Wednesday, May 26, 2010

I THINK AS PART OF THE DEAL, WE SHOULD INSIST ON BRINGING THIS GUY OVER AS A JUDGE: As Bill Carter reported, that's what Fox executive Sandy Grushow said to his colleagues during the 2002 negotiations to buy the U.S. rights to Britain's Pop Idol -- and "this guy," whose name he could not remember, was Simon Cowell.

Tonight marks not only the end of the ninth season of American Idol but also the end of Simon Cowell's tenure on the show, and he will be sorely missed. The ethic that Cowell brought to Idol -- and which was carried forward into other reality shows by folks like Tim Gunn, Tom Colicchio and Janice Dickinson -- is that it's okay for judges to judge. Not everyone deserves the you tried really hard, and that had some redeeming qualities response -- good, substantive criticism helps separate the great from the pretty good, and over the years viewers incorporated Cowell's preferences as their own and stopped seeing him as a villain, but rather as a guide. Still, to be sure, the Parade of the Deluded during auditions became a tedious pigeon shoot, and the gay banter and teasing with Seacrest was not entertaining.

But on the whole, what I said in December 2008 when I awarded him the ALOTT5MA Award for Reality TV Host/Judge of the Year remains true, and I don't know that Idol survives beyond 2011 without him. He more than anyone else defined the role of a "judge" in this new tv genre, and the entertainment universe is indebted to him for that.

This is an open thread for discussion of tonight's grand finale. Enjoy.

50 comments:

  1. That we're 90 minutes into the finale and no one has posted a comment yet (I just got home) tells you everything you need to know about this season.

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  2. I turned it on because I'm stuck in a hotel and there is literally nothing else on.  Who thought Janet Jackson is a deeply relevant cultural figure for today?  I thought this was supposed to be a show about finding and celebrating NEW talent?

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  3. I haven't watched any of this before, but I understand that Lee getting "What would you do if I sang out of tune" on "With A Little Help From My Friends" (Joe Cocker version) is suitably ironic--and yes, Crystal is plainly blowing him off the stage.

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  4. The reunion of all the Idols from the past was nice, though their tribute song to Simon was as dreadful as any of the coronation songs from the past. The Joe Cocker-Crystal-Lee performance saved the show. I really wish they'd make all the celebrity performers sing with an actual Idol contestant. I really didn't need to see Christina Aguilera plug her new album without doing any kind of duet with an Idol finalist.

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  5. Look, I understand you're emotional and just won American Idol, but that was a sorry version of Beautiful Day--needs Bono's vocals and the backing of U2 for that song to work.

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  6. Watchman10:07 PM

    It's pretty hard to be the least talented American Idol winner ever in a world where Taylor Hicks lives, but seriously?  Could they possibly have gotten a worse winner?

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  7. I can't blame him for botching the victory song. It seems to me that Fantasia was the only Idol who was able to sing her coronation well without getting caught up in all the emotion. My problem is that he managed to win after Crystal had severely outperformed him throughout the season and throughout Tuesday night.

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  8. I think they brought in Daryl Hall so Lee wouldn't look as out-of-tune.

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  9. And just like the State of the Union, it's good to see that one former winner (Cook) has to stay home. 

    Hey, a Guarini!  And that's Mikayla whats-her-name!  And Bo!

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  10. sconstant10:41 PM

    The most impressive thing for me was on the all-the-women-from-this-season song, they all moved to the front island part of the stage - the little piece in back of the the little pocket of upfront fake fans, and those upfront fake fans continued to cheer and yell and raise their hands in the direction of the now-empty main part of the stage with their backs to the singers.  (A few did look around a bit confused.)  Clearly, the fake fan screening process includes a head shot, a cheering test, and then 20 hours of someone explaining that you may NEVER NEVER NEVER turn around.

    Also, the worse singer won.  But, you know, expected that.

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  11. Wasn't Bo Bice a missing winner too? Or did someone else win his year?

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  12. Bo lost to Carrie.

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  13. Also, make no mistake: this season would have been a lot more fun had Siobhan done a better job with song selection, or had the genres been better suited to her.  (Or, had she sung better on occasion.)

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  14. Sheila10:58 PM

    Maybe it's because this year's group was so uncompelling, but I don't remember a finale that had less to do with the actual finalists. Appropriate that your post about the finale was all about Simon, because the finale itself turned out to be mostly about Simon! And I agree with StvMg - it's fine to bring in guest stars but I usually like it better when they sing duets. This year the Idol contestants mostly got to sing a few lines, then leave the stage for the solo act. I wasn't watching that closely and it's not like I was really dying to see Tim Urban get to sing more, but it just seemed weird. Kind of like the producers were admitting that no one really cared about the contestants this year...

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  15. The problems with this season started when Lilly, Katelyn, and Alex did not make it to the top 12. 

    So, the boyfriend is intensely bitter that Lee won.  I mean, I'm not happy, either, but he is really bitter.  Especially for someone who purportedly only stomachs Idol because of me.  Anyway, he tried to stop our viewing after Lee's name was announced out of protest.  [As I told him:  protest by buying Crystal's music on itunes.]  I told him that I wanted to watch it.  I figured that Beautiful Day redux would suck, but I did want to have an opinion on it.  So I have an opinion:  Yup, sucked even more than last night, hard as that is to believe.

    Also:

    Lee (singing):  What would you do / if I sang out of tune?
    Boyfriend (yelling):  If?!?  If?!?  If?!?
    Jenn:  Well, I, for one, would be unsurprised.  Hey, stop yelling.  Crystal's about to sing.

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  16. Mr. Cosmo11:37 PM

    Can I buy stock in Simon's Smugness for when Idol's ratings drop 30% next year?

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  17. I've barely watched this season (though I've watched in the past). But I don't personally know a single soul who thought Lee was better or more deserving than Crystal.

    This angle has been covered by plenty of media, but I'd love to hear more about it from this crowd--Kris and then Lee. Is it really just a matter of demographics, that the tween and senior vote carries the day (I'm 39 and right in the middle)? Let's say that's true--that means that the group most coveted by advertisers thinks the last two winners are a load of hooey.

    So why is Idol even still culturally relevant? Does it go back to "the winner doesn't matter as much as the journey"? I realize this is sort of a fundamental question of reality TV in general, but I'm really curious what y'all think.

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  18. Or is it really just that Cowell's an icon, or the brand is that iconic?

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  19. Kris was not an unworthy winner.  He wasn't as worthy as Adam Lambert would have been, but he had some really great, inventive performances along the way.  But two, three in a row like this really hurts the franchise.

    Idol wasn't relevant, but it's the most mass-discussable show.

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  20. I would definitely agree that Kris was not an unworthy winner, while Lee is.  I know that we live in a world of autotuning, but you expect the American Idol winner to be able to hit notes while singing with a certain degree of consistency. 

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  21. And now the boyfriend is playing Crystal's hits over the sound system. 

    In other news, while I remain utterly unimpressed with America's voting last night, I am impressed that WNTS's numbers for last night almost perfectly mirror my rankings last night.

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  22. piledhighanddeep1:21 AM

    If I ranked the Idol winners, Lee would definitely come in last, by a long shot.  David Cook's win over David Archuleta's dead, dead eyes was the last time Idol made any sense to me.  After last year's and this year's results, I don't know what to think.  Is it the tween/senior thing?  Is it because Adam's gay and Crystal's a single mom--middle America doesn't like that?  I don't know, I just think overall that this season was boring, and I'm not excited about watching the show again.

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  23. kevbo nobo7:15 AM

    Its that damn piercing below her lower lip.  She never totally "cleaned up" to get those votes that would have put her over the top.

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  24. J.O'Connor8:19 AM

    In the recent debate over healthcare, there was a lot of discussion about the concept of an insurance "death spiral," where if not enough healthy people buy insurance, then an insurance company must raise its rates for those left behind, driving more healthy people away, causing it to raise rates further, feeding the cycle until the insurance company collapses.  By the end of last night's show, I was wondering if something similar isn't happening to Idol. 

    Last year's result was defensible (and was the way my personal scorecard came out), but it wasn't -- I'm not sure of the right word --  progressive, cool, interesting?  That, coupled with the lackluster season this year, certainly drove down interest in the show here and I imagine led to fewer non-tweens and non-seniors watching and voting.  Which in turn led to last night's indefensible result, which in turn (judging from how I feel and the tone of this thread) will drive more 18-45-year-old's away.  Rinse and repeat until the show becomes something like iCarly, a very popular show that few over the age of consent have heard of.

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  25. Andrew10:03 AM

    The finale show wasn't so incredibly riveting that it kept all the Thing Throwers away from their computers? My TiVo decided that yesterday afternoon would be a good time to seize up, so I missed the entire finale. Sometimes, the technology knows what you want even more than you do yourself.)

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  26. Single biggest thing they could do to redeem it (ratings-wise)?  Give the judges more power. Even if it's only token, it might inspire more fan interest and voting.  It's a strategy that's working for Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance.

    I have no illusions that that would mean the best performer wins it, but a radical change is the only way people are going to be interested in watching after Simon leaves and with the lackluster winners of the last few seasons.

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  27. You're not wrong.  Love to listen to her sing, but couldn't look at her with that lip piercing.

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  28. Genevieve10:29 AM

    Jenn, I went to itunes to protest in exactly that way, and the only Crystal songs I saw available for sale were Black Velvet and Me and Bobby McGee from the final night. (And sadly, not Up to The Mountain, which is the one from the final night that I badly want - does she not get to release it because she didn't win?)  But iTunes had directed me to an American Idol itunes page, and maybe there's a way around that I hadn't figured.  I was going to buy most of the rest of her performances that I don't have yet.

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  29. Genevieve10:36 AM

    Linda Holmes said something similar on NPR Monkey See - that the casual fans have not been attracted this year, and so the superfans are driving the vote, and they're the tweens and others in Lee's demographic.

    I found myself worried last night about Crystal -- there's the benefit of coming in second that you aren't as tightly controlled, but will she get the support to have her career take off?  When we heard her sing "Up to the Mountain," my husband said (approvingly) that she's trying to be the next Eva Cassidy.  Cassidy's albums sold well enough that they went into her back catalog -- can Crystal follow a similar musical route and get enough sales to do her music her way?  Cassidy's success, sadly, was posthumous, which meant no question of whether tours would sell enough tickets, etc, and no pressure to make more "commercial" songs.  I have all of Cassidy's albums and will very likely buy all of Crystal's, but I hope a record label will get behind her.

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  30. Thank you, Andy Denhart:

    "Crystal sang a duet of “You Oughta Know” with Alanis, who remains awesome, although it did turn comical when Crystal sang “Would she go down with you to the theatre,” instead of “down on you in the theatre.” This was a bad call, I think, because rather than at puritanical and shelter its viewers, <span>American Idol</span> needs to teach its tween and teen viewers about sex so they will have some and then stop directing their sexual energy at people on TV and voting for Lee for crying out loud."

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  31. They are all available now, I think, as they are all showing up on the itunes store feed.  [Why, yes, I am a music geek.]  I think that they held back on releasing the "winner's songs" in the hopes of getting a bunch of post-show sales.  Anyway, I got Up to the Mountain last night, and it is a lovely recording.

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  32. gretchen11:16 AM

    I was surprised that Crystal never got the Idol Makeover.  Of all the female contestants on the show, she had the least transformation from beginning to end.  I think, somewhat sadly, that if she had had more of a conventional makeover, viewers would have given her more credit for her journey (cf. Adam's Grand Unified Theory of American Idol.) 

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  33. Here's the problem they face with a "give judges more power" equation--that's precisely what X Factor does in the UK--Public vote selects a bottom two, and the judges then openly vote on who stays/goes.  If the 4 judge panel ties (or "takes it to deadlock"), popular vote controls.  Popular vote controls the final vote.  One of the issues they're going to face is wanting to keep X Factor and Idol separate formats in some ways.

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  34. Nicole12:12 PM

    No woman will ever beat a guy on American Idol again unless its someone super untaltented like the beat boxing guy. The main voters are tweener girls and they will always vote for the male in the competition no matter how untalented he may be....i.e. Tim, Aaron, Sanjaya etc... And Lee is talented so I'm not as upset about him  winning as I would be Aaron or Tim who probably shouldn't have been in the Finals at all.
    A.I. needs to look at selectng the best 24 people period irrespective of gender like they did in the early seasons instead of forcing lesser talented people into the semi finals because of ratings.
    I'd also love to see some diversity of race and color but I know now I am thinking way too crazy and out the box.

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  35. Hmm.  Had Crystal glammed up, would she have won?

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  36. girard312:08 PM

    There's too much made over the demographic of the vote. How can you get demographics from a text or phone call? There's too little substantial research to even know. Personally, I have had people you would least expect tell me they've voted.

    I have interviewed the male and female stylists for the show, and they can only suggest certain things to wear, in the end the contestant has the final say, so if Crystal didn't get made over the way you would have liked, it's her call. Siobhna clearly ate that stylist's advice up.

    There's a lot of BS involved Idol, but in the end, I think the basic premise is genuine. I don't thinkk it will survive Cowell leaving half because of him, and half because I think it's time has come and gone.

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  37. Genevieve2:23 PM

    Oh, good.  Thanks, Jenn.!  I'll be buying her songs tonight.

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  38. Jenn.2:44 PM

    I think it's a case of damned if she did, damned if she didn't.  If she glammed up, then she'd have gotten criticized for not being authentic, etc. 

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  39. Nicole3:05 PM

    Girard I think you are naive. if you don't think they have research that tells them who their core audience is and who their block of voters are then I have a bridge in North Dakota that I want to sell you.

    As Alan Sepinwall eloquently put in his article today "'American Idol': Why Lee Dewyze won" ...."he's a white guy who plays the guitar, and that seems to be the way the voters are trending of late. Women won three out of the series' first four years, but only one (Jordin Sparks) has won since, and the way the votes have gone lately, it feels like it may be a long time before the gender flips."

    In short, A.I. tweeners, the majority of who are white aren't going to vote for the best singer, they are going to vote for the guy they think is the cutest. They turn the guys they see on the show into instant teen heartthrobs even if its obvious to everyone but then that their interest are in te other direction (see Clay A, David A, and Adam L for reference).

    A.I. is an entertaining show. But as Alan Sepinwall concluded in his article A.I. "should (even though it won't) once and for all get the judges, the producers, and America to admit that how well you sing plays a very small part in how well you do on 'American Idol.'"

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  40. gretchen3:38 PM

    I don't want to appearance-snark, but I think that she could have glammed up without losing her authenticity.  If you look at the other Idolettes, they tend to look like themselves-only-better by the end of the season (see, e.g., Carrie Underwood, Jord!n, Kelly, etc.).  She could have lost the dreads, for example, while retaining the folkie vibe.  And I do think that if she had glammed up, she might have won.  It's not that going glam makes her win; it's that a visual transformation for a woman echoes the "journey" aspect that's required to be a winner.

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  41. StvMg4:59 PM

    The problem with that is I thought it was indeed a singing contest the first several seasons. I fell in love with AI the first season mainly because Kelly seemed like an ordinary person and wasn't the typical boy-band performer or Britney Spears-style pop tart from that era. Clay and Ruben sure didn't look like typical pop stars either. And I'd argue the most deserving person - or at least one of the two most deserving performers - won each of the first four seasons.

    That's not the case anymore. I'd argue that three of the last four seasons (Melinda Doolittle, Adam Lambert and Crystal), one performer has been head and shoulders above their competition and still hasn't won. You could make it four of the last five seasons if you threw in Daughtry, though as much as I disliked Taylor that year, I'll concede he was a charismatic performer and I could understand why he won.

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  42. Watts5:32 PM

    DWTS combines both viewer votes and judges scores in a weighted format. 

    Either you have to overhaul initial casting or change how the votes are counted or it's just going to keep being Tween Idol.

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  43. But you can't weight the judges more heavily unless you find someone trustworthy for Simon's slot.

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  44. I suspect that was the original idea when they brought Kara in--music industry pro with substantive comments.  They've known Simon's days are numbered on the show for years now, and I think that was their goal--it has failed for a variety of reasons.

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  45. Jenn.6:10 PM

    Here's the thing:  Simon or no, the judges on Idol aren't particularly trustworthy.  Exhibit A:  the semifinals of Season 8.  The people that they chose to bring back, or not to bring back, for the wild card round, plus the people that they chose to advance, made very little sense.  Exhibit B:  the way that the pimp and depimp contestants with their comments.  Isn't Lee's win at least partially a product of what the judges did this year with their commentary?

    If you had a panel of judges as knowledgeable as the SYTYCD panel, I could get behind giving the judges some more weight, at least in the semifinal rounds.  That may have prevented the problem that we ran into this year, where people who had clearly outsung others got booted in the Top 16 show.  But the fact is that the judges, with the possible exception of Kara (who was annoying but often spot on with her comments this year) don't seem to know that much about music, and particularly don't seem to know much about music outside of a limited range of genres and songs. 

    Hell, the judges put together this Top 24, and can anyone tell me that you really believe this was the best possible Top 24 that they could have selected?

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  46. aAlison7:57 PM

    There was an article in my paper today about how much the Christian vote has mattered in Idol. I don't think that demographic could get behind a single mom with dreads no matter how well she sang.

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  47. Alison7:59 PM

    There was an article in my paper today about how much the Christian vote has mattered in Idol results. I don't think that demographic could get behind a single mom with dreads no matter how well she sang.

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  48. I barely voted this year in Idol.  And it's for the same reason I have a hard time getting worked up about voting Democrat in Georgia.  I vote, it never matters.  If another other 30-somethings start to feel like me, you get the scenario J O'Connor describes above.

    What do you do to make the fanbase that's like me (not a tween, not the "Christian" vote that Alison mentioned, not the gramma vote) feel less disenfranchised?

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  49. Jim Bell11:40 AM

    AhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhI never want to watch again.  I must take my eyes or something else appropriately greek.

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