Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Update: The Emmy for Outstading Reality-Competition Series went to The Amazing Race for the eighth time in the past nine years.

The message to Nigel Lythgoe: Try harder in Season 11.

And, please, make the judges judge and stop creating moments.

Let them happen.

One other observation. I thought Idol took forever to do very little on its results shows.

The 2011 Emmys have it beat at that feat.

The previous blog:

The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast tonight on FOX.

And, for the ninth straight year, American Idol is nominated for Outstanding Reality-Competition Series.

Surprisingly, despite its dominance in the ratings, American Idol has never won the Emmy. In seven of those years, the award went to “The Amazing Race.” Last year, “Top Chef” took home the honors.

Does Idol deserve to break that Emmy drought in 2011?

For every reason it does, I can come up with a counterpoint for why the award should go to someone else. Follow along.

Ratings

Pro: We all know the Emmys aren’t based on ratings alone, but Idol scored a major victory for remaining at the top of the rating with Season 10. Remember, this was the first year without Simon, the year viewers were supposed to abandon the show by the millions. It didn’t happen.

Con: In season six, nearly 36 million people watched the show’s finale. Idol has yet to recapture that kind of audience.

The judges

Pro: Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler helped revive the interest in Idol. Steven was humorous for a while; Jennifer looked like she might turn into a capable judge in the early episodes. The her Idol stint certainly revived her career as … well, a celebrity.

Con: Randy Jackson was supposed to become the new leader of the judges’ panel. He was horrible. Again. Jennifer and Steven flat-out stopped judges when the live shows began, leaving viewers to figure out on their own who deserved to stay and who deserved to go.

The production

Pro: Idol avoided the embarrassments of Season 9, when the show never seemed to get its timing down and when you often wondered how a top-rated show could come off looking so amateurish. Remember the Shakira-Rascal Flatts duet with the malfunctioning mikes? The audio failure during the Blake Eyed Peas’ opening performance on Idol Gives Back.

Con: Nigel and company still served up some clunkers in Season 10. Most noteworthy: The rock week results show, when we were treated to Constantine Maroulis murdering “Unchained Melody,” hardly a rock song; and Iggy Pop prancing around shirtless singing something. With Steven Tyler on the panel, the show couldn’t have come up with better guest artists that week? How about Daughtry, for crying out loud.

Those Idol moments

Pro: We were treated to several by a talented Season 10 casts. My favorites included the farewell performances from Haley Reinhart, James Durbin and Casey Abrams. And the sight of watching Scotty McCreery sit on the stage and try to catch confetti on his tongue after winning the Idol crown. And then there was the moment of moments from Season 10 — Casey’s reaction after the judges decided to save him from elimination.

Con: Every true Idol moment was matched by a manufactured moment. The group hug for Jacob Lusk. The young girls rushing the stage — in quite orderly fashion — to greet Scotty. Worst of all, Lauren Alaina being escorted from the stage by Ryan Seacrest to embrace her mom while singing “Like My Mother Does.” Nigel Lythgoe should know better.

The unpredictability

Pro: Pia Toscano’s ninth-place elimination sure came as a shocker, right? But Idol’s best storyline from Season 10 was the surprisingly ascent of Haley Reinhart. She looked like an a candidate for one-song-and-gone. She wound up challenging for a spot in the finals.

Con: But in the end, was there any real doubt about who would win? Or wind up in the finals? Idol did it’s best to pimp young contestants from the get-go in Season 10. So we ended with two of the youngest finalists ever. Not to mention another male winner, Idol’s fourth in a row. At least this time the winner wasn’t a blatant misfire, like in Season 8 and Season 9.

Conclusion: Idol can do better.

So do viewers a favor and force it to do better before rewarding the show with its long-awaited Emmy.

Surely one of the other nominees — Top Chef, The Amazing Race, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway or Dancing with the Stars — is more deserving in 2011.