Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Nigel Lythgoe goes by dizzyfeet on Twitter. At the rate changes are being announced for season 10 of American Idol, he should shorten it to dizzy.

I wish I could tell you exactly how season 10 is going to play out. I can’t. Partly because Nigel canceled a Friday afternoon press conference with the print media at the last moment.

What do we know for sure about the latest changes?

1. Idol is moving from Tuesday and Wednesday nights to Wednesday and Thursday. The season premiere will be a two-hour episode on Wednesday, Jan. 19, followed by a one-hour show the next night.

2. Nigel says Idol is eliminating the semifinal round, the one where votes narrowed the field of contestants form 36 or 24 (depending on the year) to 12 or 13 (depending on whim of judges in the years when they could make wild card choices).

3.  Nigel says Idol finalists will face new challenges, including workings with dancers and musicians to put on an awards-show style performance, making a video and proving they can promote themselves. No word on when that will come in the competition.

Now, the elimination of the semifinals has led to speculation that Idol judges will be the ones selecting the finalists, not the voters.

Word of this got back to Mr. Dizzy, who tweeted an emphatic “NO” over the weekend.

Tweeted Nigel: “Don’t panic everyone. You’ll still be voting to choose your top group of contestants on Idol, but with a change in style and more knowledge.”

Of course, precisely how Idol is going to make that work is anyone’s guess.

Especially since we’ve been told more contestants are being sent to Hollywood this year.

But if it’s more knowledge we’re supposed to use to pick the final 12, eliminating the semifinals would seem a major step in the wrong direction.

What I’ve appreciated most about the semifinals in the seasons when they’re done correctly — meaning not like that top 36 mess in season 8 when most folks got to sing just once — is that they’ve offered viewers an opportunity to determine on their own who the best singers are.

To develop favorites over the course of three weeks. To learn more about the finalists before the finals begin. To help balance out the way the show tends to highlight favored contests. Say like Danny Gokey in season eight and Michael Lynche in season nine.

Not to mention, without the semfinals in the past, we would have missed out on some pretty special performances — Brooke White singing “You’re So Vain,” David Archuleta’s wonderful rendition of “Imagine” and Jason Castro’s “Hallelujah.”

Ahh, I might have just proved my point. The cast is more important than the format.

Pick the right cast, and there’s no reason for the semifinals to be “boring,” as Nigel called them.

And if you really want to tighten up the Idol season, you could always shorten some of those dreadful audition episodes featuring contestants who have no business stepping in front of an Idol judge in the first place, the ones who are apparently allowed to audition for comic relief even though it stopped being comical several seasons ago.

Just a thought.