Without its gleam-toothed, bumpube-haired talisman Simon Cowell, American Idol has found itself in a muddle.
What happens now? Can American Idol survive? Can it bank on Randy Jackson to speak in full sentences from now on? Or Ellen DeGeneres to stop being so tediously nice all the time? Or Kara DioGuardi to finally work out what her point is? Probably not. And that’s why they might all be getting sacked quite soon.
If reports are to be believed, former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe might be about to return to the show. And if that happens, it’s expected that his first move will involve firing Randy, Ellen and Kara and bringing in Justin Timberlake, Elton John and Usher as judges. No word on who’ll replace Ryan Seacrest, though. He is being replaced, right? Oh, say that he’s being replaced.
Great news! American Idol is going to be all change this year. Literally every single thing about it will be completely different.
Alright, not every single thing. It’ll still probably be a singing competition. And a handful of singers will progress much further than they deserve to because of some awful family tragedy. And it’ll still be filled with a suffocating level of shamelessly indiscreet product placement. But the judges will definitely all be completely different. Returning American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe is definitely about to sack the three remaining judges and replace them with more famous ones. Mercury News reports:
Reports said Tuesday that Lythgoe will shake things up if he returns. He is said to favor canning the judge’s panel and bringing in A-list entertainers such as Elton John, Justin Timberlake and Usher as replacements. He’s even reportedly interested in wooing departed judge Paula Abdul back to the fold.
You see? It’s all go. You can’t stop progress like this. On this year’s American Idol Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres will definitely be out and Elton John, Justin Timberlake and Usher will definitely be in. Definitely.
Except that Justin Timberlake has unequivocally said that he doesn’t want to judge American Idol, and everyone thinks that Elton John will cost too much to hire, and Randy Jackson and Ellen DeGeneres are still under contract with American Idol, and Nigel Lythgoe doesn’t even work for American Idol yet.
But aside from that… oh, who are we kidding, it’ll be exactly the same old crap that it is every year. Sorry for wasting your time.
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moviedemon says
Even if it were possible to replace the current judges, plucking a handful of Top 40 pop stars and dropping them behind the judges table won’t solve Idol’s problems.
The original panel of judges – Randy, Paula and Simon – had a chemistry together that has not been duplicated since Paula left. So they should bring Paula back, right? Nope, it was definitely time for her to go – just like Simon’s departure, which was long overdue.
You can’t force chemistry between people – it either happens or it doesn’t – a point excruciatingly illustrated by the current panel of judges. So bringing in a bunch of pop-star “ringers” won’t likely improve the situation and could make things even worse. (Think about those really awkward mentoring sessions on the show… now imagine that happening all the time from the judges panel.)
Simon and Randy weren’t household names when Idol started, but they had the music industry cred to back up their criticisms, and that’s what the show needs now (and that’s why Ellen, as nice and funny as she is, just doesn’t fit in.)
Personally, I think the best possible change they could make is a really obvious one – one vote per contestant, per phone number. The current voting system – which allows people to vote as many times as they can hit redial in a three-hour period – is responsible for some of the worst Idol debacles.
The outcome of any given elimination night (or even the whole contest itself) is too susceptible to the adolescent whims of teenage girls and other disproportionately large voting blocs. Remember Jasmine Trias? While not a bad singer (there are far worse examples) she made it to 3rd place because of the sheer volume of votes she received from her home state of Hawaii. Had voting been restricted to one per contestant, per phone, she never would have made it that far.
There are even groups who exploit this obvious flaw by “gaming” the system and purposely voting multiple times for the worst contestants, just to see how long they can keep them in the contest.
This flaw had had a very noticeable and negative impact on the show.
Bobby says
Chris Brown should be hired as a judge and he will slap every female contestant who looks at his text messages until blood comes out of their mouths and then choke them into unconciousness. Bellieeeee Dat!
lilywhite says
*giggle*