Wednesday, June 3, 2026

KISS Front Man Gene Simmons Adds 1 Million Viewers to Sunday “American Idol” as Mentor

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Stunt casting works!

Ratings deprived “American Idol” jumped by 1 million viewers in the Sunday night ratings.

The reason was the appearance of KISS front man Gene Simmons as a mentor to the top 14 finalists.

“Idol” has been anemic so far in numbers and needed a jolt. Simmons did the trick.

“Idol” has already announced that Jon Bon Jovi is coming soon, and we’ll see who else they round up. Are they paying these big rock stars? I would guess so, and quite a lot. Especially when they realize their impact on the ratings! Numbers rose 20% in total viewers to 5.1 million, and up 2% in the age demo.

Later on today we’ll see if that helped with Monday’s numbers, too.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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