American Idol's white guy problem

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From The Daily Beast

First the good news. American Idol had two massive overriding goals in this tenth season: to keep the ratings from going into freefall post-Simon Cowell, and to produce a winner who could sell tons of records, something Idol has not done now for years.

The first of these Idol accomplished, and then some. The ratings this season have been at worst only slightly down from last year, and on some weeks, they have been up substantially; a feat almost without precedent for a TV show in its tenth year (that’s 80 years in Earth time), let alone one which has just lost its iconic star.

On the second goal—creating a mega-selling recording act—it is too soon to say, but there is certainly cause for cautious optimism about Idol’s just crowned champion Scotty McCreery. There is a case to be made that as an attractive young man with a solid voice working in the Idol-friendly country genre, Scotty might end up becoming Idol’s biggest record mover in a half decade, since the show last crowned a country champion, with Carrie Underwood. Only time will tell and many a slip occurs on the way to the Billboard charts, but having dominated the season as no Idol has since Underwood, the signs are positive.

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