sky is not falling on American Idol.
But the Fox singing competition arguably is feeling the loss of its own Chicken Little, with ratings down in each of the weeks since 16-year-old Kevin Covais' was ordered to fly the coop.
On Mar. 21, Covais, the purported favorite of little old ladies and the original candidate of votefortheworst.com, sang "When I Fall in Love" on 1950s music night. The episode was watched by 33.4 million, per Nielsen Media Research, the show's biggest ever Tuesday crowd. A night later, the baby-faced crooner dubbed Chicken Little after the 2005 animated film was shamed as the lowest vote getter, and dismissed.
One week after that, viewership for the competition episode celebrating "songs of the 21st century" dipped 5 percent from the previous Tuesday. And the trend continued last week, with the Tuesday night numbers down 14 percent when compared to the final Covais-graced Tuesday night.
Votefortheworst.com creator Dave Della Terza wasn't surprised to hear of the viewer defections.
"[Covais had] the whole 'why is he still around factor,' " Della Terza said Tuesday. "A lot of people tuned in to see how far he would get."
In Covais' absence, Della Terza said viewers have been treated to so-so entertainment because "the bad singers
aren't even that entertaining."
Overall, though, Idol remains a blockbuster.
The show is averaging 31.1 million viewers on Tuesday nights, up 14 percent from last season, Fox said. And while Kenny Rogers Roasters' namesake and country music didn't attract record numbers last week, Idol still dominated. Tuesday's installment (28.8 million) was the number one show in the latest Nielsen rankings; Wednesday's (26.2 million) was number two.
The remaining eight Idol finalists try their luck Tuesday night with Queen covers. And Della Terza, for one, can't wait to catch his site's new "worst" candidate in action.
"Kellie Pickler is going to do 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' " Della Terza said. "We hope that will bring the spark back to the show."
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KELLIE SINGING BOHEMIAM RHAPSODY.....i was wondering which one was going to attempt it, but never imagined her!...hey DAMO...that kalan porter is awesome, i clicked your link,great voice..does he have any cds out yet?
I love Chris, but his last song, IMO, was waaaay too far from mainstream. I worry that this song will have the same effect. It is probably one of Queen's "darkest" songs (not to mention one that few viewers will probably know), and I think Chris needs to move in the opposite direction in order to keep on top. I hope he proves me wrong. 
