Idol Chatter & Voice Views

An open letter to American Idol Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe …

Dear Nigel:

So, I see you and the powers that be at American Idol figured out that online voting thing.

Congrats. That must have been some undertaking, launching a new feature so complex and linking it to Facebook logins.

Now I’d like to suggest a much simpler mission for the good folks at americanidol.com — the posting of performance videos.

Because, Nigel, the truth is, you’ve fallen short on one of your promises.

You said Idol had tinkered with its format this year so voters would be more familiar with contestants when it came time to vote.

Just last week, you said you hated how we’d get to the semifinals in past seasons and not know “50 percent” of the contestants.

Well, 50 percent might have been a bit of an exaggeration. But you’re right about this: There always seem to be three or four contestants we’ve barely met, barely heard sing.

And that’s always really nagged me, too.

But, you know what, Nigel? I see very little difference this year.

Paul McDonald? I don’t think we heard him sing a note until Wednesday’s episode.

Lauren Turner? If she hadn’t had the misfortune of being in the group Jordan Dorsey dumped, we wouldn’t know her name.

Jovany “Can’t Keep My Shirt On” Barreto? I bet there are young ladies across the country wondering if he has a voice to match those abs. I don’t think we’ve heard him sing since the New Orleans audition, the second aired this season.

The bottom line: Once again, there are too many contestants who are still musical mysteries or semi-mysteries to the viewers at home.

A simple tweak, and americanidol.com could solve that.

Those final performances in Vegas looked quite telling. It’s a shame 90 percent of them wound up on the cutting room floor. But why not post each semifinalists’ solo performance on the website?

The same could easily be done for their Idol audition, for their group performance in Hollywood, for their final solo performance in Hollywood and for their Beatles number from Vegas.

Presto, we could go online and watch five performances from any semifinalist we wanted. Someone like Pia Toscano, who looks all so promising, but who hasn’t been featured enough either.

In the process, you’d be addressing one of Idol’s major faults — the blatant unfairness resulting from some contestants being featured constantly — say, like season 10’s anointed teens — while others are barely seen.

And I’d bet it’d be much easier to do than coming up with a system for online voting.

Yours truly

Mark Franklin

At Idol Chatter