Monday, June 21, 2010

Ways To Fix American Idol: Part 1

As we all know as American Idol fans, American Idol is no where near perfect, in fact as the popualarity grew over the years the quality of the show started to lower.

In the past few weeks or so American Idol itself has decided to change a few things that they saw weren't working. First of all they have decided to reduce the results show from an hour long to only 30 minutes, which is still 29 minutes too long, but at least they are doing what they can. They have recently decided not to jump into finding a Simon replacement too quickly. There were rumors of Jamie Foxx or Brett Michaels, but I definetly think waiting for the right person is the best idea. But just as I give them credit for a few ideas they go and find a stupid one. They have now announced they are reducing the minimum age of contestants from 16 to 15. Yes, all we need is more Aaron Kellys and Katie Stevens'(it actually took me a minute to remember her last name).

So we at I'dol Be The Judge have decided to put out our list of Ways To Fix American Idol. This is Part 1 of many installments that you will get only here at I'dol Be The Judge:

1. More Behind The Scenes. Show us what it took for them to choose their song right before we actually see them perform instead of on Results Show when it is too late. Sometimes learning the meaning behind a song will make people get on board with you even if you don’t sing it all too well. Which leads to…

2. Better Mentors. Harry Connick Jr and Adam Lambert were fantastic and right on point during the mentoring sessions, but it’s nothing a mentor can’t do. Each mentor should have at least have watched a few performances of the contestants they are working with. Then take those contestants through the song book and pick out a song that suits their voice, together. I know that most of them are only there to promote an album but that’s the problem. Which again leads us to...

3. Tweak Results Night. Luckily after many years of having the show an hour long the results show will be condensed to 30 minutes. Obviously that is still a lot of time. So tweak it. Maybe have relevant performances, instead of random acts that have nothing to do with the theme week. Also, the musical act should be required to sound better than the crop of contestants left. No offense to Shakira, but during Shania Twain week, Shania Twain didn’t even perform. That’s ridiculous.

4. Reduce Ryan Seacrest. I understand that he has become increasingly more famous over the years, but his job as host has made his head pretty big. He gets into awkward conversations with the contestants and the judges and oversteps his role. His only job is to announce the contestant and say some numbers, I don’t think he should be giving his opinion, or try to make a contestant say something they aren’t comfortable with. If you didn’t see Ryan trying to pry information out of this season’s Didi Benami then you missed one of the most awkward and uncomfortable moments in 9 Seasons of the show, and that is saying a lot. A small recap, she sang a song about one of her friends who had passed away, didn’t want to share that information, but Ryan wouldn’t let it drop and continued to announce the reason for Didi’s choice. Result, Didi went home that week. Not saying that it was because of that and not because of the way she sang the song, but Ryan’s interaction with her didn’t help.

5. Best Top 12, Not Best Gender. This season was the clearest case that something was way off. Other than last season and maybe one before, the Top 12 has been comprised of 6 males and 6 females, instead of the Best Top 12. This season clearly proved that choosing gender over talent is wrong, the clearest example of this was by including Tim Urban into the Top 12 while Lily Scott and Katelyn Epperly were eliminated in the Top 14. I know that they should have been there over Paige Davis and Lacey Brown, but there is no way that Tim Urban was better than either Katleyn or Lily. They need to allow the Best 12 finalists in. By only having 6 males and 6 females it limits the talent pool considerably. I sure rather have 8 fabulous females and 4 solid guys over the mess of 6 fabulous females and 6 okay guys. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

6. Reduce Audition Rounds. When January rolls around it’s been nearly 7 months since the finale of the past season and everyone is excited for American Idol. But after week after week of audition rounds it gets to be boring and unfunny. How many times can we laugh at people who believe they can sing but really can’t. I like that they have started to include better performances over the past couple seasons but it’s still not nearly enough. The only problem is that when there are good performances we know they almost always make it. Leading us to the next problem area...

7. Reduce Amount of Heartfelt Background Contestant Packages. Almost every single time they show us a contestant’s home life and where they came from and how they got to where they are the contestants end up always making it to Hollywood. There is no shock anymore. Obviously if American Idol spends time and money to show us a contestant’s home life they are going to make it to the next round. They wouldn’t take time to show a contestant if they are going to get cut before Hollywood week. If they reduce the amount of Background Packages or even add a few from contestants who don’t end up making it then it would add some excitement to the rather boring audition rounds.

Please Join Us Back Here For Another Installment of Ways To Fix American Idol.