CBS boss gets frank on American Idol – ABC revival

When you’re at the top, it’s certainly easier to give honest feedback on everything below. you. This is certainly the situation at the moment that CBS boss Leslie Moonves finds himself in while talking about American Idol and the new revival coming to ABC. It’s a show that will try to give the network a shot in the arm; however, the way that he sees it, having this show on the schedule could be more of an albatross than a harbinger of great things.

Speaking (per Entertainment Weekly), Moonves cited cost, ownership, and scheduling concerns as reasons why the network went deep into negotiations

“We were offered American Idol. And we looked at it. For a couple of reasons, we didn’t like it. For one, the price is so expensive you need a 35 share [in the ratings] to break even, okay? And that’s not going to happen. Number two, as I mentioned, [making money off ownership from the] back end of these shows is becoming more important — or as important — as the front end [from making money off advertising]. We think we’re in a much stronger position [than ABC], we wouldn’t want to spend four hours of our schedule that we wouldn’t have any piece of selling any back end, that’s not necessarily financially beneficial. I’m not trying to knock ABC. We looked at it. We looked at it very seriously. The economics just made absolutely no sense for us, and for them it did.”

ABC does seem to be wanting to subjugate costs for the revival somewhat by reducing the auditions and holding them at Disney Parks, a move that allows them to be able to have a little bit more in the way of cross-promotion while keeping travel costs down for the judges and the crew. Of course, some of this is already balanced out by having Katy Perry as a judge. It’s hard to imagine them having a 35 share, but maybe they don’t need one using their model. If nothing else, they can use American Idol to promote some of their other properties — the original show on Fox was good for helping to promote some of their other shows, whether it be Prison Break, 24, or Bones over the course of its run.

If you do want to read more about what Perry had to say in terms of becoming a judge for the revival, be sure to head over to the link here right now. (Photo: Fox.)