The American Idol tour has been cut short by two weeks, seemingly the latest victim in a summer of horrible tour ticket sales.
The announcement comes just days after the tour kicked off. At least eight shows by the Idol finalists have been dropped according to promoter Live Nation, while others have simply been rescheduled. The tour originally scheduled to run through Sept. 16 will now wrap up on Aug. 31.
While American Idol is still the most watched show in America, the season nine finale was its lowest rated since 2002 according to a BBC report.
Complaints of a lackluster season of talent appear to be validated by contestants DeWyze and Bowersox, the winner and runner-up, being the only two finalists to have signed record deals so far.
As mentioned in a post on the HitPredictor blog last week, lots of other artists are cancelling shows because of poor ticket sales including the Jonas Brothers, the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Country Throwdown, Bamboozle, the Go-Go’s, John Mayer, and Limp Bizkit in addition to Lilith Fair cancelling a third of its scheduled dates!
Billboard in a report last week cited high ticket prices and resistance to booking fees as a reason for the ticket-buying slump, while other tours are thought to have suffered from lack of promotion or little new material from artists.
What do you think of the summer of slow ticket sales? Why aren’t YOU buying tickets to performances?
HitPredictor Blog 
I am paying to see Adam Lambert whom I love. It really seems to be a tough year for musical performers. Why would this year be any different than last year or the years before? You’ve mentioned a few reasons but I wonder if that is all that is wrong. I’m really surprised by Eagles having a hard time, I thought they would be sold out over night. Oh well, Adam is selling out everywhere and I’m happy to see it.
I wonder if it may partly be due to these performers overestimating their fan base? And, what the fan base is willing to pay? I think it would be better to underestimate the number of people that will buy tickets but then sell out every single venue than it is to try to fill huge venues with not a very good showing.