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ABC Axes Dream Vote

Fri., Mar. 30, 2007 2:58 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

So much for the Dream.

ABC has given the hook to The Great American Dream Vote, the Donny Osmond-hosted reality show in which a studio audience and viewers gave contestants a chance to fulfill their wildest dreams.

A special preview episode of Dream Vote that aired Tuesday after the Dancing With the Stars results show failed to drum up much interest in the wish fulfillment business, snagging a piddling 1.9 rating among viewers 18 to 49, the key demo coveted by advertisers. In translation, fewer than one-third of the 18 million people estimated to have watched Dancing stuck around for Dream Vote.

Wednesday's premiere episode didn't fare much better in its 8 p.m. slot. Great American Dream Vote tallied up a dismal 1.5 rating among 18 to 49ers, or roughly 4.5 million viewers, a 21 percent drop from the previous night and a 32 percent slip from ABC's broadcast of George Lopez and a rerun of According to Jim in the same time slot the week before.

The premise of the Great American Dream Vote was to offer everyday people a chance to reveal on primetime television what their unique, lifelong dream is and have that dream come true—that is, if they could explain to the studio audience and folks at home why they deserved to have their yearnings fulfilled.

Contestants would face off against one another through several elimination rounds, with the studio audience casting its votes on the worthiest dreamers until only two finalists remained. At the end of each episode, viewers would then select which person will have their dream realized and the winner would be unveiled the following week.

Some of those dreams included a fireman wanting to open a flower shop for his wife and another guy who wanted to open a chicken amusement park. (No wonder it got the axe.)

Though the Alphabet has technically put the show on hiatus, meaning it could return at an unspecified future date, given the poor performance of this week's episodes, it's a most likely goner. Next week, ABC plans to air a pair of George Lopez reruns in its place.

While emcee Osmond may be out of a job, he still has other options on the table.

The former teen dreamboat has another gig hosting a British version of the game show Pyramid, and recently released his 55th studio album, which is doing well in the U.K.

Meanwhile, baby boomers everywhere waxing nostalgic for those bell-bottom '70s will be delighted to hear Osmond is in talks with his siblings about an Osmond family reunion special which he hopes to bring to the tube in the coming year.

"I haven't done a show with my brothers for 25 years or so. We are talking about doing a TV special, and maybe something with [sister] Marie, but nothing is locked in yet," the 49-year-old singer told reporters in a conference call to promote Dream Vote last week.

Osmond, who got his start in show business at age 5, is undoubtedly the most famous Osmond, having charted a successful career as a solo artist after he and brothers Wayne, Jay, Alan and Merrill, stopped performing together. Second most famous is Marie, with whom he cohosted the memorable television variety series, Donny & Marie, which ran on ABC between 1976 and 1979. The duo also subsequently headlined their own talk show, Donny and Marie, in the late '90s.

More recently, Osmond earned rave reviews starring as Gaston in Disney's Broadway musical, Beauty and the Beast last fall.