Does anyone remember the Dunkleman?

STuBY | 2.24.06

Nothing new here except that Dunkleman is like an ersatz Pete Best (that's the Beatles original drummer for those of you who don't know). I think it's kind of weird to be picking on him NOW when he left the show after the first season. I mean, we've had four years to question this career move. The question I had at the time, and still have is this:

When you've run the show in England already (under the title Pop Idol) you'd think you'd realize that you don't need two Ryan Seacrests.

The bigger question should have been: Do we even need one? What exactly is the added value of one Seacrest? The show is paying Seacrest something, so there should be a non-zero return to the show from having him. I think it was pretty clear that there was a zero-return to having a Dunkleman, particularly in the presence of a Seacrest, and that's why he's gone.

I want to look at the value of a Seacrest in more depth. As noted, the show pays him a non-zero sum of money to do whatever it is that he does. I don't believe that he is structurally essential to the show, especially since the Judges, particularly Paula, do pretty much nothing in this stage of the show. So, what is our return on Seacrest? A million viewers? I don't think so. If he could pull a million people, his radio show would be nationally syndicated. It's not, probably because he just plays records and talks a very little. And is mocked constantly by the other jocks on his station who are all jealous that he has TV quality looks and the Idol show.

Is there a Seacrest brand issue here? Are we comforted by the fact that Seacrest is filling time on the Idol show? Do we feel better about the show because he's there? I don't think so. You could probably replace him with Dunkleman for the next broadcast and few would notice. And fewer would care.

You could do a lot better than a Seacrest. Forget going Blue Sky on this with someone like Crazy Dave or a Wayans brother. Look at the shows that have basically copied the Idol format. Get an old game show host. Get a younger one. George Gray hosted the very unwatched Extreme Gong show to great effect. He was funny, in a kind of prop comic kind of way. You get some real value add.

Ultimately, the story of Dunkleman and Seacrest is a story of American Idol. It doesn't really change and it doesn't really want to change. If they did want to improve the show, Seacrest and Abdul would be gone shortly after Dunkleman. And I think that's why Idol will only last so long. Because it's always the same, only the contestants change.