American Idol has run into a string of bad luck the past few years. It’s biggest competitor, NBC’s The Voice, finally overtook it in the ratings, public fights between the judges (which have been in the worst game of musical chairs lately) turned the focus away from the contestants, long time sponsor Coca-Cola ended their partnership, and frankly the winners of the show haven’t been doing so hot since about Season 8. Have you seen Lee DeWyze, Candace Glover, or Caleb Johnson anywhere? Even the bigger winners like Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips are struggling with McCreery crooning on cruise ships and Phillips struggling to match his “Home” single’s success. But even with all of that, the show is finally getting its act together again.
You see, desperation breeds good television. With its new overseeing record company, good chemistry between the judges, and a few production changes, Season 14 is shaping up to be the most entertaining (read as “watchable” yet).
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I’ve been an adamant follower of the show since season 2. I’m a big reality competition junkie, and time and time again American Idol has proven to be the best singing competition. As different as shows like The Sing-Off, The X-Factor, or The Voice are, they’ve never quite reached the same level. Sure people watch The Voice, but winners of that show (and the runners up are less lucky) are forced into an even worse fate than AI winners. Name me one non-winning contestant on The Voice, I dare you. But that’s besides the point as AI has gotten far too comfortable and is finally waking up after all the shake ups. Two or three seasons ago, American Idol finally allowed instruments during the auditions as a ploy to recreate David Cook’s success from Season 7. And while it didn’t work then, it’s finally gaining traction in Season 14 thanks to a few noticeable changes.
Taking a cue from The Voice‘s practice of auditioning seasoned musicians, American Idol has put an even bigger focus on singer/songwriter types who’ve worked on their talent for a few years. There are still a few new faces, because AI loves a good underdog story, but from the first half of the auditions the point of view has shifted away from sad stories and the like and more toward the music. More of the auditions are shown, we get less “joke” auditions, and the talent is the best it has been in years. And Idol is so confident in that talent, they’re not afraid to build up hype for the live shows. For the first time, Idol has (slightly) revealed the Top 24 contestants. In the video above, we get silhouettes performing the most overused song on the program. This already confirms two good things. One, we won’t have to hear “Feeling Good” anymore, and two, the talent is palpable. Also there’s a fun little game now of trying to match auditions to voices.
From what I’ve seen of the season, there have only been good decisions. They kept the last panel of judges (Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. make a great team besides all the JLO closeups during the performances), Adam Lambert was the first past contestant to guest judge on the show (a little bit of desperation, a little bit of confidence), Randy Jackson is no longer involved and we’ll have a, possibly better, in-house mentor (no more “It’s pitchy, dawg”) with Big Machine’s Scott Borchetta backing the winner so hard, they’ll get a huge push in record sales. And more so than in other seasons, I’ve already got a few favorites from the first half of the auditions. That hasn’t happened in a long time. Here are a few of the standouts:
“Hollywood” Anderson, who I can’t spot in the Top 24 video but deserves all the record deal money:
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Jax, who’s actually IN the Top 24 video:
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Cody Fry, who is one of those seasoned musicians I mentioned:
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Jess Lamb, who was the first piano audition in Idol history:
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So with Hollywood Week coming up soon (two weeks probably), things are heating up for American Idol again. Can the show ever be great again? Regardless, it’ll still be entertaining thanks to all of these big changes reeking of desperation. I definitely know this American Idol-izer won’t want to miss that.