Why American Song Contest was a wonderful, exuberant flop

American Song Contest has been appointment TV in my house for the past seven weeks. At 8 p.m. on Mondays—or a little later to allow for some fast-forwarding—it’s on, and we’re having a blast watching and talking about it, from the first episode to tonight’s finale, which revealed the winner.

American Song Contest has a tremendous amount of talent, both in front of the camera and behind it. I like it so much better than American Idol, and it’s eons better than NBC’s own America’s Got Talent, which has just become excruciating to watch.

The finale continued that sense of fun, with some great performances and 20 minutes of results that mirrored Eurovision in the best way.

Watching those rankings shift was fascinating and tense—and then thrilling as America’s votes effectively overturned the jury’s results, which was particularly satisfying for me.

As the jury’s votes were announced, and then the state totals were added in, I was nearly screaming at the TV, and so thrilled that Oklahoma’s AleXa ultimately won.

American Song Contest was hosted and led by Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg, who deserve Emmys for their unpretentious and perfectly calibrated interaction. They’re hosting a lighthearted party by having fun themselves.

Is it you? Is it me? It’s them!

While time-wasting bits would normally irritate me, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Snoop and Kelly’s bits. Even their outtakes are charming! My husband and I eagerly await the Halftime Report, which has been the peak of the show’s silliness.

But a singing competition doesn’t work without good music, and American Song Contest definitely delivered that, too.

A show with all original songs is a wonderful complement to all the bad karaoke American has suffered through throughout the years, thanks to singing competitions.

The singers are all accomplished, but in different ways, and at different levels.

With the exception of Michael Bolton (who I’ve joked about but makes me very, very concerned, especially during the finale), all of the other celebrity acts—Macy Gray, Jewel, Sisqó—were eliminated.

The staging of their performances is usually strong, and there’s a great range of music, from moving ballads (Jordan Smith’s “Sparrow”, Bolton’s”Beautiful World”) to ridiculous nonsense (Ryan Charles’ “New Boot Goofin'”, “Million Dollar Smoothie”) to catchy songs (AleXa’s “Wonderland”, Grant Knoche’s “Mr. Independent”).

Several of its songs are now in heavy rotation (“LOKO”; “Mr. Independent”; “Train”) on my playlist.

All shows—especially live ones—can take a while to find their footing, but it was pretty sturdy to begin with, and I liked it from the start.

Still, I’ve appreciated how it’s tweaked itself from week to week.

For example, how exactly votes were calculated has remained opaque, and the finale delivered an animated segment with “Professor Snoop” explaining how grand final voting worked.

Overall, I think American Song Contest has been one of the bright spots in reality TV this year so far. So why did so few people watch?

American Song Contest’s mistakes

In short: American Song Contest was a ratings disaster.

The best thing that happened with the ratings is that, after losing about half its audience from week one to week three, its live ratings have stayed steady.

But coming in a distant fourth place in its timeslot is not a win, and it’s gained nothing in DVR viewing.

What went so wrong?

I was a guest on The EuroWhat? Podcast‘s latest episode to talk about American Song Contest, and Ben and Mike and I discussed a lot of this in depth. (It’s currently on their Patreon feed but will be in the main feed soon.)

But here’s what I think might have hurt American Song Contest.

Its generic name

I get that it’s using Eurovision Song Contest’s name.

But “American” ≠ “Eurovision.”

And American Song Contest just sounds like a store brand American Idol.

Its scheduling

Against American Idol? Why split the audience for live singing competitions?

Pushing back the premiere because of COVID concerns was the responsible choice for a show with a live audience, but didn’t help the show, since it didn’t get to draft off of the Winter Olympics. But I also doubt that a February premiere would have made it a big hit, especially because the Winter Olympics’ wind was a soft fart, at best.

Why was American Song Contest spread out over seven weeks, with nothing happening in between each episode? Eurovision’s semi-finals and final are all in the same week.

I think this is the kind of show that should have aired in December, over a week or two, like NBC’s The Sing-Off. Build momentum. Weekly episodes just didn’t do that.

(On the podcast, Mike and Ben talked more about the scheduling versus Eurovision itself, and how it basically overlapped with Eurovision season, and not in a helpful way.)

State vs. state

I understand why it was impossible for NBC to replicate Eurovision with state-based contests sending their winners to American Song Contest. So the producers cast people instead.

I think they generally did a great job of casting acts from each state and territory, offering a range of artists and music from across genres.

They didn’t just echo a state’s stereotypes, either. After all, a K-pop singer from Oklahoma won. And my state, Florida, was represented by a female Latin pop artist, not a sweaty, sunburned troglodyte infected with COVID wearing a DeSantis hat and screaming mah free-dum! while demanding that other people’s rights be taken away.

Ultimately, I cannot remember who is what state, and I just don’t care, either. And I don’t know if state identity in American translates to reality TV voting.

The jury

I understand American Song Contest modeled itself after Eurovision, but giving immediate power to the jury (they voted based on dress rehearsal footage, which is why we saw their results immediately) was annoying.

If you really think you need to balance the public’s vote, why have a public vote?

To its credit, ASC brought on a jury member to humanize them. But they largely remained faceless people who kept voting (as a group) for the most generic music that I couldn’t stand. And since they didn’t have my exact taste, I’m done with them!

What also didn’t help was the lack of clarity about just how voting worked mathematically, at least not until the finale. Thankfully, it took some of the jury’s power away by grouping them into regions, instead of giving each jury member the same power as an entire state’s votes.

Still, I wanted to scream every time another region voted for Washington. So boring, jury!

Will there be an American Song Contest season 2?

I’m not sure if fixing any—or even all—of these things would turn American Song Contest into a reality TV sensation.

I do hope it gets a second season, ideally condensed into more of an event.

But I realize this hope is a fantasy, and the chance of it returning approached zero with every subsequent episode.

Then again, broadcast networks are basically just hitting a panic button these days, so maybe a show with tiny ratings would be a safer bet than something new. Then again, that might have been what NBC thought when they tried to bring Eurovision to the United States.