Does anyone still watch American Idol?

[jakeleyman]

Am I the only one who takes on this program? If anyone cares about it, I have a couple comments and I'd like to hear any possible reaction other than the show sucks. The final show is this week and there are three contestants left and well sort of a fourth. There are two fairly cute guys and a woman named Jax with an "x" on her cheek. It seems to me that the producers have long ago deteremined that Jax is their winner, perhaps since a near succession of white male vocalist winners have done nothing but fade away and drag ratings down with them. Maybe I am too cynical but I think they tried to portray one of the males as gay in order to reduce his votes among the millions of straight voters. While each of the other two singers performed, the camera panned on their smiling families. But when this guy Clarke sang, he a cute blonde, polite ex-jock, they panned on a young guy with ginger side burns. After several camera shots of him, they identified him on the screen as "Clarke's friend." I'm probably just too cynical. Some of you might say that that a perception that he is gay may bring Clarke votes, and who knows, I hope you are right. Ok the other comment I have, and I can't recall at the moment how to post a pic, but the almost "4th candidate" is Jax's cutie pie teen brother. The camera man must be gay because they couldn't get enough shots of this babe. ok, those are my admittedly trivial thoughts for the moment. If anyone can post a shot of the brother, preferably shirtless, I'd appreciate it.

[+ purplekow]

I believe the brother may be a minor. I did notice that Clark had a "friend" while the others had family. He did have family on the Home Town Visits. This seems an especially strong year for the vocalists on American Idol. They announced today that next season will be the last and it will sort of a tribute season to previous years. They have had mostly cute boy white winners over the last few years. With voting by texting and I tune sales, it is not surprising that those singers who skew to a very vanilla young female demographic would be winners. Show would have been much better if they had opted to the playoff format they used this year earlier in the run of the show. In fact, they may have done better if they had the judges decide which singers would be put up for elimination and then having the voting. Each judge would be allowed three votes and the singers with the most votes would be up for elimination.

Well, no one asked me.

The Voice has a more modern feel to it and the Judges there skew a bit younger than the AI judges so it is not surprising that The Voice has taken over the top spot. However, the Voice has yet to produce a breakout talent and AI has had about 5 big break outs and about 10 lesser break out performers. Still over 13 years, that is not a lot star power.

[maninsoma]

I'll admit that I still watch Idol. Sometimes I hang onto shows too long, though I guess I generally find Idol entertaining enough to still bother with it. Here's my take on this year's top three: they are all decent enough singers, but none of them is likely to have an ongoing career that's at the level of success of Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood (or, for that matter, even Clay Aiken or Jordin Sparks). I probably like Jax the most simply because she has an idiosyncratic vocal style so it doesn't bother me as much when she hits the wrong note. The other two remaining contestants just sound like they are trying too hard most of the time and, unfortunately, missing the mark too often. I like Clark better than Nick as a singer, and they are both nice to look at, but both of them basically bore me.

 

For whatever reason, I do think that The Voice tends to get more contestants who are better singers. (Well, one clear reason is that The Voice seems to actively recruit contestants who already have had some minor success in the record industry whereas Idol just auditions whoever happens to show up.) There's no denying that The Voice has yet to "create" one star from among its contestants, though, so even though it's currently performing much better than Idol in terms of ratings, Idol is still viewed as the more likely platform from which the next star might emerge. From the perspective of entertaining television, I really think Fox blew it when they let Paula Abdul go because they didn't want to pay her what she was asking. Her sometimes incoherent comments and her love-hate relationship with Simon Cowell were part of Idol's winning formula. Though Harry Connick Jr has the capacity to have a critical ear (like Cowell) and deliver blunt criticism (like Cowell), it seems like either he or the show's producers have decided it's better for him to mostly play the roll of a bland cheerleader. It's a bit maddening to me that nearly every vocal on the show gets a thumbs up from all three judges, even performances that are bad enough that I start fast forwarding after my ears cannot take it any more. The Voice has the same problem with generic, across the board praise.

[marylander1940]

Nope.

[loverboy95]

I am so glad it got cancelled! I haven't watched this show since 2007.

[gallahadesquire]

2011 was the only year I watched it. I was channel surfing and heard James Durbin sing something, and I was throughly impressed. Being a trained singer myself, I can't stand crooning and other disgusting vocal styles.

 

I went so far as to go to the Concert Tour in my local City. All the performers walked on stage and each did his or her thing. Durbin walked in from the side of the hall and yelled "Everybody STAND UP!" And everybody did.

 

Sigh. I need to go listen to some Mahler Lieder now.

[+ ArVaGuy]

I take great pride that I have never watched American Idol, or Survivor, or Big Brother for that matter. All of these programs demonstrate that HL Mencken was right about underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Not a single network or producer went broke forcing these programs upon the viewing public.

[+ purplekow]

I take great pride that I have never watched American Idol, or Survivor, or Big Brother for that matter. All of these programs demonstrate that HL Mencken was right about underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Not a single network or producer went broke forcing these programs upon the viewing public.

 

Seems a bit snobby. If you are checking television for enlightenment, you could probably find many other places to offer it with a lot less searching, If you are checking television so you can put your head in the brain check and come back when your body needs it again, then these programs do a wonderful job of providing meaningless, empty visual stimuli you can discuss with people you meet with whom you wish to have a polite conversation but with whom you seemingly have nothing in common. Nick Fradiani tonight's winner, is a cute boy that I would do in a heartbeat and maybe even if he did not have a heartbeat. Tomorrow, I will discuss him and his victory with about 5 very nice people at work, all of whom are big Idol fans and who happen to eat lunch at the same time and in the same place I do. I could sit there, or actually I could sit above it all and have them be sure that I think my shit doesn't stink, but since I am very clear that my shit does stink, I vegged out with my dogs listening to that cute boy sing off key and cry. And then I came here.

 

hmmmmm Perhaps I need to get a different life.

[+ Robster]

I take great pride that I have never watched American Idol, or Survivor, or Big Brother for that matter. All of these programs demonstrate that HL Mencken was right about underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Not a single network or producer went broke forcing these programs upon the viewing public.

I've never watched American Idol or Big Brother either, but I'll admit to watching the first couple of seasons of Survivor. I had a huge crush on Silas from the third season, but when he was eliminated, I lost interest and never watched it again. I loathe all those reality/competition shows with every fiber of my being.

 

edited to add: My snobby being, apparently. Oh well, I've been called worse.

 

Rob

[+ purplekow]

I've never watched American Idol or Big Brother either, but I'll admit to watching the first couple of seasons of Survivor. I had a huge crush on Silas from the third season, but when he was eliminated, I lost interest and never watched it again. I loathe all those reality/competition shows with every fiber of my being.

 

edited to add: My snobby being, apparently. Oh well, I've been called worse. Yes Rob, I knew you were snobby the minute I sat next to you at dinner and you refused to give me a hand job under the table.

 

Rob

[+ Robster]

Yes Rob, I knew you were snobby the minute I sat next to you at dinner and you refused to give me a hand job under the table.

 

That's only because it would have been completely inappropriate at the table. I take that stuff out to the parking lot where it belongs.

 

Rob

[+ purplekow]

Snob.

[jakeleyman]

Kind of funny people getting all high-horsed about not wasting time warching reality shows then pouring over these forums. LOL

[+ SundayZip]

I guess I'm trailer trash because I find myself watching American Idol about every third or fourth season which included the season with Phillip Philips and this last season. If there are contestants that I find interesting or talented, I watch. This last season my favorite was Clark and then Jax, but then Clark started making comments about god and his church and I switched to Jax being my favorite. They are both super talented singers and musicians. I was disappointed when Nick won, but I suppose he got teenage girls to vote. And to add to my trailer trash tendencies, I also watch The Voice and loved the Sing-Off when it was on and So You Think You Can Dance.

 

My friends stop by the trailer and we all watch American Idol together.

 

http://www.sportsmansdaily.com/thescrum/wp-content/13104612705927261.jpg

[tanman4u]

I've watched parts (generally the last three or four shows of the season when it's down to 4 or 5) for a few years and generally like it. I always DVR it so I can skip through the blah parts. This season I only happened to see the very end last night. I tuned in as the two contestants were doing a duet (which was pretty good). Now that I saw the winner I kind of wish I'd tuned in earlier. He is a cutie.

[bigvalboy]

Kind of funny people getting all high-horsed about not wasting time watching reality shows then pouring over these forums. LOL

 

Now that's funny...

[Bart]

Ugh Rob sorry have your image of me trashed but joining PK here but I too watch AI. I am light fan of reality competition (NO to all the other crap like Mega Birth family shows or Bitchy housewives) I stopped watching survivor the night hot Alex who would have won the remaining challenges be in the final and win but gave up immunity to a woman was the last time I ever watched the show, no one is that dumb. I mainly watch the cooking competitions. After all these years first time I am watching Amazing Race and kind of liking it a lot. The Make-up show on ScFy is kind of cool and the tattoo shows can be kind-of fun with occasionally creepy people.

 

Back to AI, I did leave watching the show after the Durbin elimination at 4th in what season 9 or 10. What talent remained was ridiculous. That said I found this year, way better and the top 12 was good, really good. It had the most diverse group of singers/performers/musicians ever. But still the annoying issues of anyone going home before Danny. Judges comments were longer than the performance. Really 90 seconds to perform 5 minutes of critiiques. They let the audiences pick the top 10 from the top 24, with 2 judges saves which was a good option. What ticked me off was the elimination of Joey and Quentin who along with Jax would have made this an unbelievable top 3. While the winner Nick is solid he just reminds too much like the ill fated Lee DeWyse who had the whole city of Chicago vote for him and I suspect the whole city of Boston vote for Nick. Clark was trending down 5 weeks ago. This season was probably the best since Philip Philips and maybe even the best since season 7 (I think that is the David vs David finale). Anyway they gave it shot. I am surprised the regret at Season 15 being the last. Any show on TV that can last 15 seasons is fantastic. Nobody will forget Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Fantasia, Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul, David vs David which I think is the highest rated reality series finale. But it is time to move on. As to the Voice, interesting concept but, eh, with all the industry support of the stars on that show and they have ZERO to show I think says a lot. Also I think it is a mistake to have two shows a year. It think that is why DWTS suffers at times because you have to fill the slots with contestants and I think at times it suffers because you have to have two seasons in one. AI ruled the roost for years one show a year. I think Voice and DWTS would attract better quality if they only had one season, preferably the spring. I am way more interested in my regular TV series in the fall than with reality TV.

 

My two favorite reality show are TOP Chef on Bravo and SYTYCD with my favorite host Cat Deely. Last season was probably my favorite for SYTYCD. It will be interesting to see how Paula Abdul does as the new judge replacing Mary Murphy.

[Bart]

Oh Rob I be waiting for you in the parking lot next PSP event.

[+ Robster]

Just for the record, I'm not a snob, and I don't judge people for watching reality shows. I'm sorry if I gave that impression.

 

And Bart, woohoo!

 

Rob