Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Will re-make of American Idol be a hit with fans?

As a person who watches American Idol and upon hearing the news of Simon Cowell's departure last year, I wondered if the show would survive his departure. Simon was the judge we all loved to hate and he developed an abrasive personna, which should have turned off viewers, yet it didn't. There was something about the way he criticized and insulted non-talented singers that we all relished because inside, we all would have said the same thing had we been there. Simon spoke for us.

His departure has left a void in the insult department, which the new judges have no intention of filling. According to Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, they would rather use their singing experience to help up and coming artists.

How boring.

The new format of the show set to start on January 19, will focus on searching for an eventual winner, rather than setting up roadblocks along the way. As I wrote: how boring. There will be changes to the format to include an extention of Hollywood Week auditions to cut the semi-finalist field down to 20. Don't know how this is going to go over with the viewers since it will give them a small field of performers from which to choose. The 'Wild Card' finalists will also be included. There will also be no on-line voting.

To be honest, I found last year's show very blah and most of the singers mediocre at best. Surely given the scope of the talent search, there has to be more talent "out there" in the entire U.S.A. When it's all said a done, a lot will depend on the new judges and what they add to the pot in the way of personality. If they all end up indistinguishable from each other, the show will soon get stale and viewers will turn off. Next year Cowell will be bringing his own show, "X Factor" so Idol better establish itself as a front runner now.

So who will be watching AI?

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