"Idol" Commands Top Dollar

[stu]

By Natalie Finn

Fri Sep 22, 10:23 PM ET

 

 

 

If you want American Idol exposure, you have to pay the price.

 

For the third year in a row, Fox's ratings winner will command the highest advertising prices on television, with a 30-second spot going for $500,000 to $700,000, Advertising Age reported Thursday. The network will charge the most during Tuesday night's performance show, with Wednesday night's results show remaining the second-most pricey hour of TV.

 

 

This estimate doesn't include, of course, what advertisers will end up paying for 30 seconds of commercial time during Idol's finale. Companies ponied up $1.3 million for spots this year, betting that many, many youngsters would tune in to see the Soul Patrol conquer McPheever. They were right--30.2 million people watched the May 24 finale. Prices will also rise this year as the season goes by and the competition heats up.

 

 

According to Ad Age, Fox and Idol creator Simon Fuller aren't the only ones to benefit from the series' surging ad prices. House, which airs after Idol on Tuesdays, is getting twice as much money from advertisers this year, up to $400,000 per 30 seconds, landing it in Desperate Housewives territory and surpassing what NBC is getting for Sunday Night Football (about $350,000).

 

 

Idol's first million-dollar finale aired in 2003, Ruben Studdard's year to shine. Oscar ads started pulling in $1 million apiece in 2000 and hit $1.7 million this year, still short of the Super Bowl's mighty record of $2.5 million, set in February.

 

 

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the heap lies the programming on News Corp.'s recently launched My Network TV, which, in Los Angeles at least, has taken over the channel vacated by UPN when the Viacom-owned net teamed up with the WB to form the CW. (Which has taken over the vacant WB channel.) Does that make sense?

 

 

Anyway, ad prices for My Network TV's telenovelas Desire: Table for Two and Fashion House are hovering between $20,000 and $35,000, per Ad Age.

 

 

And, not that you were worried, but just so you know, the talent pool that American Idol uses to pluck young hopefuls and launch them into the stratosphere is in no danger of drying up. More than 9,000 wannabe pop stars showed up at Seattle's KeyArena this week to strut for Idol producers and music experts, who narrow the field before anyone is subjected to the opinion of Cowell & Co.