American Idol Season 6 begins tonight. The two-hour season premier focuses on the Minneapolis auditions. To be sure, tonight’s show will focus mainly on the painful and the clueless, with a sprinkle of good singing thrown in to whet out appetites for what I consider the real deal–the live competition that starts with the Top 24.
I won’t lie, I don’t particularly care for the audition phase of the competition, as the “bad” auditions have come to completely take over the early weeks of the show. I personally know people who only watch the auditions, and then tune out once the actual competition begins. But, not me. My own preference would be to have more of the singers who will eventually compete in the show featured during the initial rounds. Considering how wildly popular the “bad” auditions have become, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.
There is a ton of pre-premier press today if you care to indulge. There is this USA Today article:
Idol’s TV dominance can be measured in many ways. Last season, the Tuesday (31 million viewers) and Wednesday (30 million) shows were No. 1 and 2. The Tuesday show has been TV’s most-watched for three seasons. Idol has powered Fox to consecutive season wins among advertiser-coveted young adults, despite the network’s dismal fall performances.
NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly has dubbed Idol “The Death Star” — a Star Wars reference to its power to lay waste to prime time. To get out of Idol’s way, ABC is moving two hits, Lost and Dancing With the Stars, and NBC is shifting an acclaimed but struggling show, Friday Night Lights.
And, this from TV Guide:
About the auditions:
There are generally two reasons to sit through Idol’s initial auditions: to catch the drama created by those who are A) tone-deaf or B) have Lifetime-movie sob stories (such as Kellie Pickler, who revealed at her audition last year that Mom had abandoned her and Dad was in jail). The first city to get the audition treatment, Minneapolis, was chock-full of the latter, according to executive producer Cécile Frot-Coutaz. “We have some great stories — some really sad and some inspirational,” she promises. “You’ll see a lot of heart.” Seattle, on the other hand, was all about damaged eardrums. Host Ryan Seacrest recalls the first of two days spent in the Pacific Northwest, when he sat down for a lunch break with the three judges. “We just looked at each other, jaws dropped, like, ‘Where have these people come from?’” he says. As chronically cranky judge Simon Cowell puts it, “I hated everyone who auditioned.” Surprisingly, he did not storm out of the room, as he has in the past when frustrated by a lack of talent. But, he notes, “There were a lot of [contestants] who went nuts at me and walked out.”
And the talent pool:
In fact, Season 6 may boast the biggest talent pool yet. “America always has had the greatest singers in the world,” Cowell proclaims. “We’ve definitely found that.” Everybody has his or her early favorites. Paula Abdul is gaga over a handful of guys, whom she describes as “edgier than the girls.” Randy Jackson favors “someone with curly hair,” and [executive producer Ken] Warwick raves about a girl who “is gonna give Aretha Franklin a run for her money.” Still, they all agree that of those who made it through to Hollywood this year, there is no clear Fantasia-esque front-runner. This seems to suit everyone just fine. “It’s a competition,” Warwick says. “The ‘American Idol’ is the last 35 seconds of the last show. The show is really about the journey, not the destination.”
Poor Seattle. Could it have really been that bad? And, Paula likes the boys, Ken Warwick has a favorite girl, Simon stays mum. In other words, they are going to play it again this year like they did Season 5–no clear front-runner until the competition is well under way.
Tomorrow Night: Another 2-hour show featuring the “best” of the Seattle WA auditions.
For more articles and news, check out the comments section in the Daily Chat Thread. The incomparable LisaB posts links to all the Idol news early every morning–on her lunch hour in the UK…
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Here’s to Season 6!
Looking forward to reading all your reviews and recaps.
Im not sure I will watch the auditions (oh hell, who am I kidding) and I know many many who wont even turn it on till the top 10. I watch the auditions because I remember the magic when, after you have seen so much crap, you hear a voice like Taylor and when your paying attention the LEAST, you hear that one voice thats you know will be one of the people you will be watching. Same thing happened for me with Clay.
I totally agree MJ. I have never liked these audition weeks. I usually will tape and fast forward through the stuff that is boring.
This is the part of AI that I feel is manipulative and it really bugs me that there are talented people out there that never get to see the judges because they let some no talent character on TV for laughs. If it was more of a mix (2/3 good to 1/3 not so good) and skip the horrid ones I would watch… Or if they really want to show the horrid (ones show the real deal on the tryouts where the masses perform in lines in front of producers first…that would keep it real instead of intentionally selecting bad people to perform before the judges.
Oh well….I doubt they would change it for me.
I think that the reason AI would start to have Fan fall off (though not sure it will be this year because there are still so many people I know that are going to watch it for the first time)would be in the following two areas:
1. Not really rewarding THE winner…when anyone in the top 12 can get the same deal as the winner there really isn’t a whole lot of reason to vote. If they want to give out record deals right and left they need to add to the prize mix for the winner…like cash award, car and record deal.
2. If the public really knew that all auditioners are not really getting to see the judges… I think they would feel manipulated…which is how I felt when I started to read this blog and found out the real deal on how people are selected. Taylor’s dad wasn’t too far off when he said it would be like winning the lottery.
Morning all. I’m with you guys. I really don’t enjoy the auditions with the really awful people. I just don’t consider this stuff “entertainment”. But, like you Dingo, I don’t want to miss that “moment” like Taylor’s audition. I don’t have a recorder, Tivo or whatever, so I watch the whole shows, but do a lot of “leaving the room”. I remember last year after the “Taylor moment” I was almost confused as to whether it actually moved me as much as it did because it was surrounded by all that crap.
I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, but have been forcing music into my head, which is not a bad thing. My improvement suggestion for the show (which arrived at like 2 this morning) would be for when they have the artist theme nights. Why not have a different group or person for the males and females. To me it is never fair to make one gender sing the songs of another that they can’t possibly show their true talent at. Like Queen night for the girls. Or pick multi-gender groups like Fleetwood Mac. Another example of this to me was the Elton John night the previous year. I don’t think anyone really stood a chance of showcasing their talent that night. George Huff was the only one who came close. They could even have songwriter night. I’m sure there are many songwriters that have written multiple hits for both genders and perhaps the idol contestants would not be so completely compared to the singer who had the hit with the song.
O.K., enough rambling on this. Just one question - has anyone explained how the chat thing is going to work? I’ve never been on a chat thingy before and would like to try to participate.
I’ve never actually been able to make myself watch more than one of the early bad singer auditions so am not sure how long I can stand it. I will tivo it and f/f through the painful to the ears people. In a way it seems too soon to start the season because I’ve been so involved with last season for months now. I don’t expect to be able to pick out a favorite early on because even when I watched the replay of last season to see the top 10, I’m not sure that any of them would have stood out for me, even Chris.
Morning…I’m excited! mj, I feel the same way as you do about the auditions phase of the show. It is my least favorite part of Idol. I cringe watching people who are just pretty good being told, in no uncertain terms, that they won’t make it. Yes, I understand that this is the way the business works and it’s better that they hear it now than later but, I’ve never been too keen on watching one person embarrass or humiliate another person. Sort of like throwing the Christians to the lions in Rome…much too public for my taste. There are people who are obviously there to be the next William Hung and are hoping to attract attention by their sheer awful-ness but there are also a lot of kids who actually believe they’ve made it to the Paula, Randy and Simon round because they are good. Then, dingo also makes a good point. I watch because of the joy I feel when a great voice soars over the multitude and strikes a chord with the viewers.
I love the Hollywood Rounds, shame it doesn’t have the coverage of the earlier audition rounds.
Who will be first to spot TCO?
I guess I’m in the minority when saying that I enjoy the audition episodes! The only thing that is annoying about them to me is when there are so many novelty acts portrayed (ppl in costumes / goofy dancing / fakers). Bad singers actually whet the appetite for the good singers to come. The one thing I can truly say I HATE HATE HATE is the lack of time devoted to the top 44/40 in the taped Hollywood rounds. Each and every one of them should have had at least one minute of airtime. It is unfair to have one or two or three performers have exclusive airtime and a dozen or more barely seen until TV voting time. Yes Simon, it DOES matter… I wonder who will be the Corey Clark/Brittenum twins arsewipes for season six? :.)
Hurray for the new season! I cannot wait for the pointy poses to begin. I swore off the auditions back in season 3, but I’m going to give them a try again. I regret missing Taylor’s big moment in the auditions (caught it later) so I don’t want that to happen again. Plus, I want to follow along here. We’ll see how long I last.
Good luck, Kristen! It’s just as painful as you remember it. Maybe they’ll give us a break this year and show more talent and less hoohaw but I doubt it.
LisaB: I love the Hollywood Rounds, shame it doesn’t have the coverage of the earlier audition rounds.
That’s when I usually start watching as well. I’m annoyed that they will be even shorter this year. It’s when you get to see who the really talented singers are (and who has just learned to sing one song in their range really, really well).
First time logging in to the new site. I just had to respond to this:
“Still, they all agree that of those who made it through to Hollywood this year, there is no clear Fantasia-esque front-runner. This seems to suit everyone just fine. “It’s a competition,” Warwick says. “The ‘American Idol’ is the last 35 seconds of the last show. The show is really about the journey, not the destination.””
BWAH!!!!
They still cling to the notion that Fantasia was an immediate front-runner, when she spent half of her “journey” in the bottom three, and the other half being propped up by Simon.
For Fantasia lovers, I am not saying that she’s not talented or couldn’t have won on her own merits–but they have to stop this nonsense of she was any type of frontrunner. Give it up, just let her be a talented singer with a unique voice–she doesn’t need the revisionist history any more.
I agree, t2. Although I predicted her as the winner from the beginning, I also thought Miss LaToya would give her a run for her money. The interesting thing is that NEITHER Fantasia NOR LaToya were seen with any significance prior to the voting rounds! In fact, if memory serves, LaToya wasn’t shown at all in the audition episodes. But, having every episode saved onto DVDs you can believe me puter be recording it tonite! :.)
Hey MJ, can we have a chat party like we did for the finale last season?
I am simply thrilled about tonight’s show!
But if memory serves correct, neither the eventual winner nor runner up have ever been shown in the first audition episode. Is this correct?
Yeah, Minneapolis! Represent! And stuff.
I only enjoy the audition rounds for those all-too-brief glimpses of the truly good singers. I don’t relish laughing at the bad singers, but sometimes I can’t help it. The Hollywood Rounds are my favorite, too, but they just don’t show enough of it. I want more solos and disastrous group songs!
Did anyone catch Live with Regis and Kelly this morning? Diana Ross was on and said she will be on AI as a mentor. She mentioned going on tour with her new album in March or April, so I’m assuming she’ll be on before that. I’m thinking from her comments, it’s not a guest judge spot, but like last season’s Rod Stewart, Kenny Rogers, etc.
I’m excited for tonight as well.
Werwander - re: winner or runner up ever being shown in first episode —
I didn’t know that but guess it’s just coincidence - ya think?
Okay, what’s the chat schedule, link, etc? Let the games begin!
Found the chat link above - no gabbers yet.
I will TIVO tonight and watch later. Audition rounds, while interesting, are not my favorite and 2 hours is just too much. I don’t mind the bad singers so much (by now, everyone is going into this eyes open, so it’s hard to feel too sorry for them) but I do mind the humiliation of people who seem truly mentally disturbed/disabled. That kind of thing always makes me squirm. But, I don’t want to miss that moment when someone truly great walks into the room. I still remember Paris’ audition from last year… it gave me chills. My husband started following Taylor from the second he opened his mouth and he doesn’t even like AI. I also fell for Chris and Kat during their auditions last year. Anyway, I can’t wait for tonight… on with season 6!!
I agree with Dov about the Hollywood round coverage. It is a shame that when you get to the 24 some contestants have had no air time or a chance to build a little momentum going in. Granted, Bucky fan here, a little agitated no one saw him until the Top 24 announcement show. But guess it didn’t hurt him. I really would like to see more of those who make the top 44 in general though.
I also abhor the endless horrible auditions just to by chance see the one that I will really like and claim as my favorite. I too agree that the Hollywood round should be covered a whole lot more and less time given to the audition cities crapola. Too much bad and not enough good.
But - I need my ai fix - so I will be in front of the tv for the entire 2 hours tonight and tomorrow - just to get my head filled with the AI braincloud gas. Up, up and away.
I’m probably going to watch…I just can’t help myself. Sometimes the bad auditions can be hilarious, and often they actually show the auditions of many of the contestants who make it to the top 40. Plus, I’m getting tired of waiting around for the season to begin…the top 24 actually doesn’t start until February.
I agree with Pamster…I need my AI fix as well.
MJ,
Last season I was here everyday but didn’t post much at all. I just want to take this time now to say thank you for all the hard work you put into this. Your information is very valuable. I like the new site, it is a little slow but hey, that is what happens when you have a popular site. ;)
Thank you for the wonderful job you have done with this blog! You are very much appreciated, MJ!
So, it looks like Diana Ross WILL be a Guest Celebrity Mentor/Coach? I hope she does a terrific job!
MJ,
I want to thank you for the wonderful memories of last season, your community, and the terrific spectrum of vibes that you brought to your blog. All were good. Have a spectacular sophmore season!
LOL! The guy that was in Elliott’s group during the Hollywood round audutioned and was rejected.
Well, I made it through the first night. The only thing that kept my attention was the Taylor shot over Simon’s left shoulder. I see no Taylors as of yet. It will take a shocker to make me ever vote again. The only time I ever voted was last year.
I didn’t know if you didn’t make it one place, you could go to the other place to try out! Wasn’t that what the girl whose boss flew her down was doing? Sara should have done that!
These kids really took this serious this year. I don’t remember so many tears-usually it is cussing and back talk.
Simon is still falling for a pretty face!
LOL! The guy that was in Elliott’s group during the Hollywood round audutioned and was rejected.
Anthony right? I thought he looked familiar. I just usually flip through auditions but that that was a horrible first episode. Nobody was good, the rejects were pathetic and there was no energy. This is a really bad start for this show. Maybe they are getting too cocky.
Anyway, it STUNK.