I can remain silent no longer. There's just some things that have to be said. American Idol is in it's 12th season. For 11 years, I've enjoyed the show, as have millions of other people. The past few years, there have been some things that I've lived with, but was still able to enjoy the show. However, this year, things have gone too far. American Idol is no longer my favorite reality singing competition, and right now, it might not even be my second favorite. The ratings dips suggest that others agree with me. The show is turning into the butt of jokes, and fewer and fewer people are taking it seriously. The sad thing is, with just a few changes, the show could easily go back to the great show it once was. But will anyone listen? Or will the show continue down this awful path, causing viewers to jump ship.
Here Are Just 4 Things Wrong With American Idol:
1. The judges are horrible
2. The weekly themes are boring, dated and overdone
3. The mentoring is a joke
4. The show seems rigged
#1 The judges are horrible
I'll just say it: the judges are horrible! The lone saving grace this season is Keith Urban. He is fun, witty and best of all has good taste and good critiques. Without him, the judging panel would be an absolute disaster. I could go on and on about how bad the other three are, but here are my biggest complaints.
Let's go back to Season 1. The panel was Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. Of those three, Randy was the worst. He never has anything useful to add that would help the contestant in any way. Probably because his role in the music industry is not the same as someone like Keith Urban, J. Lo and Steven Tyler. He recycled phrases like "dawg" and "it was pitchy" and "it was a'ight" and "..for you for me". He's gotten a little better, but I can't think of one helpful thing he's said all season. I've been bored of him since like Season 3. Here we are in Season 12, and he's STILL THERE! It is past time for him to move on, and I'm glad he decided to quit (before they could inevitably fire him). Keep these things in mind when looking for his replacement.
Please take a hint from The Voice. Their panel of coaches/judges are so enjoyable. They get along for the most part and have a healthy joking nature between them. The sole reason for having Nicki Minaj was for ratings. I get it. It worked...for awhile. Her brash, "tell it like it is" personality is ridiculous and just makes everything about her instead of about the contestants. Her actions and words make it impossible to take anything about her seriously. The controversy with Mariah and Nicki was so off-putting. Again, it was orchestrated for ratings, but obviously contributed to the opposite result. It's obvious that the original buzz about their feud was not enough to keep viewers coming back. This season's ratings were awful, and it was repeatedly beaten in the ratings by repeats of The Big Bang Theory. The finale had the worst ratings ever.
That aside, I felt that neither Mariah nor Nicki added anything to the show. Keith was an amazing judge and I enjoyed him very much. He gives great advice and is fun to watch.
Here's How To Fix It:
The first thing to do is stick with 3 judges. 4 is too many. It takes way too long to get feedback from all of them. I watch the show for the singing, not for 5-10 minutes of judges' comments for each singer. Out of those 5-10 minutes, there's only about 30 seconds total that has any value.
The second thing to do is look for talented singers who will be invested in the singers and who truly want to help them, not someone famous who's only on the show to promote themselves. The show should be about the singers, not about the judges. The judges' purpose should be to help the contestants, not show bias or draw attention to themselves.
Suggestions for fun, talented singers who could really give great critiques: Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Bublé, Rob Thomas, Jason Mraz, Gwen Stefani, Mark McGrath, Gavin DeGraw, Ryan Tedder, Robin Thicke, Pink...just to name a few.
#2 The weekly themes are boring, dated and overdone
Seriously, the themes and songs are just boring me to death each week. This is 2013...do we really need to continue to hear songs from the 60s/70s? There's a time and a place for those classics, but a pop show looking for the next relevant, pop icon is NOT one of them! Every year it's the same thing: Beatles week, standards week, Motown week, etc. These songs could not be more overdone and not to mention not even close to what is popular and enjoyable to listen to right now. When you hate a song, it's hard to enjoy the performance as a whole. Unfortunately, that's what I feel on just about every song. It's obvious that the singers don't connect with these old songs, and you can tell most of the time they don't enjoy singing them, because given the choice THEY WOULDN'T BE SINGING THEM! The show wonders why ratings are going down? Well, who wants to watch year after year after year of contestants singing the same songs over and over and over?
If you must throw some of these ancient songs into the mix, the singers should be required to do some rearranging and reworking of the songs to make them fit their own styles better and make them relatable to today's audience.
Here's How To Fix It:
The Voice does a nice mix of really current music, and every now and then an old classic is thrown in. You have to think about what kinds of music people are going to buy. I really doubt anyone cares to buy all of the old-fashioned crap that the singers are forced to sing every week. We want to hear what kinds of music these singers are going to produce after Idol, and 95% of the songs they sing aren't even close.
#3 The mentoring is a joke
Jimmy Iovine is a waste. I don't know what kind of an advisor he's supposed to be, but he is awful. Either he's not giving the singers enough direction, or the directions he's giving are completely off the mark. I think it's ridiculous that his critiques after the performances, he says what they should have done. Um...if he's their advisor, shouldn't he have been telling them these things when he's "advising" them? I even question his taste, because I often think the complete opposite of what he does, and apparently so does America, because the ones he thinks do the best are usually in the bottom, and the ones he thinks are going home, are usually safe.
Years ago, there was a guest mentor every week. Not all of them were great, but they did just about as much mentoring as Jimmy has done the past 2 seasons. I don't think the guest mentors was a bad idea. It had it's flaws as well, but at least some of the guest mentors brought some humor and a new perspective.
Here's How To Fix It:
Find a mentor or mentors who can actually be helpful. Plain and simple. Mentors are important, from song choice to arrangement to vocal execution of the song. Most of these singers don't know what they're doing and need guidance, so a good mentor is a must. Especially for song choice. We all know how important song choice is, and when left to their own choices alone, singers often dig their own graves.
#4 The show seems rigged
People have accused the show of this in the past, and I have always wanted to believe that it isn't true. But, I feel like this season, more than seasons past, the whole show has been rigged. Whether it is or not, it seems like it is, and that's a bad thing.
It's been 6 years since a girl has won the show, and it was more than obvious that the top 10 was stacked with girls who were much better than the guys just so a girl would win this year. That's absolutely ridiculous. Johnny Keyser was the best guy in the audition rounds, and I feel like he wasn't put through because he was a threat to win it all. It was so obvious, that on the finale last night, there was a spoofing segment that showed each of the girls "sabotaging" the guys. It was pretty funny, I must say.
The judges tried to force America to like Candice, Kree and Amber instead of letting them make up their own minds. I feel like they were so biased this year for some reason. It's not the judges' job to play favorites. They are there to give their honest opinions on performances and offer helpful critiques and suggestions.
The last straw for me was the finale between Candice and Kree. I feel like the show gave Candice every possible advantage they could to make it easier for her to win. (1) She performed last--everyone knows whoever sings last, finale or not, is the most memorable and is remembered as the better singer, even if they weren't (2) The songs chosen for Candice were bigger and better than the ones chosen for Kree (3) The overall production for Candice's songs were bigger and better than Kree, To me that said, 'we want Candice to win and we're going to do everything we can to make you think so too'. Just wrong.
Here's How To Fix It:
The only solution is to just not be bias. The judges need to do their job and production needs to let whatever happens, happen.
Where Does Idol Go From Here
The show needs to fix a lot of things if they hope to recover from the dismal season that just finished. I started this article a couple of weeks ago, and my first thoughts were that It's time for a COMPLETE makeover, from the producers, to the judges, to Ryan Seacrest....everything should go and start from scratch. As this season now is over, there have been announcements that Randy is quitting, Nicki is probably quitting, and the producers of the show have said that they are ready to make a complete overhaul of the show, and there could even be completely new judges next season, as well as many different changes in the format. This is all good news for me. It gives me hope for next season. I just hope that America hasn't given up on the show after how this season went. They may have done too much damage to win back the millions of fans they lost.
It's obvious that there is a place for this show because of the success previous contestants have had. The success that singers from Idol have had completely blows every other singing competition out of the water. That includes the winners of those other shows. On Idol, you only need to make the live shows and you've got a great shot at a record deal.
The one thing that I did like this season was the steal from X Factor--showing the standings after the votes. I think that is helpful for everyone to see and makes things more interesting. Please keep doing this!
I never thought I would get tired of Idol, but I really am so glad this season is over. I would love to see the show continue, but if you're going to put out another season like this one...please don't, and save us all from suffering through another mundane, boring season like this one.
I hope someone is listening.
Signed, A Loyal Idol Fan Losing Her Patience
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