Fox tweaking ‘American Idol’ to lessen audience erosion

When it comes to ratings for “American Idol,” Fox is no longer crooning “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

In its third season last year, the Tuesday edition of “Idol” was the most-watched show on television, with an average of 25.8 million viewers tuning in, according to Nielsen Media Research (the Wednesday “results” shows were watched by 23.6 million viewers). But network executives are already trying to manage expectations for season four of the singing contest, which starts tonight.

“I think you can expect to see some [ratings] declines,” Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman told reporters Monday at the semi-annual Television Critics Assn. meeting in Universal City. “I think that’s natural for a fourth-year show.”

The producers are seeking to minimize any erosion. The maximum age of contestants has been raised three years, to 28, which officials hope will yield a broader mix of singers. A new crop of celebrity judges will join regulars Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson.

And producers have rejiggered the elimination rules to avoid the lopsided gender split from last year, when viewers quickly voted off male singers.

“There’s always a decline in the fourth season,” Cowell said. But “we want to be No. 1. If things do down a bit, we’ll try to make it go up.” Asked what the producers might do, Cowell replied jokingly, “One of the judges is going to get killed this year.”

Overall the network suffered through a disappointing fall season in the ratings, plagued by reality bombs such as “The Next Great Champ” and “The Rebel Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best.”

Berman conceded that Fox might have relied too heavily on the reality format. “The majority of our [fall] schedule was unscripted, and certainly that was problematic for us,” she said.

But she said the network was not concerned about the complaints of rivals last summer that Fox ripped off ideas for unscripted series such as “Trading Spouses” and “Champ.” She pointed out that TV history is loaded with examples of numerous shows spun from the same or similar concepts.

Referring to her competitors, Berman said their criticisms were “about turning attention elsewhere and not on themselves.”