We started watching American Idol in Feb 05 when we were at our Cottage on 30A. I was there with the kids, my two sisters, and a niece and nephew. We had never watched American Idol (and resisted it) until we watched it one night together (my sisters had watched it before) and we got into it as a family. It has turned out to be such a fun thing to do together on weeknights -- we just sit on the couch together, have a snack, and talk about who's up next, who deserves to be voted in and off, what's going to happen, whether the song was a good match for the person, etc.
Of course, I like to thrown in my attempt at life lessons from American Idol but the kids wisely ignore me when I do that.
I grew up watching Ed Sullivan with my family and our kids are growing up with American Idol. The big difference to me is that American Idol is interactive (and they don't have Topo Gigio).