Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Make no mistake. Idol did some things right in Season 10.

Bigger production numbers. A deeper and more diverse cast. Those sudden-death singoffs for a wild-card spot.

But this show could be oh, so much better with a few changes.

So here’s some free advice for executive produced Nigel Lythgoe and the other powers that be on American Idol.

1. Fire Randy Jackson

Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe promised us Randy was stepping up his game with Simon Cowell gone. By mid-season it was clear: Randy was merely vying for the Idol crown as King of Banality. From grand exaggerations (like calling Lauren Alaina a cross between Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood after one semifinal performance) to beating favorite phrases to death, Randy was horrid in season 10. If I had to grade him … well, there isn’t a letter grade below F, is there? “In it to win it?” What sense does that make? I mean, which contestant was in it to lose it. Replacing Randy shouldn’t be difficult. I mean, Nigel, look over at NBC. On “The Voice,” they went four for four in judges who are better than Randy.

2. Send Steven to Judging School

Hey, Idol, you found yourself a personality in Steven Tyler. You never know what the guy’s going to say. “Cool dude in a loose mood.” “You just Reinherited yourself into the middle of next week.” Great stuff. But the guy’s also on a love-everything roll that makes Paula Abdul look like the second coming of Simon Cowell. Seriously. He has loved every single performance this season. All 104. I mean, how is that even possible? Send Steven to judging school. Insist that he return ready to be critical of something, anything, anyone.

3. Don’t let the judges pick songs

It’s ludicrous that I have to type those words. Especially since the judges so often criticize the contestants’ song choices. But the judges’ picks for the Top 3 show the past two seasons have been moronic. Stunning in their stupidity.  Last year, they picked “Maybe I’m Amazed” for Crystal Bowersox. Fine song. Except that it forced Idol’s first female finalist in three years to sing “baby, I’m a man” over and over.

This year, they picked Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” for Haley Reinhart. With verses that are spit out and spoken more than sung. With X-rated lyrics in the first verse that made no sense once changed for Idol’s PG-13 audience. A song with none of the soulfulness to show off what is special about Haley’s voice. Which of those three might have been clues that this wasn’t the song to pick? Well, Nigel, if you wanted to prove that the show had it in for Haley and wanted Lauren in the finals, this song choice did it. It was a 10 on the difficulty scale compared to Lauren’s 2, like asking Haley to do advanced calculus while Lauren added 2 plus 2.

It was the most blatantly unfair segment we’ve seen on Idol since Blake Lewis’ was forced to sing “This is My Now” in the Season 6 finale.

4. Fix the voting

This probably won’t happen now that two gals made the final three. Nigel Lythgoe will probably pretend all is right with the world as he salivates over 95 million votes. It needs to happen. The first five contestants eliminated this year were ladies. And that followed a poor track record of support for female contestants over the previous three seasons.

Said Naima Adedapo: When the little girls get crushes on the guys, we’re fried. Or something to that effect. Think about this Nigel: Lots of people probably don’t vote because we’ve been trained to think that we have to vote for 2 hours straight to make a difference. And, well, gee, we have jobs and other obligations. Limit fans to 50 votes or so, and we might participate.

5. Improve the results shows

Nigel promised us they’d be cut to one-half hour. They weren’t. Too much money to be made selling commercials for an hour-long time slot, I suppose. But if we must endure one-hour results shows that boil down to five minutes of suspense, Idol, make these changes: 1) Make sure the guest performances are age appropriate, especially as you try to draw in a younger and younger audience; 2) Eliminate the in-show commercials for upcoming films; 3) Fill the hour-long time slot with more performances from former and current Idol contestants.

Season 10 featured perhaps the worst Idol results show ever. You remember. We were treated to actor Russell Brand mentoring the Idols on something because he had an upcoming movie to hawk. Telling Pia Toscano to imagine him and two other pretend judges without pants was supposed to be funny, I guess. We were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at how Gwen Stefani inadvertently turned Pia and Lauren into fashion disasters. We were treated to Constantine Maroulis murdering “Unchained Melody.” We were treated to Iggy Pop, nude to the waist at age 64, singing something. It was an hour of must-avoid TV, even before it ended with the way-too-early ousting of Pia.

6.  Play fair in the early rounds

That one-round semifinal with sudden death sing-offs is the best semifinal format you’ve found. But you need to play fair in the early episodes. It is still grossly unfair how some contestants get so much TV time (Lauren Alaina/Scotty McCreery) and others get so little (Ashthon Jones/Lauren Turner, for example) before the voting begins. Sorry, Nigel, but again, “The Voice” is doing a much, much, much better job at this. Another tip, once you’ve picked performers for the semifinals, put their Hollywood solo, their Vegas group number and their Vegas solo online, so we can see more of what the judges have seen before we’re expected to start judging.

7. Ditch the duets

I loved the addition of duets and smaller group numbers to the results show in Season 10. But I’ve been saying it for three years now, duets are unfair in the competition rounds. This year, they showed up on the Top 6 show. Haley got to sing with Casey. If they don’t have a romantic connection, they certainly have a musical one. Lauren got to sing with Scotty. Both country singers, their voices meshed nicely. That left James Durbin and his rock shriek to duet with Jacob Lusk and his gospel hijinks. Neither deserved to be judged by that performance.

Have other suggestions?

Let me know by commenting below.

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of blogs looking back at Idol Season 10. Others include my picks for the top 10 performances, the top 5 non-performance moments, and a look at how this year’s finale compares to Idol’s first nine. Coming tomorrow: A look at how the final 2 match up, plus the better alternative for TV viewing Tuesday night.