American Idol's Future?
Okay, I lied. One More Post about American Idol: So, what happens now? These are my thoughts/predictions for next year:"
Well, for starters, most unfortunately, the age limit won’t be raised. Not only did Jordin’s win turn American Idol into the new Miss Teen pageant, but the AI folks also are pimping the heck out of their summer camp.
I wouldn’t expect a large turnout of experienced, talented artists at next year’s auditions. What’s they point if they’re going to be thrown under the bus anyway? Instead, we’ll have 50 million pageant kid wanna-bes, and 50 million people who are seeking 15 minutes of fame from being over the top freaky. Blech.
The ratings will continue to decline, but that’s partly a function of all network ratings declining.
**
Not predictions, exactly, but here are some thoughts I have on where American Idol might be going and/or should be going.
First of all, it’s time for the Idol PTB to drop the nonsense about it being a singing contest. It might have been in Season 1. It might also have been in Season 2, since it’s arguable that the two finalist were both at the very least competent singers. In Season 3, both Jasmine Trias’ and John Stevens IV’s longevity in the competition made a joke of the whole “singing competition” line. And it has not been a singing competition since.
Furthermore, it has been simultaneously billed as a contest to find the next big pop star and a singing contest. While those two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they also don’t necessarily go hand in hand. The varying success of the show’s winners (and runners up) is evidence enough of that. But for further evidence, you can listen to about three-quarters of the big stars on the Billboard Top 100 today without all the studio production that makes them listenable, and the difference between “singer” and “pop star” will be obvious. As further evidence, and also as a lovely coincidence, the pop stars who graced the Idol stage as guest performers this year, even the truly talented ones, sounded like hot buttered crap almost across the board. While some of the awfulness of the performances can be attributed to production problems, quite a bit of it lies with the performers themselves.
So, search to find the next great American singer? Yeah, not so much.
This year’s blatant manipulation made it pretty evident it’s also not the search to find the next great American popular persona.
The show’s concept has always been a Cinderella story, of sorts and in Season 1 it delivered, turning an unknown waitress into a pop/rock star, with American voters acting as fairy godmother and an exciting element of uncertainty in its lack of script. Reality TV was in its toddler stages back then, so to speak.
Since then, most reality TV has become at least somewhat scripted, with most attention paid to casting and throwing production elements into the contest that create certain outcomes. Very few allow the audience to participate in the process. Only The Amazing Race has a set up that puts the contestant themselves in charge of their destiny. American Idol, an at least partially viewer-determined contest through Season 5, has become almost entirely scripted TV.
Season 6 was scripted as a Cinderella fantasy, complete with an alleged* unknown average girl-next-door who became a princess. Why, they even tossed in a royal carriage in the form of a Ford Mustang and a perceived handsome prince escort in the form of Blake Lewis. That opening number was lifted right off the opening of a Miss America pageant, only to place it safe, Messrs. Lythgoe, Warwick, Fuller JacksonJohnson and possibly Cowell made absolutely certain there was only real contestant.
With the opening of the American Idol summer camp in 2007, 19E has thrown themselves fully into the business of sucking the money from parents of tweens in the hope that their little darling can become the next Jordin Sparks.
Will the 2008 - 2010 shows be parades of saccharine sweet teens in gowns belting Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong? If 19E wants to capitalize on Ms. Sparks’ win and its newest venture, then that would be the easiest path for it to take. If they want to retain the tiny smidgeon of credibility they have left in the music industry, that’s the path they should try hardest to avoid.
There is a link on the American Idol website that gives fans the opportunity to voice their opinion on the direction the show should take from here. I have no idea whether any attention will be paid to comments left there, but it might be worth expressing your opinion, at least to get it off your chest.
Edited to add what I personally would like to see in AI's future:
1. Raise the age limit to at least 20.
2. Dispense with most of the silly/freaky auditions being televised.
3. Show us more of Hollywood week.
4. Fire Randy JacksonJohnson.
5. Figure out some way to let the judges have actual input.
6. Either change the voting system or admit that Idol is a scripted popularity contest.
7. More diversity in genres the contestants perform.
8. More background stories on all the contestants.
9. No more 12 boys/12 girls.
10. No more random guest singers.
11. Switch the mentors back to guest judges and let them speak their minds about the performances after they've been done.
* In reality, Ms. Sparks was anything but undiscovered. Even though she is ONLY!!! SEVENT!!!TEEN!!!, she already had a long-term career in both the pageant and music industries. She has previously released a CD and had a second on hold due to her participation in American Idol. Here is the section on her career taken from Wikipedia on 5/24/07 (I wouldn’t be shocked if it gets revised to leave out many of these details at some point):
1. Sparks appeared on the January 17, 2007 broadcast of American Idol, earning a "gold ticket" and the right to appear in the Hollywood Round. American Idol judge Randy Jackson, made the offhand prediction that "Curly hair will win this year,"[5] which may have been made in reference to Sparks. Before going on to American Idol, she won Arizona Idol. In 2006, Sparks was one of two winners who won the Phoenix Torrid search for the "Next Plus Size Model." She was flown to California where she was used in a number of Torrid ads and promotional pieces.[6] A full-page ad for Torrid featuring Jordin ran in the December 2006 issue of Seventeen magazine. Sparks finished second in 2004 at the Music in the Rockies national competition for aspiring Contemporary Christian Music artists.[7] In 2004, Sparks appeared in America's Most Talented Kids twice, winning in her first appearance. She was one of seven to appear in a special championship edition of the show. This appearance followed two noted auditions in 2003, one with American Juniors and the other, Star Search. Sparks has performed the national anthem at various sporting events, notably for the Phoenix Suns, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. She has also sung in such events as Country Thunder, a country music venue. She has appeared with Alice Cooper (in his 2004 Christmas show) and has twice toured with Christian contemporary singer Michael W. Smith. Smith has shown support of Sparks by encouraging Idol viewers to vote for her on his website.[8][9] In 2003, at the age of thirteen, Sparks recorded a five-song album titled For Now, working with Matthew Ward, a legendary Christian music artist, and Gary Leach, an engineer who has worked on several of Leann Rimes' albums. She appeared in a compilation album titled Live at Mr. Lucky's in 2004. As an actress, Sparks has appeared in several plays, recently starring in a dual role as characters Deborah and Bea in Magdalene at the Plumbline Theater in Franklin, Tennessee. She's also performed several times with Vaudeville Youth Theatre Company and Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix. Her first appearance was in March 2002 as an Emerald City dancer and as a poppy in The Wiz. She also appeared in Viet's production of Cinderella in June 2002 and another production of The Wiz in August 2002.[10]
