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Monday, May 19, 2008
Fixing “Idol”
TRIB BALLOT
Last week FOX executives talked about their upcoming season and announced they would fix a problem with Idol by rolling back the results show to 30 minutes.
Thank You, Executives! Those result shows last forever now, with very little of substance. One Trib editor only watches the last 10 minutes as it is. It’s the only amount you have to watch to find out what really matters — Who’s in the bottom three and who’s going home.
This has prompted others to suggest other ways to improve the show. Andrew Payne filed this story for StarPulse.com, in which he suggests seven improvements. His seven:
- Guest judges
- Make voting cumulative
- Add a wild card slot
- Raise the age minimum to 18
- Less talk, more rock
- Ditch restrictive theme nights
- Make winning matter
Of these ideas, most have some merit and a couple would really improve things. For guest judges he suggests not making the mentor a judge as in previous seasons (when they glowed on the contestants more than Paula), but adding snarky, non-music types to shake things up. His point is valid: We know Randy will say something about dawgs, dope, da bomb or keepin’ it real; Paula will talk about colors, texture and the look; and Simon will tell the truth. We can almost skip it an fill in the blanks later. Guest judges would shake it up, if they were the right type of judges.
His point on wild cards is to let someone back in the top five who got voted out in a previous week. Like letting Michael Johns back in at the end. It might help, but more likely, we’re letting back in someone we thought did a lousy job earlier, if only for one week. I’m not sure that helps.
Raising the minimum age to 18 would mean the kids with the great voices could also be more seasoned performers. True, but only if they had another venue in which to perform for millions of people, which they don’t.
Making winning matter is his contention that everyone gets a record contract now, so winning isn’t as important as the overall exposure. True, but adding a cash prize to a bloated contract isn’t necessarily going to make the singing any better than it already is.
His best ideas are cumulative voting (to keep a bad week from robbing an otherwise great performer, like Tamayra in season 1 or Daughtry in season 5), ditching the restrictive themes for more general ones (like songs of the ’80s rather than all things Dolly Parton — let’s face it, not everyone sounds good on Dolly or Mariah or whomever), and best of all, less talk.
He contends (and I haven’t timed to verify, but I bet he’s right) that the video segments are now lasting upwards of two minutes, while the songs are limited to 1:30. He contends, give us a 30 second intro video and a COMPLETE song. I have to agree. I want to hear the whole song, and if it can be done without lengthening the show (by cutting something already there, like video intros), I’m all for it.
I suspect though, that performing the whole song costs more in royalty money to the original artist, making it a no-go for Idol producers. But if FOX execs are willing to give up half an hour’s worth of commercials next year, and the profits they generate, maybe anything is possible.
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