‘American Idol’ has begun its decline

Seven weeks into the sixth season of “American Idol,” one thing is very clear: The phenomenon is over. This is the beginning of the series’ end; the show has peaked. At least it was fun while it lasted.

To be clear, “American Idol” is not going anywhere. FOX is not going to cancel it; viewers are not going to stop watching tomorrow; Paula Abdul is not going to return to her home planet.

In fact, the show has already been renewed through a ninth season — and possibly two more after that — and it regularly destroys its direct competition in the ratings. The show may even remain at the top of the ratings chart for another season or two.

After 200 episodes, however, there are clear signs of age and fatigue in the series, ones that signal “American Idol”’s time at the top is waning.

NBC VIDEO Rating the 'Idol' finalists March 13: Life and Style editor Dawn Yanek speaks with MSNBC's Chris Jansing about the 12 "American Idol" finalists. MSNBC

Right now, the world is talking about only two things related to “American Idol”: photographs that show a semi-finalist in different states of undress, and how boring the singers are. Nothing else has captured viewers’ attention.

Antonella Barba’s popularity isn’t surprising, but considering that she was one of the competition’s weaker singers, the fact that she’s become synonymous with this season is very telling. Discussion of Antonella and those photographs has all but consumed the coverage of the show, because there really isn’t anything else to talk about.

While “Idol” has always been personality-driven, which is why it’s more of a reality series than a straight talent show like “Star Search,” the show depends upon more than just allegedly scandalous photographs of a 20-year-old. It needs incredible talent to power a stunning conclusion, and the stunning moments that will inevitably come along the way.

Slide show   Season 6 of ‘Idol’ The votes — and the surprises — are adding up and the 'American Idol' hopefuls now number 6.

Will anyone really care or be surprised if any one of the 12 finalists go home prematurely? Melinda Doolittle is quite talented, for example, but an undeniable part of her front-runner status comes from the weakness of her competition.

And what kind of conclusion will this season offer? Not much of one, considering how flat and uninteresting this group of 12 is as a whole — and how flat the group of 24 before it was. Perhaps one of the boring finalists will grow to mediocre and then even good, and that person’s growth will be so impressive that America will award that person the title. At best, a third of the top 12 are interesting performers with distinct styles; the others are forgettable.

There’s also been relatively little drama, and the show desperately needs that to remain engaging. The auditions — all 10 hours of them — were rather dull. There were no weirdo standouts, and not really many surprisingly amazing singers, either. The delusional singers who paraded before the judges were just like every other season’s delusional singers.

America, it seems, has run out of both talent and creative attention-seekers. Viewers noticed: From the first night of the auditions to the final “best of the rest” show, almost 10 million viewers tuned out.

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