So, today’s American Idol chatter revolves around a report from The Wrap that FOX plans to fire all four judges at the end of the season.
My response: “Don’t stop there.” If heads are going to roll over declining ratings in Season 12, take the producers, too. Please. Very please.
Candice Glover performs Wednesday night on American Idol. (FOX Photo)
They deserve to be fired anyway. Last night’s travesty was just the latest example.
To be honest, I was unprepared for what transpired last night. Late last week, FOX issued a press release saying the Top 3 would be singing a judges’ choice, a Jimmy Iovine choice and an Idol choice this week.
I figured the Idol choice meant Candice Glover, Angie Miller and Kree Harrison would get to sing one song of their own choosing. After all, that’s the way Idol has worked the Top 3 show every year since Season 4 — letting the contestants select one song.
Oh, no. Not this year. Idol choice meant that the Idol powers-that-be were going to pick that third song.
Which is absolutely ridiculous. And inexcusable. And I could add all sorts of expletives that would be entirely unsuitable for a newspaper blog.
All season long, the judges have preached to contestants the importance of song choice, the importance of knowing themselves as artists.
If Idol really wanted to measure the progress of its top three contestants, how about letting them select all three songs they’d sing on Top 3 night? Heck, let them decide the order in which they’d perform the songs too.
Instead, Idol goes to the opposite extreme. Why?
The only reason I can think of is control and the ability to choreograph what would happen on performance night.
And make no mistake, what transpired last night was carefully choreographed with one goal in mind — to get Candice into the finale.
Last night I wrote that this week’s Idol manipulation was a little easier to swallow because she deserves to be there.
But that doesn’t make it right. If anything, it’s even more unfortunate because of the caliber of this year’s Top 3.
Think about it for a moment. Which of the following scenarios would be more likely to result in show-stopping performances on Idol — letting the singers pick songs they want to sing and feel a connection to, or forcing them to sing songs foisted upon them that they might or might not know.
Angie Miller performs at her piano for her final song Wednesday night on American Idol. (FOX Photo)
Dah. That’s how stupid the people who run Idol are.
So we wind up with Jimmy Iovine giving Angie Miller “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word” figuring she’d take to her piano.
Why didn’t Angie head for her piano?
She explained in the middle of all those rambling critiques.
She didn’t know the song on piano and didn’t think she had time to learn it and play it well on live TV.
Kudos to Angie. Certainly no kudos to Idol or Jimmy Iovine for not considering that.
Yep, heads need to roll after Season 12 of Idol.
And they need to start at the tippy top.
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3 Comments
Mark, please don’t tell me you’re blaming Angie’s exit on the producers.
The producers gave Kree the worst song of the night. “Better Dig Two” is not in her wheelhouse. She would’ve been better off with “If I Die Young” or “All Your Life” or heck, even “Postcard From Paris”
The voters have never elected a Northeast champion. The winner usually comes from the South. We’ll have another southern champion this year.
It shows that the South rallies behind its singers better than anyone else does.
Short of not letting people from the South qualify for the voting rounds, which would be just silly, there is nothing the producers can do about that
Nope, not blaming it on the producers at all.
If anything, Kree deserves extra congratulations for enduring the fact that the show on put the “please eliminate her” tag on her back for something like 3 weeks now.
In fact, I find it humorous that their attempts to manipulate the outcome often fail.