American Idol: The Search for a Superstar

Plot synopsis:
"American Idol" - Season 11 Finale - May 23, 2012Group Sing: The top 12- save Phillip and Jessica-- clad all in white sing "Runaway Baby" by Bruno Mars. There is a lot of staging and dancing. Joshua does an impressive split but stumbles coming out of it. Then a group of acrobat/dancers do a bunch of flips and tricks during a musical break.In the audience: Previous winners Scotty McCreery, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks; Dean Cain; Lauren Alaina; Jane Lynch; Ace Young and Diana DegarmoRyan, in a tux, tells us a record number of votes came in for Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez: 132 million.Performance: Phillip performs "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" and "Bad Moon Rising" with John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Because he's singing with the songwriter, Phillip is more or less forced to sing the melody.Video Package: It's a blooper reel of the judges, Ryan, and bad/angry/silly contestants during the auditions.Performance: Joshua sings "Take Me to the Pilot" by Elton John. He's got a choir at his disposal and he takes the song to church. And he gets a hand from his hero Fantasia Barrino who is rocking an insane body suit that hugs her every curve and has cut outs down the legs. It is a hot mess but they're having fun.Video Package: A tribute to Jimmy Iovine, which actually shows him goofing up: Jimmy keeps calling Jennifer, Jessica. (Jessica is his daughter's name as well as the contestant.)Performance: The top 6 ladies-- except Jessica-- perform "Ain't Nobody" by Rufus and Chaka Khan and then segue into "Through the Fire" and then "I'm Every Woman"-- at which point Jessica joins them-- and then the lady Chaka herself shows up to help out, sort of. She does a lot of posing and wailing in another unfortunate bodysuit.Ford Commercial: It's a tribute video clip package to all the conestants.Video Package: Jessica and Phillip talk about their music mentors and we meet them. In Phillip's case it's his brother-in-law Ben and for Jessica it's a family friend named Robert. They're in the audience and Phillip and Jessica hand them keys to a new Ford. Then Ryan hands Phillip and Jessica keys to their new Fords.Performance: Rihanna sings her latest single "Where Have You Been." It's an enormous involved spectacle with dancers, set pieces, smoke, drummers, and stilt walkers.Performance: Skylar Laine sings "Turn on the Radio" by Reba McEntire and, of course the lady herself shows up to give her hand.Video Package: A peek inside Steven Tyler's dressing room. It's filled with Playboy bunnies and his pet sloth.Performance: Jessica Sanchez reprises her version of "I Will Always Love You," by Whitney HoustonPerformance: The top 6 guys-- save Phillip-- sing a Neil Diamond medley including "America," "Cracklin' Rosie," and "I'm a Believer" and of course the man himself shows up to lend a hand on "Sweet Caroline."Video Package: A montage of Randy repeating the phrase "you can sing the phone book." Then a montage of the top 12 singing the phone book in choir robes. They actually do a really good job. This may be the best thing "Idol" has ever done. Scotty hands a phone book to Randy and Ryan tells him to get some material.Performance: Jennifer Lopez sings two of her songs, one with Wisin y Yandel. Lil Jon is her deejay.Ryan calls Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo up on stage. Ace proposes to her.Performance: Hollie Cavanagh sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" and Jordin Sparks comes out to help her.Performance: A tribute to Robin Gibb comes from the top 6 guys-- except Phillip of course. They do "Words," "How Deep Is Your Love," "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," and "To Love Somebody."Performance: Jessica and Jennifer Holliday sing "And I'm Telling You" and Jennifer, unsurprisingly, wipes the floor with her.Performance: Aerosmith performs it's new single which seems to be called "Legendary Child" (?) before segueing into their classic "Walk This Way."Performance: Phillip and Jessica sing "Love Lift Us Up Where Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. (Cocker and Warnes do not come out to help them.)Winner:Phillip Phillips. The Top 12 rush the stage and hug him. Scotty McCreery hands off his trophy and his guitar. Phillip sings his new song "Home."And that's a wrap on Season 11."American Idol" - Top 3 Results Show - May 17, 2012Group Sing: "Got to Get You Into My Life," The BeatlesFord Commercial: It's just Jessica and Joshua engaging in silent movie hijinks.Results: Joshua Ledet. It's not results so much as it's recap and Jimmy's critique since we won't find out until the end who is gone.Jimmy Sez: That Joshua had a good night, but perhaps not as good as the overly praise-filled judges thought. He thought the Etta James song was good, that "Imagine" wasn't the best choice and that the Mary J. Blige song he picked for him didn't have enough melody for Joshua to sink into, which was his fault. He thinks he should totally be in the finale.Performance: Lisa Marie "daughter of Elvis" Presley performs her song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"Results: Jessica Sanchez. Jimmy Sez: He disagreed with Steven that the Mariah song could help her clinch a win, thought the Aerosmith cover was good but not enough, and, unbelievably, that he didn't know Jermaine sang part of "I'll Be There" so it was his fault she tripped up on that part. He deems her worthy for the finale.There is a quick tribute to Donna Summer from Jimmy and for no apparent reason actress Rita Wilson, aka Mrs. Tom Hanks.Performance: Adam Lambert performs his song "Never Close Our Eyes"Results: Phillip Phillips. Jimmy sez: His first tune was good, the Matchbox 20 song was a "snoozefest" and the Bob Seger cover was flawless and that won him the night.Going Home: Joshua Ledet. He sings himself out on James Brown's "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World."So, your final two is Phillip and Jessica"American Idol" - Top 3 Performance Show- May 15, 2012Theme: Three songs: Judges' choice, contestants' choice, Jimmy's choiceWe will get a look at their hometown visits throughout the show.Contestant:Joshua Ledet Randy says he picked an Etta James song because it's the type of song he's excelled at on the show in the past.Song: "I'd Rather Be Blind"Performance: It's a slow, bluesy torch song that starts off with a nice restrained swagger and eventually builds into a more forceful shout/growl showcase that draws the judges to their feet.Judging: Steven calls it so surreal to hear someone sing the old songs and deliver it just right, he says he sounded like the "American Idol" tonight. JLo says he is such a throwback and he brought down the house. Randy says he hopes in the future he can take what he does and bring it to contemporary R&B which is ailing and aching right now.Contestant: Jessica Sanchez JLo says they chose Mariah Carey's "My All," one of her favorite songs, because it has a tenderness that she thinks Jessica will kill.Song: "My All"Performance: She keeps it quiet and gentle to start. The higher notes are a little breathy and sound like they might be just a shade out of the range of her head voice. The low notes are rich and full though. It starts getting rough in spots pitch-wise towards the end but she ends well.Judging: Randy says it was absolutely beautiful and that it's one of the best versions of Mariah songs ever performed on TV. JLo says it's a hard song to sing and she did it beautifully and her own way. Steven says she makes people hang on her every note. He says she may be the winner.Contestant: Phillip Phillips Steven says they picked "Beggin'" by MadCon because it's got a melody that they want to see if he can hit it more strongly than usual.Song: "Beggin'"Performance: He starts with a big smile with just voice and guitar. He's singing in the high part of his register and it sounds good. The song picks up momentum and it's a lively acoustic rocker. It doesn't have a ton of vocal range but he is singing the melody and basically sticking with the original locomotive vibe. The crowd and the judges dig it.Judging: JLo says he's funny to her because Phillip had to mess with the melody but he rode the groove all the way home. Randy says dude, dude, yo, yo and that they were all just at the Phil Phillips concert. Steven says it's beautiful to watch him unfold. He says he hopes he writes his own songs and says he could be a new Springsteen.Contestant: Joshua Talking about his hometown visit with Ryan he is excited that the arena at which he appeared has never been sold out in the time since it's construction.Video Package: Joshua is in a private jet on his way home to Louisiana and he's freaking out a bit. He's greeted by his big, happy family. He gets a police escort to a crawfish boil and gets hugged by a lot of folks who are fans. He heads off to church and we see him testify, it's very sweet. He asks his little niece to ride with him in the parade in the car. We then see his very colorful parade. He kisses babies and laughs and sees a lot of waving dogs. He's adorably excited. He heads into his high school gym where a big crowd is waiting for him. He then heads to Burton Coliseum and gives a performance to a sold out crowd whom he engages in a hearty call and response.Song: "Imagine," John LennonPerformance: Interesting very restrained choice. He gives the arrangement a little rhythmic swagger but sticks to the classic cadences and sings it very straight and soulfully without overdoing it, too much anyway. As always it's an incredibly natural performance.Judging: Steven says it was beautiful and another "thank you God" moment. JLo says it was a pulled back and controlled performance and she knows that's hard but that he brings great depth to the lyrics which takes strength. Randy asks why he picked it. He says he heard it and it had a strong message. Randy says he should carry that emotionally connected sensibility into his career.Contestant: Jessica Says she was surprised to see so many people on her hometown visit because she was homeschooled and didn't have a lot of friends and was happy boys were chasing her car.Video Package: Jessica got a helicopter ride to her hometown visit in San Diego. She heads to the stadium where she auditioned. She does some radio appearances and pops in on a local radio show concert at the Chula Vista Amphitheatre. She heads home and reunites with her happily tearful family. She alo gots a fun little parade in which she rides with her little brothers. She heads to the local high school and thousands have come out. She heads over to the USS Midway aircraft carrier and is greeted by thousands more and sings to the sailors.Song: "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," AerosmithPerformance: A brave song to sing in front of the man who sang it. (It may be one of Aerosmith's worst songs but it's a great vocal.) She does a very straightforward cover without a lot of flourish and it's nice to hear her hold it back a bit and she never goes to the annoying growl and that is indeed a good thing. Steven gives her a standing ovation.Judging: Steven says she took a great song and made it greater. JLo says she doesn't know how big a deal it is that Steven loved it and she thought it was good too. Randy says she's choosing some tough hills to climb and he says she finally delivered on a big moment.Contestant: Phillip He says his visit home to Leesburg, VA was amazing. Ryan shows a still shot of a guy with a sign that says Phillip owes him $10.Video Package: He heads back to Leesburg and there are tons of folks, including screaming girls and the media, waiting for him at the airport. The nex day he heads back to the pawn shop where he works. There are tons of screaming fans there as well. His dad speaks so sweetly of him and how glad he is to see him. They go for a ride on the main drag and there are signs up all over town supporting him. He heads home and reunites with the family. HIs parade looks like t's taking place around a track in a stadium, it is very well-attended and he gets very choked up, it's lovely. He performs for the crowd with his voice and guitar.Song: "Disease," Matchbox TwentyPerformance: He does it acoustic with sax and congas, it's mellow. It's a good fit for him temperamentally.Judging: JLo thought it was an easy-flowing performance but didn't think it was the wow performance she says she can't wait for his last one. Steven says he feels the same way. Randy thinks it's weird because he didn't like it either. He says it was too subdued and just okay.Contestant: Joshua The contestants get their songs via text from Jimmy. Joshua gets "No More Drama." In the audience Jimmy says he picked the song because MJB combines a lot of the things that Joshua does.Song: "No More Drama," Mary J. BligePerformance: Again it's a pretty straightforward cover, with Josh singing in measured tones on the verses and breaking out more during the choruses. He bounces almost the entire time which is distracting but he sounds good and breaks out as Jimmy expected.Judging: Randy says at this point it doesn't matter what he does, he's laid everything on this stage that he can. JLo loves that he knows exactly what he's doing but at the same time he's in the moment. Steven says it was beautiful and he watched him and felt the last 40 years of the music business.Contestant: Jessica Jimmy picked "I'll Be There" by the Jackson 5 because he wanted a record that appealed to an older audience but also highlighted her youth.Song: "I'll Be There," Jackson 5
Performance: She does a nice job with both the high and low bits and avoids doing the Mariah version of the song.Judging: Steven says it was a perfect song, and it was delicious. JLo says it was a good choice from Jimmy. Randy liked it okay but didn't love it.Contestant:Phillip Jimmy picks "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seger for him because he felt like it was a song that both men and women coud enjoy and he would have to stick to the melody.Song: "We've Got Tonight," Bob SegerPerformance: It's a very tender performance, almost a croon and Phillip does indeed stay with the melody. It's very simple and sweet, piano, strings, and voice. The judges give him a standing ovation.Judging: Randy says Jimmy picked the perfect song at the perfect time and his best performance on the show ever and it gave him a giant moment. He says he's in it to win it and he's ready. JLo says there are 20 million girls out there that wish he was singing it to them. Steven says there's no other word for it then beautiful and he sang like he didn't give a sh--. He says he has great passion."American Idol" - Top 5 Results Show - May 3, 2012Results: Ryan calls up Joshua. Jimmy Sez:His performance from last night is going to be tough to beat. He thinks it was the best performance on the show. He promises JLo that the folks at Interscope won't drop the ball. He is safe.Ford Commercial: "Dream Life" The "Idols" go through a magical door on a mountain into a fairytale world.Performance: Coldplay sing their song "Paradise"Results: Ryan calls up Hollie and Phillip. Jimmy Sez: He thought Hollie's "River Deep" was great but "Bleeding Love" was just competent, not magical. He thinks she's safe for the week. He thought Phillip should be commended because he's unwell. But he thinks he did two very bland songs and has been coasting. He thinks he should be in the bottom two but doesn't think he will be.Phillip is safe, Hollie is in the bottom two.Performance: Carrie Underwood sings her new song "Blown Away"Results: Ryan calls up Jessica and Skylar. Jimmy Sez: Thinks Skylar is a fighter. He thought the staging of the second song was too Vegas/Broadway for him. He thinks for her to get to the finals she need to find the crushing song that wins the night. Thinks Jessica singing "You Are So Beautiful" was perfect. But even though he thinks she's the best singer on the show "Proud Mary" was a disaster and he thought her styling was too mature and racy and that might her. Jessica is safe. Skylar is in the bottom two.Performance: Coldplay returns and sings "Every Teardop Is a Waterfall"Bottom Two: Hollie and SkylarGoing Home: Skylar Laine

Tags: non fiction

Review:
There comes a time in every reasonable man's life when he must sit down in his living room and watch an episode of American Idol.
I just have my fingers crossed that one contestant will finally lash out at Randy, saying, "Well, Mr. Jackson, you give me a list of songs I'm not supposed to do, and I'll make sure I sing them all just for you." Even if they are really good, nothing is as good as the original, so just give up.The producers of Idol need to take a step back from the show they've created and look at what it has become: a rigged popularity contest.
It's sad that so many talented, hard-working musicians out there have been busting their ass for years and can't get a break, while any soulless, talentless suburban poser can go on what is basically a nationally-televised karaoke contest, become the flavor of the month, and then be forgotten about six months later(unless you're Kelly Clarkson).
Granted, there's still some pretty decent scripted shows on the tube (Monk, 30 Rock, My Name is Earl, The Office) but as long as people line up mindlessly to watch muck like 'American Idol', I'm afraid it's only gonna get worse.
The contestants are still good, though, which is why I still watch: I'm a sucker for a talent show and I do love seeing someone do really well, as Jordin is doing this year.
Seacrest stood there, in all his sanctimonious smarminess, preaching to us about how we were not just voting this week, we're "saving lives." I'm all for ending hunger in all countries of the world, beginning with our country, don't get me wrong, but this to me feels like a very underhanded and sleazy way to obtain more publicity for the show.The corporations in question have enough money to fully end all world hunger if they wanted; they do not need our votes to contribute to that cause.
By telling people they are "saving lives" by voting, the producers of the show (and Seacrest, as their shamelessly pathetic talking head - he's like Max Headroom without the soul) are implying that the opposite is true, as well: if you don't vote, you are NOT saving lives.About the show itself: the worst thing is how they never let the contestants sing a whole song, they have to condense their song into a minute and a half, and then they get criticized for not having enough feeling or enough conviction or enough personality, blah blah blah.
The basic premise behind American Idol, a talent show in which a large number of contestants battle it out to get a recording contract, is one that has inspired a number of films and television shows.
In fact, independent, underground recording labels have seen their business explode tenfold since the MP3 revolution, and for the first time in history, the advertising of recording artists has truly become a level playing field.All of this translates into increasing irrelevance for talent quests like American Idol.
Paula Abdul reflects the overly optimistic approach that many of the RIAA's marketeers suffer from, Randy Jackson highlights the irrelevance, and Simon Cowell repeats exactly what the more intelligent section of the buying public is thinking.
Funk-punk, electronica, and punk-pop had observers that were of the same age then as Cowell is now asking what was next.So when I say that the present crop of pop musicians that shows like Idol attempt to promote as if they are the hottest thing since tofu are little more than a damp squib, I want you to understand my full meaning.
A word of advice to the people who actually tune in every January: go and watch the classic 1981 movie musical "Shock Treatment." Once you see its town overwhelmed to Orwellian proportions by TV shows like this, you will see the error of your remote-controlled ways..
The choreography was often under-rehearsed, the singers sometimes pick the wrong songs for their voice(a huge danger when it comes to singing), the lighting was dim, the clothes that some contestants wear either in auditions(ie.
Give me a break, I am not trying to sound insensitive, but there are many many good things you can do with your life other than go on American Idol, if you really want to sing, join a pop band, a musical theatre or opera group, you may find they are better in terms of time value.Overall, formulaic, tired and predictable, not to mention exploitative.
People, if they're bad singers, don't blame him!) Simon, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.
One guy on a recent season 2 episode thought he deserved to be the American Idol 'cause he thought he could sing and he stood out 5 days in the cold.
The final irony is that all of the "American Idols" picked by the judges and the viewers, with the possible exception of Carrie Underwood, have sooner or later vanished from the formerly adoring public eye that created them!
Bring back the bad auditions: What made American Idol a staple was the people that thought they could sing and thought they were a star and just made absolute fools out of themselves.
Again, with the later seasons of American Idol (2013-now), they took that out to only focus on the good singers.
But with the majority of contestants possessing no talent, he may as well give it up and try something that is more pleasing to the human mind.This is what we see every season, and for some, American Idol is growing weary.
American Idol has got to be one, if not, the most overrated TV show in all of television history.To be honest, the audition part is pretty good and seeing the bad and weird singers is pretty funny but after that, the show is just plain boring!
and they take their sweet time just getting to the results.As for the judges, Randy Jackson ain't bad, Paula Abdul can get very annoying and well Simon is probably the main reason why this show is still on.I don't see how people can sit and watch people sing.
Unlimited number of votes can be unfairly cast; judges make decisions based on their script rather than the talent; and political correctness seems to dictate both the original choice of contestants as well as the scripted results week after week.Multiple seasons allot us a clear hind-sight view of the future of this year's winner: very short-lived fame.
Seeing the contestants walk in dressed in crazy costumes and perform mad dance routines, I would say American Idol is a good show, if you're looking for some fun entertainment..
I did laugh hysterically at the first 2 or 3 seasons of horrible singers,but after that,I didn't care about the contest at all.Reason being is,in my opinion,even though a selected number of these performers "do" have the talent,I don't feel this is a legitimate way of hitting the big time.
American Idol Is One Of Those Shows On Par With "X-Factor" & "The Voice" As Being "We Must Hunt Down Talent." The Thing Is No One REALLY Talented Becomes "The Idol" At The End Of The Show; The Only Two That Are In Any Way Decent Are Carrie Underwood & David Cook(Thats Only Because I Am A Sucker For The Songs That David Hodges Wrote For Them).Again, What Amazes Me Is That People Who Don't Really Bring Anything New To Music On This Show Are Garuanteed A Successful Music Career But No Other Country Is Allowed, I Am One Of The Few English Speakers That Have Seen This But Ida Madsen's Song "I Can Be" Performed This Year On Danish X-Factor Was Amazing And Yet I Had To Find Her Out Through Mistakenly Clicking On One Of The Videos Recommended To Me On Youtube.My Other Beef With This Show Is The Auditions, People Come On The Show And Sing When They Can't And The Judges Have To Break It To Them, Yet Not In A Subtle Way Like "Look, The Thing Is..." No They're Like "You Are By Far The Worst Singer In The World." Which Is An Over Exaggeration, I Know The Worst Singer In The World Personally: Me.I Could Never Find Any Excuse To Sit Through An Entire Episode But It Didn't Want To Either Because I Could Never Get Into This Show..
Kelly's performance on the Idol Gives Back telethon special was so good, I do not think any other contestant can ever truly compete with her.
The 3 judges, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul and a little bit of what they are like.
A time to make a dream a reality.It started off with brutally honest British judge, Simon Cowell; hip and cool former Journey drummer, Randy Jackson; and former pop diva and dancer, Paula Abdul.
This way they know who is left & do not have to get the audience in to the studio for 2 shows.The show has been known to fake a lot of early sequences, & mistreats wannabes because instead of judging the ones who make the finals by talent, they pick their contestants by personality for hooking the viewers.
Why is this still on the air after four seasons?Who says that this was a "reality" show?Ever since the series,"American Idol" premiered on the FOX network in October of 2002,audiences and some critics even put this show beside other musical variety shows like "American Bandstand",or "Name That Tune","Star Search","Putting On The Hits",or some other show that consisted of young individuals singing famous songs and are being voting on by the judges who think that there the next big time superstar.
Each week you get one contestant who is voted off until the next person wins and it goes into the next round....sort of like the sweet sixteen,the elite eight,the final four,and from there the championship where two individuals will compete for the crown and the title of American IDOL.
As far as the performances here,they surely speak for themselves as well as the judges on that show whom are some of the most repulsive individuals ever depicted on television.Getting back to the obvious vocal talents who go up there singing someone else's songs just to get by is not only boring but come on here, using the same song in the same category is ENOUGH!
Actually,this show is nothing but a bunch of puppets with good voices being thrown in for good measure,and from here I get sick and tired of these contestants singing the same old ass tunes over and over again.Some of the songs that these performers used on the show to impress the judges are revolting to watch let alone sit there and watch them make a total ass of themselves on national television.
This show gave us some of the freshest faces in music today,but let's face it....NOBODY never heard of contest winners like Kelly Clarkson,Justin Guarini,Tamyra Gray,Ruben Studdard,Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino,Sebastian Guy,to even an lesser of the two evils,the worst contestant ever....William Hung(She Bangs!)until American IDOL put them into the spotlight and onto glory.As far as the judges are concerned,I got one word to summarize them altogether...BALONEY!
You got three of the worst judges up there,and let me go even further with some of them who think they're better and above every one else since they're better than everybody else,and let me give some examples of some of them....For one,you have Randy Jackson,one of the lost civilizations of the original Jackson Five; Paula Abdul,who in my opinion hasn't had a hit record in years,who remembers "I'm Forever Your Girl"?
and one the ONLY judge on that panel that has common sense,and lets not forget the bastard of the program....Simon Cowell,who thinks he is better than the rest....The J.R. Ewing of the show,the man everyone loves to hate!To sum this up,you'll see these contestants do is singing someone else's songs in order to win a Million Dollar contract to sing someone else's songs which is totally sad,not to mention pathetic as hell.
Ryan Seacrest was always so reliable as a host too.Yeah the show saw better days and it did get "worse" as it went on, but the core essence of the show, finding the next big superstar, was evergreen, and that's why the show is and will always be great, and besides until The Voice and other such shows it produced so many stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Phillip Phillips, just to name a few.Thank you American Idol.
That's where a program like "American Idol" comes in."AI" is the stop gap for the Music Industry.
American Idol has become a clearing house for discovering new talent across the board in the entertainment world.There is a formula to it all, with the early episodes showcasing the bad and the good performers from audition sites, which really is only to feed the schadenfreude of the viewers and to whet the appetite for great performances later.
The competition doesn't really begin until they narrow the pack to the finalists and start doing live telecasts, with the home audience calling or texting their votes in.The other success of this program is the chemistry of the four stars: Ryan Seacrest as host, and the three judges, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.
You love them, you hate them, but you can't stop watching or quoting them.In addition, by inviting established stars in to be guest judges, they are paying tribute to the history of music, giving their contestants great coaching, a hint of what is ahead for them, and in some cases, helping to promote or revive the careers of these visiting performers!
This is illustrated by the fact that each year, there have been enough bad performances for a whole hour of "The Best of the Worst" of American Idol, and this does not even include the talentless people who make it past the tryouts.
Well tv talent shows aren't new to the general public.There have been talent shows trying to find new talent since the 1950's.But American Idol is perhaps the worst of the tv talent show lot.Trying to find the next Brittany Spears(If you had seen the ads for the show in the summer her image was the main focus of the ads) the show is a phony contrived piece of crap promoting individuals who don't write their own music,don't play a musical instruments,don't have a clue about being original or innovative.It is just some televised game show for karoke singers.The thing about American Idol was that,over the summer,how much publicity the mainstream media was giving it.The media made the show a hit with all kinds of stories about who was going to make the next round,or stories about the contestants,or the show's hosts(The washed up overrated Paula Abdul) or the excitement about the ultimate winner.The media now,not just the usual suspects(TV Guide,Entertainment Tonight)but Time and Newsweek was giving full blast attention.For why I don't know.It is not as if the next Micheal Jackson,Miles Davis,or Stevie Wonder is ever going to wind up on this show.This show is looking for no talent media packaged types like Spears and Abdul.The shill about this show and the shill it got from the media was reasons enough to avoid it.It doesn't matter who got cut or who won.Can anyone believe the winner of this year's show will amount to anything?Treating Kelly Clarkson as if she is Aretha Franklin is like comparing Jim Miller to Dan Marino,there is no comparison in any way.That American Idol was able to get on the air is sad enough but the fact Americans fell for the hype and watched this crap is even more unfortunate..
if you are smart it makes you angry and sickend by the lack of talent in american culture, much like watching mtv does to anyone with common sense and good taste in music..
Simon is kinda mean, but he's still a good judge just like Randy and Paula.
American Idol (the brainchild of Brits Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell) has been airing for 12 years or so and despite being nowhere as popular as it used to be, FOX continues to air a new season running 4 months or so and has also spawned a bunch of imitators to boot, including Cowell's X Factor.From having non-singers and people who mostly can't sing without Autotune being judges, to having "contestants" who act like they are on Prozac or some happy drug 24/7, to the "coaching" done off-screen, to the screaming banshees in the audience, to seeing people being given permission to butcher pop songs, to Ryan Seacrest, to the usual rigging of results, etc.
Based on UK's singing competition Pop Idol, this long-running show is a talent contest consisting of 12 boys and 12 girls - all competing for the title of American Idol.The first eight seasons featured judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.
Despite some of the talents out there, you could tell that some of the contestants acted like the show is more of a chance to have the "it factor" instead of exhibiting good singing.But overall, it's not a bad show - it just really ran its course and lost steam after about the ninth season.Grade B-.
Liked up until tonight, don't get the voting for top 24, way too politically correct by "genre" and demographic- hate we didn't get to see full performance, need to spend less time on opinions of judges!!Hollywood is a rock star!!This season is so surface and dull, tired of words by each judge, bottom line they can be heartless, why even have them connect with the contestants?
If you really want to find a real SUPERSTAR in American Idol, STOP the phone calls and let the JUDGES decide!
I love American Idol and I don't know why people say its trash.
Okay, first of all I would like to say to all the people who think American Idol stinks.
Paula will always be my favorite judge and yes at times I didn't like Simon but hey he tells people the truth.