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American Idol Season 10 Returns to TV tonight, actually it is airing right now as I type up this blog post.

Now you may wonder why am I talking about American Idol which airs on FOX, then you remember that there is the American Idol Experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studio.  That is part of why I am writing about this topic, but the other part also includes the new judges, well actually just one of the new judges, Steven Tyler.

As hopefully you now realize, Steven Tyler is prominatly involved in another attraction at the Studios with his band Aerosmith at Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster.  This is two huge reasons that Disney needs to step up and use the highly rated show to promote themselves.

This idea of cross-promotion should be a no- brainer right?  Wrong!  Last year in Season 9, Aaron Kelly was a finalist who got his start in the audition process at the American Idol Experience.  He was a “Dream Ticket” winner meaning he didn’t have to wait in the 10,000+ person cattle call audition but was moved straight to the front of the line for the American Idol Producers (not judges, he had to make it past the producers first).  Think of the “Dream Pass” as a fastpass during the first step in the audition process.

Now Aaron proved himself and managed to make it all the way to the Top 5, yet we saw very little of Disney during the last season.  I am not sure why Disney dragged their heals as I thought this was a great time to promote the newly opened attraction and show that anyone on any given day can go from The American Idol Experience to being a Finalist on the show.  Must have been some contractual issues, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have at least purchased ad time for the show and advertise the attraction.

This year, like I said previously, we have two major tie-ins to two of the major attractions at the Studios and not to mention the Ryan Seacrest connection of him co-hosting the Christmas Day Parade for a number of years.  Hopefully we will see a little more Disney promotion during American Idol either directly in the show or indirectly with advertising spots.  Who knows, maybe within this time of me typing up this article it has already happened, I guess I need to check my DVR now.

Paul is the creator and founder of Mouse Magic Networks.  Sites included in Mouse Magic Network include, but not limited to Disney In 3D, Mouse Magic HD, Mouse Magic Live! and Mouse Magic Press.

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