Idol Chatter & Voice Views

One song and gone.

That’s how the American Idol experience will end for many of this year’s 24 semifinalists.

And that’s a shame.

Now let me preface this blog by saying I’ve enjoyed Idol so far this season.

The new judging panel has been a refreshing change. Except for L.A., most of the audition episodes focused  more on the talented than the bizarre and delusional.

The addition of Vegas Week, to help judges narrow the field between the tension of the “rooms” and the drama of the “Green Mile,” was a great idea. It’s just a shame we weren’t treated to more of those final solo performances.

There have been annoyances along the way.

Like the Steven Tyler apology that was nothing but a publicity ploy. And the over-dramatized Jennifer Lopez breakdown after bidding farewell to Chris Medina.

Then comes this season 10 semifinal format.

It’s more than a minor annoyance.

It’s a major step backward, toward the failures of season eight.

Remember that year? We were asked to vote singers into the finals on the basis of a single 90-second performance.

And we wound up with the likes of Jorge Nunez, Michael Sarver, Lil Rounds and Scott MacIntyre in the finals. No offense to those folks, but they didn’t seem very finals-worthy when they started singing on the big stage.

I far prefer the semifinal format used in seasons four through seven and again in season nine. A semifinal format where there are three weeks of singing and the semifinal field is narrowed bit by bit until a final 12 remain.

Why? The reasons are simple.

* Contestants have to do more to earn a spot in the finals. If you don’t perform well for three straight weeks, you might not survive.

* We have more to base our voting decisions on. Let’s face it, to date, we’ve barely heard some of these people (Paul McDonald, Lauren Turner etc.) sing. I don’t think we’ve seen an entire solo performance from anyone.

* We have more time to develop favorites before the finals begin. Hey, Lauren Alaina might be every bit as special as Idol tells us she is. But I’d like to decide that on my own.

I read somewhere that Idol execs thought the show started to drag at this point and that’s why the season 10 semifinals were condensed.

Drag compared to what?

Three weeks of auditions? Now those seemed to “drag” by the time they were ending.

And maybe the “drag” has more to do with the talent than the format.

I keep thinking back to season seven of Idol. Remember Brooke White singing “You’re So Vain?” Jason Castro singing “Hallelujah?” How about David Archuleta’s rendition of “Imagine?”

Under this semifinal format, all of those performances would have been lost. All came in the second or third week of the semifinals.

And that would have been a shame, too.

Editor’s Note: I’ll be blogging live during the Idol performance shows again this season, grading each performance as it happens.

For a look at pre-Idol performances by the semifinalists, go here.  Elsewhere in this blog, you can find my assessment of the 12 remaining guys, what they will be singing tonight, my asssessment of the 12 remaining girls, and what they will be singing Wednesday night.