Idol Joins the Change Parade

Though there are other web sites that have this information, such as Vote for the Worst and mjsbigblog (in 2 separate posts, here and here), I would be remiss not to regurgitate the reported changes to American Idol Season 8. Plus it gives me a chance to comment on them as only I can :)

The major changes are:
As reported here before, there will be a fourth Idol judge to put the fear of God into Paula and to, according to Idol producer Ken Warwick, keep Simon from dominating the show. And what exactly does this say about Randy Jackson? The Dawg is getting no respect...

Instead of a Top 24 semi-final round there will be 36 contestants competing for your vote into the finals. I love Warwick's explanation for this change: "by the time the competition got to the Top 8, viewers became bored seeing the same people for so long, especially if they weren't good personalities." Funny, it only seemed to a problem last season, when no one in the Top 8 had any personality.

The Wild Card show, ditched after Season 3, will be back, with the judges selecting 3 contestants to advance to the Top 12. That way “If something goes horrendously awry, the judges could fix it on the wild card show,” Warwick says. Like say, someone like Sanjaya Malakar getting into the Top 12? But then again, who was it that selected Malakar for the Top 24? That's right, the judges....

Instead of a month of watching the auditions we'll only see 3 weeks of bad, arrogant singers. On the one hand I'm disappointed in that I'll have less chance to make fun of the whack jobs that have no business auditioning for the show. On the other hand, it means one extra week of sleep for me, since those audition shows took forever to recap. Warwick claimed that the suicide of Paula's stalker didn't play a role in this decision, though I'd be willing to bet that Paula's reaction to it and the departure of producer Nygel Lythgoe did.

The Hollywood Week shows will be expanded to 2 weeks instead of just the one show that they showed last year. Warwick also promised that there will be more twists during Hollywood week and more backstage footage of the contestants. Sadly, though, it appears that the dreadful group rounds, where groups of three sang the same Aretha Franklin song, will be back. So will the dreadful chair show apparently.

The semi-final themes that Idol experimented with last year are gone, and instead the contestants will be allowed to sing any Top 10 song from the Billboard charts dating back to the 50's. Hopefully the contestants will take advantage of this and not sing the same song as everyone else, but they probably will all still sing the same Stevie, Whitney, or Mariah song.

The only announced Top 12 theme is Motown week to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Motown Records. Great, another week of Stevie songs. There will, however, not be another Idol Gives Back week. Considering how uninspiring last year's contestants were on Idol Gives Back week I am very thankful to hear this.

No mentors have been announced but Warwick is pursuing mentors that are in the range of 25-26 years old and "who've had a string of hits, who have been there for a long time and actually have something of value to pass on.” Quick, name one 25-26 year old singer that fits this description. No, not Gwen Stefani, she's older than that. I'm sure Britney Spears has plenty of things of value to pass along, but none of them are related to music. She does meet the age and hit criteria though. So does Justin Timberlake I think.

Drunk Chick's job is apparently not in danger, at least according to Warwick. “I hope she’s there ’til the show goes off the air. We never ever discussed ‘Paula’s gotta go.’ Never, ever happened. America loves her. Don’t wanna lose her and neither does America," Warwick said. Amen to that, brother, but we'll see if you still feel that way after the season is over and Paula's contract comes up for renewal.

Idol will only air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with just 2 special Thursday shows, which leads to the question of how the results will be announced during the semis. Does this mean that we'll have 36 singers in one night and a fluffy results show the next? God I hope not. Hopefully they'll break it up somehow, though I'm not sure if they can go back to the small groups again.

Like last year, the producers are going to try and push the quality of the singers on us all again. Get ready for more claims of "the most talented Top 12 ever" from Trained Seal and subsequently more eye rolling from Captain Jack Sparrow. The singers will be more "aspirational" as Warwick put it. However, Warwick claimed that the producers will not try and do this by stacking the contestant pool with ringers that had prior recording contracts. Warwick said “If there’s any form of management (like, say, David Archuleta's dad?-taij) or recording contact we shy away from it. We love the fact that we are finding previously undiscovered stars…generally speaking when they walk through the door, we like to take them at face value. (like, say, Paula's stalker?-taij again) People have been damaged by the music biz (like say, Carly Smithson?-taij #3), we restore their faith in it again. If someone was really fantastic and was great and then said ‘I used to be on Broadway,’ my question would be, ‘Do you have a recording contract now? No? OK then you’re fine.’” So I guess this means we'll see more ready for Broadway ready contestants like Syesha Mercado. Oh, joy.

Finally, here is the airing schedule for Season 8:
Jan. 13 & 14 - Audition shows (2 hours each night)
Jan. 20 & 21 - Audition shows
Jan. 27 & 28 - Audition shows
Jan. 29 (Thursday) - Final audition show (probably another best of the rest show I would guess)
Feb. 3 & 4 - Hollywood Week shows
Feb. 10 & 11 - Hollywood Week shows (including the chair show I assume)
Feb. 17 & 18 - Top 36 semi-final shows
Feb. 24 & 25 - Top 36 semi-final shows
Mar. 3 & 4 - Top 36 semi-final shows
Mar. 5 (Thursday) - Wild Card show
Mar. 10 - Top 12 Finals

If my math is correct that would mean the Grand Finale will be May 26 & 27. Set your calendars now. I'm warming up the Tivo again.

The Vast American Idol Conspiracy

In my continuing effort to report to you on all things Paula Abdul, there is a new story from the AP and other news services out today. The report highlights the conversation between Drunk Chick and Barbara Walters on Walters' Sirius radio show that Walters relayed on The View.

(Seriously, who knew that Barbara Walters had a radio show on Sirius? Isn't The View and all her TV specials keeping her busy enough? Didn't she leave 20/20 because she wanted to slow down?)

In the interview Paula again blamed Simon Cowell for her goofy behavior on the show, claiming that all of Captain Jack's talking during Paula's critiques were distracting and causing her to laugh at inappropriate times and, in her words, "He claims to be that... what he is creating is great television and I said 'Well what you've created is doubt in my character. You created defamation in my character and you've lied'... I've lost a lot of money, I've lost endorsements, and all Simon had to do is retract what he said, but he didn't." Any ideas as to what she is talking about here? Retract what exactly? Is Simon feeding the drunk-like comments into Paula's head just to make her look bad?

Then the interview turned to Paula Goodspeed, the woman who had been stalking Abdul for years until she was found dead from an apparent suicide in a car near Paula's home last month. Paula claimed that she had asked the Idol producers not to allow Goodspeed to audition in Season 5 but that the producers ignored her pleas because of the "entertainment value" of having Goodspeed on camera in the same room as Abdul. "It's fun for them to cause me stress," Abdul said, referring to the producers. "This was something that would make good television." Paula also accused Fox of making her home address public, though I for one have never seen it. In effect, she accused Fox, the producers of American Idol, and Simon Cowell of ruining her career and putting her in danger.

When Walters asked Abdul why despite all of this she was staying on American Idol, Paula replied that she is staying because "I'm under contract."

Funny, none of this seemed to bother Paula when she signed her last Idol contract in 2006, just a few months after the audition incident with Goodspeed and after many years of Cowell babbling in her ear. But now, with her contract up after next season and with a new jewelry line to promote (no joke, here's the link), Drunk Chick comes out with accusations that everyone associated with the show except for Randy, Ryan, and William Hung is putting her life in danger and deliberately making her look like, well, a drunk chick.

I think my suspicions as to why the Idol producers brought in Kara DioGuardi to be an Idol judge are proving to be true. I had predicted back in August that this move would put Abdul on notice and now it appears that we're seeing the effects of this pressure on Paula, and if you follow the show at all you know how badly she reacts to pressure. Please Paula, please don't fall apart on us here. We need you on American Idol. We need you to keep you sanity, if not for the show then for yourself. Just ignore Captain Jack like Randy and the rest of us do and you'll be fine.

I do have to agree with Paula's complaint about the stalker though. What in the world were the producers thinking when they decided it would be a good idea to allow a known stalker to audition?

These comments should make this season very interesting.