American Idol Auditions Reaction - The Best Of The Rest

I’m ready for Hollywood Week plain and simple. These audition shows have been generally brutal, and near impossible to stay focused throughout. I’m not seeing anything new. Some singers are good, some are bad, some are crazy, Simon is a dick (and a dick that’s getting a little bored), the guest judges are a grab for ratings, Kara is the devil, there are a couple of feel good moments, some slick editing and that’s about it.

I realized that what I really like about American Idol, at least in my advanced age, is the talent and getting to know the contestants. I like starting to pick my favorites and those ones I want sent home. I like discussing performances and trying to guess judge reactions. I like predicting who will go home. I generally like the theme nights. I enjoy hearing different versions of popular songs. I want to see contestants take the leap into becoming real performers. These are all the things the audition shows don’t give us, and for me that is the crux of the issue. I understand the need for the auditions (to a point), but two a week for four weeks is a bit much.

Tonight’s episode was a first for Idol (that I can remember at least). It was sort of a hybrid mix of leftovers that probably should have been the main course. They took a look back at a bunch of auditions we missed out on, or were omitted, the first time through. It also allowed us a glimpse of many people who’ll be at Hollywood Week. People with some insane talent. I remember thinking last year that I didn’t know many of the contestants when they were all shacked up in the hotel together. What ended up happening was Idol pigeon-holing its coverage into the people America had already met. Tonight didn’t totally clean up that problem, but it at least focused on the relative talent entering the next phase of the show without pandering to the lowest denominator.

In the first few seasons, Idol made its bones on Simon just destroying the talentless and then promoting the very talented. That’s when the show, and its talent, were just cementing themselves in relative stardom. But now the Idol fraternity/sorority (fraority) is so full that we don’t need to focus as much on the have-nots. Not with people like Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Kris Allen, David Archuleta, Jordin Sparks, Clay Aiken, Adam Lambert to name a few carrying the torch. Those are just the megastars. Tons of others have gone on to modest success in musicals and smaller records. Idol is such a vehicle now; we can focus on determining the next winner and less on the next William Hung.

So let’s get in to Hollywood Week and start making bets on who’s going to win Season 9.