American Idol Producer Ken Warwick Inks a New Deal
Via the Hollywood Reporter:
“Idol” executive producer/showrunner Ken Warwick has inked a three-year deal with the show’s co-producer, FremantleMedia North America, to remain at the helm of television’s top series. The pact, said to be well into the eight-figure range, is believed the richest for a reality showrunner.
It comes on the heels of another three-year deal — a $45 million agreement inked recently by host Ryan Seacrest with “Idol” co-producer 19 Entertainment — that broke a money record for a reality host.
Ken Warwick–a man who is just full of great ideas for Idol, like the return of the Top 36, the 4th judge, and the Judges Save. Three years is about enough time for Ken to run Idol completely into the ground.
In a recent interview with the LA Times, ex-Idol producer, Nigel Lythgoe, said:
One more burning question for Lythgoe: Will he ever tap dance again on the show [So You Think You Can Dance], as he did last season, surrounded by a gaggle of cute kids?
“I don’t think so,’ he said. Lythgoe, who was an executive producer of ‘American Idol’ for its first seven seasons, continued: ‘I firmly believe that we should be in the background: The focus should be on the kids in the competition. Last year on ‘American Idol,’ the judges went into the spotlight a little bit. Thank goodness Adam Lambert and some of the other kids were talented enough to wrest the spotlight back onto them at the end of the season.”
I miss Nigel. There. I said it.
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34 Responses to “American Idol Producer Ken Warwick Inks a New Deal”
Haha, I remember when everyone was complaining about Nigel when he was on the show. Oh well, I’m glad I get hopefully three more years of Idol!
That would be you, mj!
Warwick is retarded. The show was just piles of filler and manipulation this year. Also stuffed with horrible performers like Kanye West and emphasis on drama.
I agree the result shows were better than performance nights often
and Top 36 sucks – go back to Top 20 was it ?? and let the people whittle it down slowly to Top 10 themselves and they have time to get to know those singers and those singers have second chances etc.
Yeah for Ken!!……..NOT
Im not opposed to the 4th judge/Kara….i have more of a problem w. ryan’s time consuming lame jokes and paula/simon’s childish antics. instead of controlling this, the producers infamously decided to split up the judging ‘ ¦an idiotic move that Ken was responbile for yet he receives a pat on the back by Fox.
Im ok with the top 36 format….as it gives more kids the opportunity to appear before America. Who knows, maybe Allison and Kris would not have made a top 20 cut. What I do not agree w. is putting in “personalities” over real talent (norman gentle anyone???) AND wasting the wildcard on the likes of package “artists” like megan and jasmine. I understand the judges make this decision but i find it hard to believe the show producers dont have a say in who simon and company select.
And yes, hooray for more hollywood week airtime…but a big boo hiss for wasting 75% of the airtime on jerry springer style drama. No more bikini girl..thats why we have the audition rounds, to laugh at these type of silly performers.
Hollywood week is supposed to be about talent. And for anyone that believes you need bad singing/drama to create memorable moments….two words for yall..White Chocolate. Now THAT performance was what hollywood week should have been all about. I would much rather have seen kris/matt the other contestants practice for their routine than watch bikini girl roll her eyes and twirl her hair.
IF you spend more time on the contestants during hollywood week, then you can have a top 36 that people are somewhat familiar with. And if you do a top 20, then at least we would understand why some people didnt make the cut. Again, another idiotic move by Ken.
and wasnt ken responsible for getting keith urban (country) to sing with kris (not country!! at all) ….why? so random. as irrelevant as Adam singing w. Kiss (now Bowie would have been a diff story)…and i wont even go into his out of touch selections for the top 2, that did nothing to showcase adam or kris’ singing or performing styles. ugh.
It’s just worse this year. Previous years I just watched with some mild amusement at the pimping, this year I felt they have crossed a line into a level that I find offensive. The pimping was both excessive (both Adam and Danny) and disproportionate (Danny in particular), as well as distasteful at times (vis-Ã -vis the dead wife affair) and unreasonable.
However, I don’t think I would be as annoyed as I was if the excessive pimping weren’t coupled with the odious semi-final format. I assume because of the way the semi-final was formulated, they had to do this mad pimping just to make sure that can get the people they want into the Top 13. In previous years, you feel that despite all the pimping, it is ultimately the people who decide what happens to the contestants. This year it felt more like a producers’ and judges’ game, that they have written a script well in advance before the semi-final that there should be a Adam-Danny finale with a supporting cast of Lil, Scott, Jasmine, Megan, Matt and Anoop among the Top 13, and they will use all the tricks they have, and add a few more (jugdges’ pick, judges’ save and what have you) just to get what they want.
I think that, for a variety of reasons, neither Danny nor Adam would have won this year, and it is quite fortuitous that Kris won because I think there were other semi-finalists who could very well have won this year if they had advanced to the Top 13 (Ricky Braddy, Felicia Barton and quite a few others). It is what made it felt so unfair, and why I felt the producers have violated the spirit of the competition and the reason that made AI the success it has been – the viewers feel that they are the ones who are creating the stars; they vote for them, watch them grow (or falter as the case may be) as they progress through the show each week, root for them, support them after the show is over and obsessively track their post-Idol career. This year it felt more like the producers and judges were saying – “we have a couple of people here we want to make a star of, just vote for them, stupid”. Few, perhaps as few as two or three (and Kris is one of these very few), outside of their pre-ordained finalists got a fair chance to progress. The whole thing just sticks in the throat for me.
I hate the Top 36 too but… if there was no Top 36 I’m almost positive Kris Allen would have never made it.
Warwick is so terrible, Ju’not Joyner is gonig to expose him and also mention how Nigel Lythgoe is missed.