I started watching American Idol in 2007, when Season 6 aired. In this case, I could be defined as a rookie for this show. However, even though I only watched 4 seasons, I already feel that this show, American Idol, is more than a singing competition.
Within my limited understanding and knowledge towards reality television, American Idol is the one so far I think the most entertaining, especially in Season 9, this phenomenon seems to grow stronger.
One significant difference in this season is that there has a new judge joined the judging panel. She is Ellen DeGeneres, who is a famous talk show host. She came here as a substitution to Paula Abdul, who always sat in the judging panel since Season 1. This change altered the chemistry among the judging panel. Firstly, as a talk show host, DeGeneres has absolute teasing-ability. Her teasing jokes could usually pull audience’s attention from the contestants to her. The most impressive one I remember was her likening contestant Alex Lambert as an unripe banana. Surely, this metaphor means Lambert has great potential, but the other meaning is DeGeneres’s lesbian identity. The reason why I have this statement is because every time DeGeneres mentioned “banana”, Randy Jackson who sitting next to her laughed knowingly. Adding the fact that host Ryan Seacrest raised the issue of DeGeneres mentioning banana now and then, DeGeneres using banana as a metaphor seemed obviously to be a hint of her being a lesbian.
Secondly, in one episode of the semi-finals, DeGeneres sat on Simon Cowell’s lap at the beginning of the show. When Seacrest introduced the show’s rule, DeGeneres was still touching Cowell flirtingly. Based on these things, we can see that American Idol has changed from an entertaining singing competition to an entertaining singing-competition show. No matter whom they are, contestants or judges, only if they can entertain audiences, can they be put on air. There has a fresh memory from the last season, Abdul took out some crayons and gave them to Cowell in Kodak Theatre, saying that it was for child, and it was on air. This has never happened before. It seems that anecdote among judges could also be the tricks to attract audience.
Of course, little teasing among judges could not show how entertaining American Idol now is than before. Inviting a great amount of superstars performing on the stage is the only real deal. None of the season before can invite three superstars performing in the first week of the final: David Cook, Ke$ha, Orianthi. In the first week of the semi-finals on Season 8, the guest performers were Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson. Same week on Season 7, the guest performers were Katharine McPhee and David Foster. Furthermore, the number of guest performers has increased season by season: only 15 performances were in the final of Season 7, 6 of them were performed included former contestants in American Idol; 26 performances were in the final of Season 8, 11 of them were performed included former contestants; 29 performances so far were in the final of Season 9, 8 of them were performed included former contestants. According to the data above, we can see that American Idol put more effort on inviting stars outside the show to perform on the stage. Particularly in Season 9, more artists outside the show were invited than before.
People think it was DeGeneres who caused this situation. They believe as a host in a famous talk show, DeGeneres has great relationship with a lot of celebrities since most of them were on her talk show before.
I think this really could be a reason. Why did the producers select Ellen DeGeneres to replace Paula Abdul? She does not have strong music background, to some extent, she does not even have a connection with music. The only reasons I can think of are her eloquence and vast friendship with celebrities. Just to know, the number of viewers of American Idol decrease every year, when Cowell leaves the show next season, the ratings could drop to the nadir. In this case, the show needs someone like DeGeneres to keep the audience. The way to keep them is to make use of her relationship with celebrities. Try to imagine, if more celebrities perform in the show, even though there has no judge like Simon Cowell or contestant like Adam Lambert, audience would still choose to watch American Idol because it has so many celebrities.
Indeed, American Idol was not always a sheer singing competition,entertaining factors were always the elements of the show. The producers now just make it more entertaining. Just like the name of Adam Lambert’s debut album, the show is only “for your entertainment” in prime time.
How about the contestants? After all, there have 8 American idols already; who cares who the next American idol is.
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