Reality Television Singing Competitions - How Much is Enough?

Reality television singing competitions? It seems to be the golden ticket these days for instant ratings for networks. "The Voice" pulled off surprisingly high ratings during the summer months. "American Idol" has been in decline as far as ratings overall, but it still is a dominant force on FOX. "America's Got Talent" also typically boasts singers on the stage as opposed to other performers and draws good numbers. Next up is "The X Factor" on FOX. This only makes many wonder how many reality television singing competitions is enough?

"The Voice" on NBC actually used Twitter to help gather higher ratings during its initial season. According to this story on Yahoo OMG!, the finale drew 10.77 million viewers. That's definitely not bad for a summer show on NBC. According to a different story, the season premiere of "American Idol" on FOX drew 26.2 million viewers. The "America's Got Talent" premiere on NBC actually beat the NBA Finals on ABC with 13.3 million viewers. What does this say about what America currently wants to see on network television? Apparently Americans are in tune with singing competitions as a whole. That certainly also bodes well for "The X Factor" on FOX.

Does this mean we are going to see many more reality television singing competitions in the near future? Maybe it's the vicarious nature of people to see other people fail or accomplish something great. There's little secret that Americans love their music. Americans also love to fall in love with celebrities and put people on pedestals. At the same token, it's also quite refreshing to see an unknown commodity become a star.

Music touches people of so many different age groups, colors, nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. Maybe that's why the ratings for these shows have been so off the charts for the past few years. But how much is seriously enough with the singing competitions?

Eventually it seems there will be so many reality television singing shows that it will become quite confusing. For now, it seems the ratings are telling the networks that the "singing" shows are the way to go. The ratings are very indicative of a nation that is hungry for more of those types of broadcasts. It wouldn't be completely out of the realm for CBS to jump into the mix in the coming season with their own show. They've stayed away from those types of show for the most part-excluding a show called "Rock Star" that didn't seem to make any noise a few years ago. CBS has instead opted for other hit reality programming like "The Amazing Race", "Big Brother" and "Survivor."

FOX and NBC are not shy about simply cashing in with their singing competitions. So much so that both are now going to have two separate shows on the same respective network. "America's Got Talent" has been joined by "The Voice" as a strong duo on NBC while FOX boasts "American Idol" and soon will air "The X Factor."

Are these instant ratings gratifications or will these show simply be a fad that fall by the wayside?It seemsquite likely to be possibleonce there are so many such competitions.We could easilyall get confused and disoriented. It seems likely that four singing show competitions is getting close to the boiler over point. It's not probably a case of how much is enough as it is a case of "when will it be enough." Perhaps fans will eventually grow weary of setting DVR's for so many different competitions that take so much time. Trying to follow so many different individuals could also be quite confusing.

"American Idol" and "America's Got Talent" are shows that have two episodes within a given week. It would only make sense that eventually something has to give. There just doesn't seem to be any logic that there would be room for any additional such shows-yet here comes "The X Factor."

Only time will tell if the public grows tired of seeing so many promising singers take the stage to basically do a "cover" song. Perhaps one or two shows will be afforded the opportunity to stick around-especially if the ratings of "The Voice" are any indication. When the shows are staggered like they currently are maybe fans will have enough patience to jump from show to show without getting completely overwhelmed. What might be the most telling and interesting point for these types of shows is what might happen in the next few seasons when they are stacked up against one another in the same time slot on opposing networks. With the high ratings and success so far, it's inevitably going to happen. That could serve as the official boiling over point.