*AMERICAN IDOL REBOOTS*

American Idol Reboots after being hit by digital media 2 years ago.

After months of build-up on social media, the show was off to a solid start gathering 2.3 rating among the advertiser-desired demographic of adults under 50.

Even though this is being as an achievement, this still is the lowest an idol premier has garnered.

The 16th season of hit American Idol premiered on American Network, ABC on Sunday after its previous broadcaster FOX had canceled it and and called the 15th season to be last.

However, after a two-year gap and a network switch, the show has resurrected - with new judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and of course our favourite : the roaring Katie Perry.

With huge popularity and fan following, the show became a cult and launched careers of singers like Carrie Underwood [season 4, winner], Kenny Clarkson [season 1, winner], Chris Daughtry, [season 5, 4th place] and Clay Aiken -season 2, runner-up] who ended up-

Selling million of copies of their labels. The Idol franchise owing to the success of the American Idol launched in several countries around the world.

The sudden death of the show 2 years ago left everyone in shock.

I mean how could an original show that inspired so many rival franchise shows such as the X-Factor and The Voice could be doing so bad that the network had to bid it farewell after 15 successful seasons.

For an unprecedented eight consecutive years, either a performance or the result shows had been in the number one in TV ratings until 2011 that is.

After that, the show saw its rating drop and tried different things including bringing in big names like Mariah Careyand Jennifer Lopez as the judges but the show didn't seem to be able to bring its gloss back.

From the 12th season onwards, the rating really plummeted and the network couldn't get it back and eventually decided to cancel the show -a move which sparked emotions among the alumni, former judges and fans of the show.

The analysts and critics say that the rise of music launch on social media platforms have a huge role to play.

Gems like Carrie Underwood were discovered through social media platforms like YouTube and digital launches of songs. The iconic British singer Justin Bieber was discovered through YouTube and Canadian star was discovered through Vine.

The fresh talent is turning to social media to launch their careers, bypassing the TV medium. Not to mention the hefty process of registration, waiting for turns and standing in queues.

So, could FOX really get into the talent launching war with the social media? [Farhan Janjua]