Anybody ever wonder how Madonna has managed to keep her career at or near the top of pop culture for the past 24 years?

C'mon, she's not that great a singer. And, outside of her early years grinding on the floor in a wedding dress, she's not that sexy.

However, Madonna is the poster girl for reinvention. Pop culture reinvention.

From her dance-club days, to her ballad phase, to the rave phase, to the hip-hop phase, back to the dance-hall phase and now to the family-woman era of Madge, Madonna has reinvented public perception of herself and her work. She is the master of it, in fact.

Lesson to be learned in this for pop-culture producers, for sure, particularly for those who stumble upon hit television shows. In 2000, I watched the first year of Big Brother, and it was completely revamped by Season 2.

Amid rumors of cancellation because of low ratings, producers kept tweaking the formula until it worked. And now, Big Brother is an addictive albeit still not iconic staple of reality television in America. Its fans are rabid, devoted and insane.

I am but one of them.

During conversations on weekends with a friend, who wonders aloud why MTV never shows videos anymore, I explained that network executives realized in the early 90s that MTV would have to evolve to grow. Heck, they would have to evolve to survive.

Shows like The Real World and Remote Control were born, as were comedy classics like The State. Some decade and a half later, videos are relegated to second-tier networks, while MTV is full of successful, original programming, highlighted by its bevy of teenage-oriented soaps: The Hills, Laguna Beach and Newport Harbor.

With that in mind, we should understand what could eventually be the demise of American Idol. Sure, its numbers from Tuesday and Wednesday were down by 13 percent, although its viewership was still more than every other network combined.

However, it is a dip, and it's clear that something isn't working. It's clear that some of us are tiring not so much of the show as an institution but the formula and predictability of it.

If I may make a brief foray into sports, I liken it to my beloved Oklahoma Sooners football team. Over the past few years, each year, they do well during the regular season, losing here and there, and then cough up a turd in the postseason.

Whether it's on television or in sports, success is not only fleeting, it's relative. Even if Idol's numbers were twice as good as all other networks combined, the fact that its viewership has declined, disturbingly among teens (although they're up with people over 50), should serve as a warning sign.

It might be as simple as altering the contestant selection process. It could mean changing the voting system. It could mean opening the competition up to older people. It could mean changing the judge lineup. Heck, it could mean offering a live feed so that people could watch them in their American Idol house 24x7.

If I might carry the example to my Sooners, this could mean firing an assistant. It could mean less weight training so coaches can focus on speed and dexterity. It could mean recruiting scrappier, hungrier players instead of NFL prototypes.

Change should not be a bad word, and to build or rebuild or even steady an already-successful institution, change is rather necessary to avoid stagnation and eventually failure. There is no question in my mind that American Idol, without a willingness to shake things up, is absolutely in its decline.

Same for the Oklahoma Sooners. No, the team won't go 6-6 next year like its in-state rival probably will, but OU's current trek is perceived locally to be a bit less than successful.

In either case, pop culture or sports, is it fair?

Hell, no. However, it is reality.

Change or die.