Tianna Roberts and Jacquie Lee, two contestants who got virtually no airtime after the auditions on American Idol
American Idol staged an entertaining ‘Ohana Round show Monday night.
Idol didn’t spend lots of time fawning over its industry experts.
It showed more of the Top 30 performances than I thought possible in a two-hour time slot.
And some of those certainly confirmed that Season 24 of American Idol could be very special.
All that said, the show could have — and should have — done better.
It’s important to keep the ‘Ohana Round in perspective. Idol billed it as new and game-changing.
But let’s remember what it replaced — a Top 24 round that was spread over two nights. A round in which every performance aired.
This year’s Top 30 survived a brutal Hollywood Week cut in which 97 contestants were eliminated based on a single performance.
And then some of them just disappeared.
Where was Tianna Roberts in Hawaii? Where was Brenna Brigman? Where was Brianna Yancey? Where was Kiera Howell?
Where was Season 5 Voice runner-up Jacquie Lee?
Honestly, some of those contestants didn’t get any screen time during Hollywood Week Idol either. They were almost phantom contestants, Top 30 on American Idol in name only.
I was only joking when I wrote in my song by song grade blog from Monday night that Keyla Richardson’s son had gotten more screen time than some members of the Top 30.
I didn’t realize how true that would wound up being by the end of Monday’s show.
Even some members of the Top 20 had their performances trimmed to a few seconds. Not an ideal situation to be in with voting starting Monday night.
Again, Idol could have and should have done better.
The cameras were clearly rolling when every member of the Top 30 performed.
There is absolutely no excuse for Idol not to post the full performance of every member of the Top 30 to its Facebook page and to YouTube.
Considering the odds they overcame and the time they committed to the show, the eliminated members of the Top 30 deserved at least that much.
Kiera Howell performs during an unaired performance on American Idol.
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