American Idol 2011 bumped in favour of Glee

Via the disgusting man-pig that is Perez Hilton, I've just read that FOX have moved next year's American Idol to a later slot and moved Glee forward.

Ouch. That's gotta hurt. The formerly biggest show on television has been bumped in favour of a one-season wonder that's been highly erratic but has a massive fanbase. I can only conclude that with Simon Cowell's departure to set up an almost-identical show and what most people (not me) are calling a dull season of the show, that moves are already afoot to phase American Idol out.

Or, I could be completely wrong and the network is forcing the show to tighten its belt a little belt. There's been a lot of grumbling in the blogosphere about how the show frequently overruns, how bloated it is with Ford advertisements, guest artists and other nonsense. The Hollywood Reporter...er...reports:

Also in midseason, Fox plans to shrink "American Idol" results show, cutting it to 30 minutes. The Tuesday performance show will be 90 minutes (when it's not a full two hours), an expansion from its typically scheduled one hour.

"We looked at some of the feedback and viewers want us to tighten up the results show," Reilly said. "And we need spots for our new half-hour comedies, which are a big part of our development this year."

Either way, I agree that American Idol needs to be shaken up a little bit. While I've enjoyed this season's performers, we're sitting with a top three that have very little chance of mainstream success, although they may sell to tightly defined niches.