AMERICAN IDOL IS DEAD!

Let’s face it folks — AMERICAN IDOL is dead.

Sure, it’s still on the air and propped up like a brain dead corpse surviving via the aid of life support. But the show that burst into our living rooms and captured the attention of America nearly 10 seasons ago, is effectively no more.

When it all first began, the concept of AMERICAN IDOL was magical — pluck an unknown but talented American Jane or Joe from obscurity; give them a forum in which to hone their singing and live performance talents; then after weeks of grueling competition and America voting for their hero, the once obscure Jane or Joe is turned into a proverbial “swan” of a star, given a record deal, and their life and riches are changed forever.

WOW.  What a story!  It was the type of rags to riches tale that dreams are made of. We were given a hero to root FOR (the contestant). We were given a villain to root AGAINST (Simon Cowell).  We were given weeks to become emotionally attached to these unknown singers who were fighting for their professional lives.  And we bought into it hook, line and sinker — tuning in week after week and addicted like the old Romans were to the Coliseum and the “sport” of humans being thrown to the lions.

But was it all for real and on the level?

We were TOLD it was a real and genuine talent competition. Yet the entire premise was based upon an unbalanced telephone and text voting system by the viewing public, who made it more of a popularity contest rather than an actual talent competition.  The end results were likely effected by a voting public (mainly teen aged girls manning the phone lines like an overzealous telemarketer) who were encouraged and permitted to cast hundreds of votes nightly for their favorite contestant.

We were TOLD that it was a fair contest.  Yet from season to season the “rules” changed, allowing the panel of so-called “Judges” to bring back an already dismissed contestant (Clay Aiken), or save a voted off contestant (“Big Mike” Lynche).  And although we heard of the millions upon millions of record setting votes that came in weekly, there was never any proof to validate those claims nor the voting results, providing a “possibility” that some contestants could have been favored over others.

We were TOLD that the entire goal was to WIN AMERICAN IDOL, which came with a record deal, money, and expected stardom. Yet contestants who didn’t officially win, actually DID win in the long run. For example, Ruben Studdard was crowned the Season 2 winner. But producers of the show seemed to favor runner-up Clay Aiken over their official winner, giving Clay his own recording contract and publicity even ahead of Ruben. Or Season 8, when Kris Allen was declared the winner, but runner-up contestant Adam Lambert received all the fame, prestige, and the opening performance slot on the “American Music Awards” while Kris Allen disappeared into oblivion (AI is powerful enough to have fixed this if they wanted).  If the entire point of the show was to award the winner with EXCLUSIVE prizes of their own (a record deal, stardom, etc.), why were producer’s giving away the same prizes to various other contestants, thereby diminishing the prestige and exclusivity of winning at all?

AMERICAN IDOL has been flawed and lost its luster many years ago. But so many of us drank the Kool-aid for so many years, we were too enthralled to realize what went wrong.

There was the panel of “Judges” who didn’t really judge, and their seemingly scripted comments used to sway public opinion. There was the constant “Negative-Nelly” act of Simon Cowell. There was a set of double-standards that dismissed certain contestants for breaking the rules (Frenchie Davis and some semi-nude photos found on the Internet), while allowing other contestants who broke the same rules to remain (Antonella Barba).  There was an unbalanced talent pool and winning structure (Just ask Kris Allen, Jordan Sparks, and Taylor Hicks what winning AI did for their career.  Then ask Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert, and Jennifer Hudson what NOT winning AI did for theirs). And there were whole seasons when the selected talent was so uninteresting and so lacking in true skill, that viewership dropped and nobody bothered to tune-in or pay attention. That lack of interest translated to the traditional (and formerly exciting) AMERICAN IDOL LIVE summer tour, which (for the first time) was canceled this year after a few weeks of low ticket sales and overall lack of interest.

AI is already preparing for the start of its 10th season, with a shake-up at the judges table.  But its formula is outdated.  Its concept is stale.  And with the near death of the recording industry, the contestants are no longer competing for a lucrative record deal, but rather a leading role in a Broadway musical (where many “Idols” often end up).  People aren’t buying records anymore.  So why are we still buying AMERICAN IDOL and its empty promises?  Let’s face it America — AMERICAN IDOL is dead.  Now, the only thing that’s left is for someone to put it out of its misery, pull the plug, and just sign the damned death certificate.