Just a brief post to comment on tonight's finale of American Idol.
I've had a so-so relationship with this show for years - predominantly my reservations are because the show's format favours "show off" singers - people with big voices who try their best to put out note perfect performances as opposed to singers of real character.
Now I know this is by no means a hard and fast "fact" - Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood and many others all cut a more individual path but I maintain that the format encourages,.... not mediocrity, but ....the mundane . My son and I often discuss all the singers we love who would not make it past the initial auditions - you could go on for hours...
But year after year, we still tune in. Like many others, I like the fact we share this as a family (an experience shared by very few other TV shows) and I have to admit that slagging off a terrible show is almost as much fun as enjoying a great one!
As for tonight....the finale was OK - but there were far too many oldies as guest stars. Chicago plain and simply have lost it (and I'm fairly convinced they never had much of "it" anyway) Janet Jackson rolled out the same tired routines she's been using for the last 15 years and sounded like a subpar Michael J. Last year's winner Kris Allen was poor, out of tune and lacklustre and Alice Cooper added nothing to the party.
On the plus side, it was good seeing all the previous winners together on stage for a Cowell tribute, Alanis Morisette was pretty good - and although Barry Gibb looked like he'd eaten the pounds that Robin had shed (and a few pies to boot) - it was fantastic to see the two remaining Bee Gees up singing on stage again and in great voice! It was even better to see Brett Michaels - winning celebrity apprentice and appearing on the Idol final in one week - I don't know if it show great bravery of stupidity to be up there so soon, but I admire his guts tremendously!
FIRM prediction - after a crap season and with Simon Cowell leaving for the American X-Factor, we have seen the last season of Idol anybody bothers to watch. One more season and it will be cancelled! Not that I anticipate that X-Factor will be a great gift to music, just something a little different for American music TV viewers.
More soon.....
Does USA's Got Talent exist? And are there any "I'd do Anything to be on Broadway Over the Rainbow" shows over there? We've liked watching the Dorothy show best, because it seeks and encourages all round talent: not just a great voice, but also someone who can act and move well too. Danielle Hope was brilliant and a well deserved winner.
ReplyDeleteYes - USA's Got Talent exists in exactly the same format as the UK version - it has it's moments (even if it is opportunity knocks revamped) and we watch occasionally (though never a whole seres)
ReplyDeleteWe have only really had one of the Broadway / West End selection shows. It was called "Grease: You're the One that I Want!" and was DIRECTLY based on the BBC Maria show - but obviously adapted for the selection of Danny and Sandy. It was judged by two Brits (producer David Ian, and the very lovely Denise Van Outen) as well as the choreographer of the upcoming show Kathleen Marshall and Grease writer Jim Jacobs.
In a very tangled way, it was produced by BBC worldwide yet shown on NBC - but subsequently this SAME show was remade in the UK on ITV with the same aim of casting Grease but in a very different format (as the rights to the original were still owned by the BBC for their other casting / reality shows) - the ITV version was AWFUL!
We all really enjoyed the BBC/NBC one but it never got great ratings (although the Broadway show was very successful) and the idea did not continue (unless there is some obscure cable channel doing them somewhere).
Check out my mate John's blog on this same subject, with the same predictions... http://diggerjohn.blogspot.com/2010/05/another-american-idol-disappears.html
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