American Inventor a Television Ratings Success

"American Inventor" was a Thursday night television ratings win this week for for ABC in the 18-49 demographic. The show, created by Simon Cowell and the producers of American Idol,
features four judges who, over nine weeks, will pare a field of 50 submissions down to 12 finalists, each of whom will be given $50,000 to develop his or her product. Eventually, four will compete for the $1 million grand prize.

According to a March 17, 2006 review by Laura Tiffany at Entrepeneur.com, this week's show featured the bladder buddy (a huge envelope in which to hide while peeing), the sit-and-shave (self-explanatory), edible snow globes (judges loved it), and a plastic shovel that allows one person to fill a sandbag (safely without the assistance of a second person).

Three video clips from the show are available from ABC here. Pictures of all of the inventions are available from Make Magazine here. Rejects can be seen here. RSVP for an audition, sign up for show updates, and download an application form here.