18 Jan, 2008
'American Idol' premiere hits high notes
Any doubts about the strength of "American Idol" were erased Wednesday when Nielsen reported 33.4 million viewers watched the season premiere Tuesday night.
While the figure was 4 million off last season's premiere and the lowest "Idol" premiere in four years, the figures were huge in the current TV climate.
"I woke up thrilled," said Mike Darnell, Fox's president of alternative entertainment. "This show amazes me every year. It's a phenomenon. It's still an unbelievable phenomenon."
Put another way, bad singers still pay off in huge ratings, especially for a show in its seventh season, a time when most are on a steep decline.
As in each of the previous seasons, the first "Idol" was filled with auditions from truly bad singers and some promising hopefuls.
The mix paid off. Tuesday's "American Idol" was the biggest entertainment telecast of the season. The previous high was CBS's season premiere of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which averaged 25.4 million viewers.
photo & story courtesy nydailynews.com, 1/17/08
Old Testament Idol?
1 Samuel 16:14-22 (NLT)
David in Saul's Service
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear.
15 Some of Saul’s servants said to him, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you. 16 Let us find a good musician to play the harp whenever the tormenting spirit troubles you. He will play soothing music, and you will soon be well again.”
17 “All right,” Saul said. “Find me someone who plays well, and bring him here.”
18 One of the servants said to Saul, “One of Jesse’s sons from Bethlehem is a talented harp player. Not only that—he is a brave warrior, a man of war, and has good judgment. He is also a fine-looking young man, and the Lord is with him.”
19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, the shepherd.” 20 Jesse responded by sending David to Saul, along with a young goat, a donkey loaded with bread, and a wineskin full of wine.
21 So David went to Saul and began serving him. Saul loved David very much, and David became his armor bearer.
22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse asking, “Please let David remain in my service, for I am very pleased with him.”
What does today's God's Story scripture teach us about God using talented, good-looking people?
God can and He does! Now for those of us who don't fit this 'American Idol' winner mold, I better write a little more...
In the verses prior to this passage, the LORD has led Samuel to anoint shepherd boy David (behind the scenes) to be the next king of Israel. King Saul has been disobedient and God is dealing with him and His perfect plan will go on.
God brings a tormenting spirit to Saul and he's depressed and gets word about this kid who is a talented, brave, good-looking musician. David is brought in to audition on his harp - remember that this king is acting insane - talk about pressure! God's Story is never boring!
But King Saul is pleased and God's plan continues....of course!
So God uses talented, good-looking people to accomplish His plan but He uses the rest of us more often (because there's more of us)!
Thankfully, we don't have to audition before God because most of us are sort of wacky and short on talent just like the contestants during the early phase of 'American Idol'. God is looking for people who are willing, obedient, and committed to His plan.
David's success was not because he was talented and good-looking. It was because "the LORD was with him".
Is He with you?
How can we connect today's God's Story scripture to our lives?
- Read 1st Samuel, chapters 13-31. It's like a movie (but true) and it will give you the rest of the story.
- Thank God that He wants to use you and your story to accomplish the continuation and the eternal completion of His Story.
- Offer yourself to be used by God in any way even when you're not feeling brave, talented, or not looking so good!
- Look for at least one practical way you can serve God on a regular basis. This might be at your church or in your youth group or as a volunteer in some other way....pray about this and the LORD will lead you and it probably won't be as difficult as playing harp for a king who is crazy!
How can we connect today's story and God's Story scripture and our story to others?
- Get together with some other friends who follow Christ and talk about today's DAILYBIDE. Come up with a plan or service project for using your talents (or lack of) to serve God together - you'd be amazed at what a bunch of wacky (but willing) believers can accomplish together!
- Watch 'American Idol' with some friends and family who don't know Christ. Laugh...a lot! Ask them what they'd do to audition if they had the talent? (Maybe laugh some more!) Trust the LORD to show you how to weave the story of David's audition before crazy King Saul into your conversation. Listen to their response and you may have the opportunity to share a little more of your story and how you're connected to God's Story.
- May 2012 [11]
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