Just 28.8 million watched Kris Allen wipe the snot out of Adam Lambert – a major upset. And those ratings are down significantly from last year, when 32 million watched the finale. source
All of the main stars in the judging booth, particularly force of nature Simon Cowell, who commutes between the U.S. and the U.K. weekly for his TV hosting jobs, could leave in the next year. source
And worse, this season’s big judging experiment – the addition of Kara DioGuardi, who’s proven to be unpopular – appears to have damaged the chemistry between judges. source
+30%increase in MSNBC’s prime-time ratings helped largely by kingpin Keith Olbermann; they’re now in second place, ahead of CNN (Fox News is still way atop the heap) source