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News Corp COO Chase Carey is no happier about American Idol‘s performance than he was in February when he said the talent show was “a glass half full”: Today he told Wall Street analysts that “our challenge for next year is to put some fresh energy in it.” Last year the show made several changes, including bringing in Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and singer/actress Jennifer Lopez as judges with Randy Jackson. But “we probably didn’t do enough this year,” Carey says. He noted that “Idol didn’t perform to what we hoped this year….The reality is, it’s an 11-year-old show.” That said, “it’s a big, profitable, number one show” that “makes a lot of money” and “has a lot of life in it.” Fox still considers it “a centerpiece for the network” as it enters the advertising upfront season.
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Agree, work needs to be done.
On the positive side, Idol has two things going for it this year. The talent is awesome, and the production has been quite good, but not overdone.
And, the talent should always be the driving force and focus for American Idol. The Idol team including Jimmy do a solid job during the growth and maturation process for the competing talent.
For the record, however, these types of shows have most probably hit a peak with viewers as the marketplace is becoming so over saturated.
American idol needs a competent camera crew who aren’t epilepticly swinging the cameras about constantly and it needs a much better writing staff
How about not allowing teenage girls to vote anymore? Maybe then the talented performers can start winning again? The ratings drop every year as the show goes on because people stop watching as every week the most interesting talent is booted off one by one so the most boring person wins.
People are always complaining about the state of the music business. When you watch these shows you can clearly see that when given the choice between new, fresh, original talent and boring, bland, copycat that sounds like everybody else on the radio, America always picks boring.
Who watched The Voice this year and thought that boring black guy with the average voice really deserved to win that? That guy will never sell a CD. He’s terrible, bland, BORING. When that show started the talent level was amazing, yet all that talent was kicked to the curb for this guy? America just sucks.
Gee, bitter much?
Fresh Energy? Simple. Replace Jackson with someone who can speak in complete sentences and who is respected and has a well regarded history in the music industry. Pump up the performances of current acts on the results show and don’t drag out the results. Dump theme nights entirely and just have people pick the best songs they can sing. Limit phone votes and text votes. Include votes on Twitter. To vote via Twitter you can have folks who watch and live Tweet, Tweet the “#Vote #ContestantsName #Idol” and have that count. But also limit that number. Tell audiences who the top vote getter is each week when announcing the bottom 3.
And finally, stop offering their songs the next day. Their songs shouldn’t be released until it’s the top 5 or 6.
Randy Jackson never should have been hired he’s been worthless since the show started he’s the worst so horrible just awful.
How about better judges, better talent by the contestants and maybe a new host and new set and graphics to freshen up the show? No more of these two hour editions of the program and cut it down somewhat in terms of the length of the program during the season. Just suggestions.
Best thing AI or any voting show can do is dump the voting process, and let the judges do their job as judges.
As someone stated above me, America always votes with the safe boring people instead of the real singers with talent. Yet, those same people complain about how stale and boring the music scene is.
The Voice went with safe last year look where the winner is now and they went with safe again this year… It’s not going to help them.
End the voting process that will help AI and The Voice gain their credibility again.
The judging panel needs to be revamped, pure and simple. Viewers used to tune in to hear Simon’s barbs — but more over, he was actually honest and gave criticism to the contestants. The new judges do nothing but sit there and LOVE every single one of them — it makes for a boring, toothless, tired program when none of the contestants are anywhere near as brilliant as they think they are. (They’ve told Joshua Ledet he is one of the “greatest 50 singers” they’ve ever heard, ever, in their lifetimes. He also ain’t that good).
Jimmy Iovine’s critiques are great — but they only happen on the 2nd night of shows. He needs to be brought in sooner, and/or dump Randy and Steven. J Lo has other positive attributes and she’d be fine IF there was someone with any kind of candor on that panel. There hasn’t been since Simon left.
the judges need to be replaced, they hardly give any real critique and hand out standing ovations left & right. secondly, I truly feel it needs to be an age limit in who votes. young girls are the reason talentless, cookie cutter cute guys win almost every year. American idol always starts out with good talent but unfortunately they get eliminated because people aren’t voting for true singers. it puts the whole credibility of this show in question.
At least Idol has given us a few true talented singers. By far most never get a career going, but there are a handful that go on to win Grammy’s—you know them.
What happened to the winner of last season’s Voice? nothing. Any of their top 4 make it?
This new guy, probably the same.
Idol needs “fresh energy?” that’s an understatement. Just like the other posts said, dump Randy. He’s absolutely useless, humorless, never added anything, never will add anything. Bring in Iovine full time. I want to hear his critiques both nights. Dump Tyler. Seems like a nice enough guy, but he can’t seem to complete a full sentence. JLo, I can take or leave her. And being a Bronx girl myself, I’ll cut her a little slack. But she really needs to step it up. Finally, voting has to change. How? I have no clue. But letting the teen girls have the final say year after year is making for forgettable winners
Agree with sentiment here: they need to get rid of the three judges in one big swoop and attract personalities that are willing to give real critiques.
For me for you dawg its time to boot Randy; he just regurgitates the same stuff weekly. I dont think Tyler adds much but JLo has been good on live tv. Idol talent this season has been high but they need some new elements & diff song theme weeks & more current music. So many songs have been done ad infinitum plus both The Voice & Idol often had same songs in the same week. Time to produce…were most likely to get yet another WGWG winner in two weeks
Can’t blame the judges for the voters, who will choose another Forgettable White Guy as the winner this year, fourth year in a row. It seems that the show was once about finding the best singers but for whatever reason that’s not been true of late.
Well, of course. The show is boring. It’s been boring for a long time. Teenyboppers and wannabe rock stars… that’s it…
Agree that Randy and his Dawg nonsense need to go as does Steven who’s too nice for this panel. They indeed LOVE every single contestant. It’s boring!! We need a Simon type who gives the critiques and J Lo works as a Paula. Honestly I would dump Ryan too
10 Tips for Improving American Idol
1. Collapse all of the audition nights into one 90-minute show or drop them entirely. Get rid of the bad contestants, the joke contestants, and the contestants’ background videos. Focus on talented people who have some chance of winning.
2. Allocate two nights max for Hollywood or Las Vegas or wherever it is that the producers go to winnow the over-large group of contestants down to the final whatever.
3. Give Randy Jackson an ultimatum. He’s articulate in interviews away from AI; he needs to be equally articulate on the show. Love her or hate her, Christina Aguilera provides clear, actionable feedback on The Voice. If contestants are flat, sharp, overreaching, whatever — nine times out of 10, she’ll tell them exactly what the problem is and demonstrate how to correct it.
4. Find a way to judge the judges and make their scores public. Perhaps then they will actually, hmmm, judge. If they don’t know how to judge — and face it, providing precise, actionable is a skill, not a soundbite — teach them how. If they’re unwilling or unable to learn/change, replace them with people who can judge.
5. Get rid of the swaybots. They’re annoying and juvenile.
6. Shape up the producer ranks. Their preferences/biases are all too clear and, after 11 seasons, they’re boring as well.
7. Limit votes. Two reasons for this: first, there is no power on earth stronger than the hormonal stirrings of teenage girls. Thus, the boring, but usually “really, really cute” contestants. Second, with a few exceptions, a tsunami of votes does not translate into a long-term fan base willing to buy albums or career longevity. It’s not fair to the contestants, the music industry or the viewers to pretend it will.
8. Breathe some life into contestants’ song choices. Love Whitney, but no more Whitney. Or Stevie. Or Hall & Oates. You get the idea. Either find some interesting covers or hire songwriters who’ve had hits in the past decade to write new material for the show. Hello!
9. Back to the judges: Help them understand what finding “new” talent means. It doesn’t mean finding “someone who sounds exactly like…”, “reminds me of a young…”, “does justice to the spirit of..” It means someone who makes us stop, listen and want to hear/see more.
10. Make results shows, results shows. They could be 30 minutes, 20 with commercials. Do not drag them out. I will not watch.
Bonus tip: Producers, decide what your target demographic is and go after it unswervingly. If you want the 9-15 year old cohort, fine. Keep doing what you’re doing. No whining about ratings, which will go down as that group ages. If you want older, or more diverse, or whatever, change appropriately.
I think the talent this season is as good, or better, than it has ever been. I really miss Simon Cowell as the voice of reason and being someone who will tell it like it is. I cringe every time Steven Tyler and Randy open their mouths to make comments. The best they can do regarding criticism is to say “make it your own” or “you need to have a moment”…sheesh. Jimmy Iovine needs to be given a bigger presence on the show, as he offers insightful criticism. However, how much of his criticism on night two is scripted? I would like to see how he handles this criticism live and face-to-face with the talent. And, please please please find a way to limit the ability to vote to ONE TIME only. I still enjoy the show because of the talent – but improvements are sorely needed.
Limit the votes.
I have watched a several episodes of Idol this year but I just can’t watch it weekly. The judges are aggravating for one thing. They love every performance. They’re afraid to give tough love. They don’t critique. How are the competitors going to get better when the judges don’t even tell them when things go wrong. I’m sitting at home with the family and we look at other like, ” did they really just say that was great, when it clearly wasn’t.” The one thing I love about the judges on DWTS is that they, for the most part, tell it like it is and that don’t give a damn how big of a star they are dealing with in the competition. If you don’t come correct, Len, especially Len, Bruno, and Carrie Ann will let you know exactly why and then they’ll score it afterwards.
How can it get better?? How about NOT voting for how Cute a boy is.. and Vote for REAL Talent. Phillip Phillips should not even been top 12 much less the winner.. He was OFF KEY Half the time.. and BORING. He didn’t have Near the talent of some of these other contestants. Its Chris Daughtery all over again… I know you can’t stop teeny boppers from voting but come on…. where is the real talent?… As for Me.. I am done watching Idol.. not because of the judges actually I LOVED Steven and JLow with Randy.. they rocked… but I’m tired of seeing less talented people win..all because they are “cute”.. I think after this year.. Many will stop watching. I think this show is coming to and end.. not because of the Judges.. but people will be tired of the No-Talents winning.
I agree that everyone should be limited to one vote…And that vote should be for the “contestant who should be eliminated!” Get rid of all three judges and replace them with Jimmy I, Ryan Seacrest, and a good “current” female talent. (Not a female comedian who couldn’t sing “Happy Birthday.”) We’ve tried that one…. Seacrest would make a great judge.