how American Idol can easily spice up their tours!
If American Idol were smart, they wouldn't just have their current year's finalists on each year's tour -- they would also have some popular past contestants, too. Think about it. How many past AI "stars" are doing next to nothing now? Every year, at least half of the people who are in the top 10 go on to just... vanish from the public eye. They retain a certain fanbase that keeps up with them, but that's about it. Even WINNERS often vanish.
So, what a great way to win back audiences, if you won one of the first four seasons, for example... Go be third on the bill with a 30 minute set on the American Idol tour next year, ya know? Plus, when they advertise the American Idol tours each year, people are never really all that impressed by it. Core fans go. Sure, some shows sell out. But it doesn't generate the buzz that it used to. (Most people want to see the Glee tour right now instead anyway, lol.) BUT, seriously, if you had Melinda Doolittle and Blake Lewis as part of the tour next year, something like that would generate news. It would give the media something to write about, and give people something to talk about, generating word of mouth. Some people would be pissed, saying it's going to amount to less time for the new contestants to perform. Others would be psyched and think they're going to get a better show for the money. Regardless of what position people take, it would be a matter of "any publicity is good publicity" unless people unanimously hated it. And I highly doubt that would be the case because AI fans tend to be generally bummed about their past stars just vanishing into the proverbial woodwork a few years after they've been on the show... (Whenever someone finds out what someone is up to now and posts about it on ONTD, most of the comments are quite positive, a huge amount of people saying they loved the person, wish they were putting out a new album, etc...)
Edited to add: Another thought: they could even try to get some of the big stars to do select dates, the same way Lilith Fair is having certain artists do whatever dates they can on their revival tour this year. For example, maybe Kelly Clarkson would do a special appearance at a couple of shows if she were going to be in town when the tour was going to be there. I suppose this is a bit of a stretch, and that if they did do something like this it would probably be better if they just did it as a surprise instead of advertising it. But some of the, say, second tier stars like Taylor Hicks or Kellie Pickler, who are both fairly successful right now, might agree to do 5 dates of the tour in the region that they live in. So, select dates might have a different headliner, that sort of thing. That sort of thing happens all of the time. Hell, The Dum Dum Girls opened for She & Him on the west coast, now I'm seeing them tonight with The Chapin Sisters opening for them on east coast. And in this region of the east coast, it's two of the sisters performing solo without a full band. But when they get a few states away from here, they're going to be performing with a full band. So, yeah, these sort of things happen all of the time.
I only watched two seasons of AI myself. Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee were the top 2 in one of them. I think Blake Lewis was in the top 2 of the previous, but I can't remember who else was. Anyway, suffice to say that there's been a few seasons since I've watched it, mostly because so many great series television shows have come out that I'm hooked on, so I just don't have the time to watch it anymore with all of the other shows that I follow. But, since I don't watch it, I really don't have any personal investment in it. And I wouldn't go see their silly tours even if I was still watching it because I understand they do a lot of those group numbers where everyone sings together, which I always thought was the one really awful part of the show, especially since some of those seem lip synched. My point is that I really couldn't care less, personally, if the AI tours vanished altogether. It's just not my thing. But, it just seems so glaringly obvious that they could up the ante without going outside of the box if they put their minds to it for half a second. That's about how long it took me to write this!
So, what a great way to win back audiences, if you won one of the first four seasons, for example... Go be third on the bill with a 30 minute set on the American Idol tour next year, ya know? Plus, when they advertise the American Idol tours each year, people are never really all that impressed by it. Core fans go. Sure, some shows sell out. But it doesn't generate the buzz that it used to. (Most people want to see the Glee tour right now instead anyway, lol.) BUT, seriously, if you had Melinda Doolittle and Blake Lewis as part of the tour next year, something like that would generate news. It would give the media something to write about, and give people something to talk about, generating word of mouth. Some people would be pissed, saying it's going to amount to less time for the new contestants to perform. Others would be psyched and think they're going to get a better show for the money. Regardless of what position people take, it would be a matter of "any publicity is good publicity" unless people unanimously hated it. And I highly doubt that would be the case because AI fans tend to be generally bummed about their past stars just vanishing into the proverbial woodwork a few years after they've been on the show... (Whenever someone finds out what someone is up to now and posts about it on ONTD, most of the comments are quite positive, a huge amount of people saying they loved the person, wish they were putting out a new album, etc...)
Edited to add: Another thought: they could even try to get some of the big stars to do select dates, the same way Lilith Fair is having certain artists do whatever dates they can on their revival tour this year. For example, maybe Kelly Clarkson would do a special appearance at a couple of shows if she were going to be in town when the tour was going to be there. I suppose this is a bit of a stretch, and that if they did do something like this it would probably be better if they just did it as a surprise instead of advertising it. But some of the, say, second tier stars like Taylor Hicks or Kellie Pickler, who are both fairly successful right now, might agree to do 5 dates of the tour in the region that they live in. So, select dates might have a different headliner, that sort of thing. That sort of thing happens all of the time. Hell, The Dum Dum Girls opened for She & Him on the west coast, now I'm seeing them tonight with The Chapin Sisters opening for them on east coast. And in this region of the east coast, it's two of the sisters performing solo without a full band. But when they get a few states away from here, they're going to be performing with a full band. So, yeah, these sort of things happen all of the time.
I only watched two seasons of AI myself. Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee were the top 2 in one of them. I think Blake Lewis was in the top 2 of the previous, but I can't remember who else was. Anyway, suffice to say that there's been a few seasons since I've watched it, mostly because so many great series television shows have come out that I'm hooked on, so I just don't have the time to watch it anymore with all of the other shows that I follow. But, since I don't watch it, I really don't have any personal investment in it. And I wouldn't go see their silly tours even if I was still watching it because I understand they do a lot of those group numbers where everyone sings together, which I always thought was the one really awful part of the show, especially since some of those seem lip synched. My point is that I really couldn't care less, personally, if the AI tours vanished altogether. It's just not my thing. But, it just seems so glaringly obvious that they could up the ante without going outside of the box if they put their minds to it for half a second. That's about how long it took me to write this!