No American Idol season 10 thread yet?
 

Is this a microcosm of how America feels?

I thought it was actually an improvement. Nice to have three judges who have good knowledge of the industry. Pretty good chemistry.

I did nearly fall over laughing after Tyler's comment concerning the length of a 16 year old girl's dress. I thought Randy was going to leave the room.

apparently no one but you watched it.

I've been posting a bunch of items about the changes to the show in the other thread and hadn't bothered to create a new one.

We taped it, but had softball and basketball practices last night so couldn't watch it. And I've had a real difficult time watching 2 hour shows over the past year or so, so I don't know how well I'll be able to keep up with it. All the spoilers have been out there for weeks/months, and I haven't bothered with them. That's usually my favorite thing about this show.

I did see a number of people comment on FB that they hardly ever watch the show but are watching because of Steven Tyler.

It is recorded, however.. I'm not sure if I will even bother. Really returns suggest that they are going for a really young singer ala Bieber which I really have no interest in.

I still can't fathom how anyone my age, or close to my age, would watch this show for the music, or care what the final marketable product turns out to be. Who cares if they find the new Bieber? By the time this show hits its wind-down, it's well past the climax anyway. I hate to sound like Dayton Moore here, but it's The Process. :p

This year they are going to allow original music, which will only ramp up the snarky entertainment value (I hope). I'm going to find the process of them consciously trying to create/promote these people as true "artists" to be fascinating, knowing full well that they are only looking for the hottest fad to sell the most (optimistically, hundreds of thousands) CDs/downloads.

After the last couple of disappointing seasons, I have personally given up on the show. But the rest of my family was looking forward to it. Mrs Tyke got up and left the room after the first hour complaining about how bad it was. After it was over, my older son complained for 10 minutes about why he didn't like it either. I'm interested to see how the reviews and ratings for this goes. My guess - Decent ratings to begin with, but downhill after that. Love him or Hate him - Simon was a significant part of the show. Not sure it will return to the ratings beast it once was.

Simon's shtick got old/stale pretty quick. And it's hard to imagine him being any less disinterested in the show than he was last year. I'm kinda surprised he didn't get called out for it last year. He just didn't care about anything and didn't really care if it was obvious in his demeanor/comments.

I just think the show's getting to that point where we've seen it all, and the entire purpose for the show - to make the producers/affiliated companies tons of money out of the process - has taken a major hit in the 10 years since the show started. No one's selling albums anymore. In fact, the record for lowest-selling #1 album on the BB chart has been set in consecutive weeks this week and last by Taylor Swift and Cake. Cake sold 44K records and is #1 this week.

Add it all up, and we're probably a ratings cliff dive from one or two final seasons where they cast a toddler as the 4th judge before they cancel it.

It recorded. I'll watch it eventually.

Saw this review/recap of the first episode. Pretty much what I thought of it. Thought Tyler made it a lot of fun, and I'm not even a Tyler fan.

'American Idol' Episode 1 Recap: Steven Tyler Steals--And Maybe Saves--The Show - Reality Rocks

I'm still trying to understand how Joe Perry can get away with such open disdain for what Tyler is doing, when 3-4 years ago, HE was up on the AI stage playing guitar for Sanjaya's destruction of You Really Got Me. I mean, if we're going to put these guys on a continuum of shitting all over their rock legacy by being associated with AI, doesn't Joe Perry win (or lose) that battle hands down?!

I had a tough time watching, ended up slogging through it, but regretted it. I deleted the rest of the preview shows from my TiVo queue and plan to start again for Hollywood Week.

There was no tension. At the same time, there were more borderline tryouts. One complaint of past seasons is that there were too many fake tryouts, just so we could hear Simon's zingers or get Paula to make a face and still try to be kind. So I was glad they reduced that.

But the hook, then, would be to see how the debate over Hollywood invitations works. We didn't get that. What we saw is how the bottom 30 or 40 Hollywood participants auditioned. What we didn't see is any real debate - the competent singers we were shown made it through unanimously. The OK singers with personality or a trendy appearance we were shown made it through unanimously.

What did we lose? The pretense that the judges actually select the Hollywood Week participants. Or the pretense that what we see on television is actually part of that process.

They've always implied that the judges see all 100,000 auditions. Kind of like Santa Claus visiting every chimney in the world. Obviously, that's not practical or possible. So we know there's a large team of producers screening the auditions.

The old paradigm was that the judges were the gatekeepers, and occasionally the producers would send them a William Hung or a Bikini Girl for laughs. We could even assume that Simon was the one who did the choosing, and sometimes Randy or Paula or Kara would take a chance on someone. There was sometimes tension in those discussions. Seeing a close "no" on someone who actually could sing was a fairly interesting part of the process.

Now, what we have is apparently an attempt to show that Steven Tyler has a personality. Which doesn't surprise me. You can't have the success he's had without being fairly intelligent and out there.

He's a little hard to look at - resembles Jocelyn Wildenstein far too closely. At one point, he said a fairly competent young girl had no stage presence and I was interested in knowing why. But he backed off and she went through unanimously anyway. It was the only moment of tension during the entire two hours (1:15 thanks to TiVo).

It was Simon's show. The entire production, fake pieces and real pieces, was tailored to what Simon brought, like him or hate him. I guess it's now Tyler's show (we know at this point what Randy Jackson's strengths are, and he's a team player, not the quarterback) and that doesn't really fit the American Idol concept. The show changed, that's for certain. I don't think it changed enough to work with Tyler.

Once we get to the finals, I think the show will struggle. The judging takes up about half of the non-commercial part of American Idol. That judging was all buildup to Simon's thumbs up or thumbs down. Simon was mailing it in the last couple of years, so I understand why he had to go. I think the show went with him. I'll watch, but I think Idol has lost what made it interesting - a decent blend of gravitas and showmanship.

Interesting. One of the reasons why it might seem like there is no judging going on is that they reportedly took like 320+ people to Hollywood. I think that's close to double what they usually take (170-190 or so?). I don't know if they did that purposely to make the judging less difficult for the new judges' transition, if they wanted mroe people to expand Hollywood, or what. But that's a crapload of mediocre singers who typically get the Simon NO.

This was what I took from the show the most. The girl who idolized JLo and the kid with the huge nose among others never get through with Kara or Simeon there.

I watched seasons 3, 4, 5 and 7. 7 was especially brutal, I didn't like it much. I tried to watch some of 8 but it was worse, for me. Haven't watched it since.

I think I just miss McPhee ... mmmmmm ...

fap fap fap fap

Ok I'm done here.

.

Given that many probably turned in out of curiousity it will probably be even steeper next episode unless they did something spectacular to hold the audience.

Watched all 3 hours last night and mostly enjoyed it. I definitely agree that the judging thing was all but gone - the only tension was in getting JLo comfortable with saying no - but what's really more important to the show this early on is showcasing people/stories. I mean, yes, the judging stuff is important, but I don't think giving a marginal person 3 yes votes this year means any less or more than if Simon said no to that same person last year and the other 2 said yes. In the big picture, that marginal person is probably a day 1 Hollywood cut anyway. And for whatever reason, they aren't cutting marginal people at this early stage this year, so it seems like there weren't any iffy votes/judging to be done. At least so far.

The one thing that constantly pisses me off about this show is how they continue to disingenuously frame the judging as if 10,000 people are outside waiting to see the 3 judges. When the initial auditions occurred, not only were the judges not there, but they hadn't even been chosen yet! That pisses me off every year they do that. And then to top it off this year, they make fun of people who wanted to see Ellen. Well guess what, I think she may still have been officially a judge when some of the auditions still occurred. So putting those people on TV and acting as if they were clueless seemed like pretty poor taste - especially when combined with the lie of how the auditions actually happened.

I haven't watched this since season two or so, but have seen a bit this year. I like Steven Tyler, and I like that they seem to be showing less of the obviously fake singers that just did the audition to get on TV.

One interesting thing from last night, they showed the family of one of the auditions watching a screen with Seacrest. Then Seacrest gets them to go beside the door and act surprised. Do they do this for every audition and this i the first time they've shown it?

Also, that mother of the girl that was born with a defect (last audition I think) is smoking. Pretty face, nice body, OK voice. Looked like she had a really nice ass.

I hope they are choosy about which 15/16 year olds they let go too far, first because I'd hate to see someone who would be better for this show a few years later waste that one opportunity by going on at such an early age, and second because there were several of those kids who were so shaky with their voices/performances that they would get eaten alive on the Idol stage.

I can only handle so many Aaron Kelly/Katie Stevens types.

I'll supply the pics this time, Mike. But consider this a warning.



http://www.rickey.org/?p=56211

I really hope I can come into this thread in the next 3-4 months and not hear bitching from Ksyrup about how the show has somehow wronged him.

I take the show for what it's worth...one to two hours of mindless entertainment. Anyone with half a brain, or over the age of 14, hopefully realizes this also. I mean, the judges are Steven Tyler and hoodrat Jenny from the block for crying out loud. The show doesn't take itself seriously, so why should you?

Jenny looked hot for the first time I've seen last night. I mean, she is obviously a pretty girl, but I've never seen her do it up just right enough to get me to say "wow" until last night.

Wha?

I don't care about anything that happens on the show, other than calling them out for not being straight-up and making fun of bad singers/perfomers (which os the entertainment value of the show for me). I don't even remember who won last year. I'm not sure how the show could wrong me. I'm basically done watching by the top 8 or so.

Thank you thank you, I forgot her name. Look at that pretty face!

Jerk.

Sincerely,

13 Year Olds

I only watched last night because they held the auditions in New Orleans. I had forgotten that they do the initial auditions well ahead of the final ones in front of the judges. I have to admit that I was confused when they showed thousands of people gathering in the New Orleans Arena, but the auditions in front of the judges were held at the Riverwalk, which is 5-10 minutes away depending on traffic. That messed with my brain.

I was hoping that they would show more talented singers who were actually from New Orleans, but I guess that's just because I think it would've been cool. Out of all the ones who got put through to Hollywood, I only remember three being from the New Orleans area. They were the woman with the special needs child, the dude who took his shirt off for J-Lo, and then the 15-year-old boy who had a decent voice but sounded like he was about to pass out any second. The others were from Baton Rouge or LaPlace or Florida or whatever. Doesn't really mean anything, but I was hoping they'd show the real local talent if they'd actually found some.

I think I'm with a lot of people in this thread.

I have only watched episode 1 - but I didn't mind the judges.. might have even preferred them in some ways.

But, we're seeing what the bigger problem is with Idol.

The talent just isn't there. I saw no one in the first episode that warranted any consideration of being in the top 20. Not even close.

Well, I don't mean literally wronged you. I meant it in the sense that throughout the thread you seemed hellbent on ripping the show a new one. I get that you don't like the show...I got that you don't even care about the show...that was obvious in the first one of your posts. But, I just don't think you need to tell us ten times, or continue to tell us as the season progresses. That's all.

I could be wrong, but I believe most of the Idol fans on the board appreciate Ksyrup's contributions to the thread.

An observation:

While watching AI this week, my 12 year old son said, "The new judges are just playing the parts of the old judges (i.e., Simon and Paula)." It turned into an interesting conversation about whether Tyler and Lopez were being authentically themselves, imitating/being influenced by the expectations set for the people they were replacing, or if the producer is intentionally picking judges who would naturally "fit" the role dynamics that Simon and Paula created.

In essence, this season exposed him to the notion that this might not be a real competition with true input from the judges, but rather the judges existing solely to create or to be part of the drama -- that is, they're not outside of the competitive drama, but an inherent part of it. Which is, I think, something we've all known from the beginning, but the show was smart enough to not let us *really* know it. It was the tension of suspecting it to be true while also believing in the competition that made the show interesting...not unlike professional wrestling, when you think about it. Are the outcomes of WWE matches scripted? Is it all really narrative and the matches are fixed?

Big questions for a 12 year old. What if I can't believe that the "reality" in "reality television" is true? The fact that he's asking these questions based on judge swaps says to me that AI has consequently failed in the creation of drama. It's exposed the man behind the curtain, failed to get us to suspend disbelief and realize that we're maybe not watching an honest competition, but a scripted narrative.

That said, I actually really enjoyed Tyler in the first episode. He's just so over the top and interesting. I wanted to hear his comments because his personality just seemed so electric. In many ways, he made me think of David Lee Roth (with the exception that I don't really like DLR, but when I hear him talk, he's incredibly smart, savvy and always has interesting things to say -- to the extent that it's clear that "rock star" is a role he plays. He understands that a "rock star" has to behave in certain outrageous ways and he manipulates that role and its expectations to his advantage.)

Bottom line for me here is that if we didn't know Tyler was a replacement for Simon (that is, he didn't have that baggage), I think he'd be inherently watchable as a judge. Just too much charisma not to be. It's hard to take your eyes/ears off of him. He has yet to prove if his opinions will be as reliable and insightful as Simon's were (a "voice of reason") in the identification of marketable talent, but he's interesting enough that I'm willing to give him a chance to prove himself.

He's also revealed enough about himself that I think he would drive me insane in very short order if he was my neighbor or (god forbid) a member of my family. I'd much prefer to observe him once or twice a week from a safe distance than have to deal with him on a daily basis. ;)

Yep.

Well, my post wasn't a blanket disdain for Ksyrup in this thread...I didn't ask Ksyrup to stop posting/contributing, rather, I asked him to stop saying "I hate this, I hate that, this is stupid, this is fake, so so phony, waste of time, man behind the curtain" over and over. Other than those specific comments, I agree with you, I appreciate his insight.

I appreciate Ksyrup's manly chest hair. It's soft like the fur on a puppy's belly.

Maybe I'm just noticing this because he's on Idol, maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe I'm on to something, but I've noticed a sharp increase in the number of Aerosmith songs I've heard on both satelliteand terrestrial radio in the past 2 weeks. Reason I have noticed is my daughter had no clue who he was, so every time I've heard an Aerosmith song on the radio, I've made a point to tell her, "This is Aerosmith." That's happened like 5 or 6 times with different songs every time in the past 2 weeks. I don't recall hearing Aerosmith as much as AC/DC before now.

Oh, and none of the songs was Walk This Way, either!

Train kept rollin...

The money train.

Also see Bret Michaels.

Absolutely bawled my head off at the end of Idol tonight.

I've done a complete 180 on Steven Tyler in the last 2 weeks.

Amazing to see how well that guy handled that life-changing situation. Obviously hope he does well, though I'm not sure that he's good enough to make it through to the top 24.

I got a bit teary myself, but my Wife dove past the crying threshold head first. She also made a good point that I thought I'd share on here. His wife is going to get special care from someone, some specialist out there, for the benign reason that they were showcased on AI. If nothing else, AI is good for taking care of some people who truly need a break in life.

Steven Tyler has quickly grown on me. I like him much better than I thought I would.

That story had me teary eyed as well. Amazing how well he appears to have handled that situation. I don't think he is good enough to advance much further, but I hope I am wrong.

I always thought people knew Steven Tyler was a pretty funny dude. I guess all the Aerosmith hate overrides that? He's like a more personable/less egotistical version of Gene Simmons.

Haven't seen last night's ep yet, but I had enough tears in my eyes from the ESPN.com story about the kid who died in the OK St plane crash yesterday.

I only watched the first half hour of last night's show, so all I really learned about Steven Tyler is that he endorses the fucking of ducks, apparently.

My wife and I both think Steven Tyler is a good (not yet great) judge. He's funny, a tad lecherous but he seems genuinely sincere.

J-Lo is ... not entirely sure what she is yet but I have to say she is looking HOT!!

This show is real good for putting Lopez back on the hot map. I had completely forgotten just how smoking hot she is. HD is very kind to her.