American Idol - Season/Series 13, 2014 *****possible spoilers*****

Season/series 13 of American Idol begins on the east coast of the U.S. in about 2 hours.



Big changes on the judges panel for 2014. AI is scaling back to 3 judges this season.

The only judge to survive from last year is country/pop artist Keith Urban.

Former judge Jennifer Lopez is returning.

The new judge on the panel this year is Harry Connick Jr.

They are a happy looking bunch of folks, aren't they?



Let the discussion begin.

 

They're showing it here tonight. I usually don't start watching it until the freak show ends and the final whatever are picked.

 

The freak show is the best bit. I stop watching it when the auditions finish.

 

I'll be honest...I like the way Harry Connick Jr is carrying himself. J-Lo thinks everyone is great and Keith Urban sometimes comes off as too nice - the voice of reason appears to be Harry.....he is no Simon Cowell but at least someone is not 100% signed up for the love fest.

 

After last year anything is an improvement...

 

Here's a rare glimpse at an American Idol viewers reaction to the show:








OK I'll leave now

 

100% improvement tonight over last season. Very nice that we got way less Seacrest too, hope that lasts throughout. Looks like we'll be back to a guitar player winner again, I'm all for that as well.

 

Pretty much every show was a freak show last season. Viewers would wonder, "What Nicki Minaj is showing up today?"

So glad that's all over now.

 

Hatchet Harry! I love it.

 

Idol has given very little airtime to the freak show element for a few seasons now. If you enjoyed the truly talentless and delusional auditions of the early days of Idol, you should watch the audition episodes when X Factor airs its next season.

Instead of airing comical auditions, Idol now shows simply mediocre people who are rejected and break down in tears. I actually enjoyed watching deluded people have melt downs after their rejections, but it's difficult to watch the sequences where they show tiny clips of people singing and then crying as they walk away with their friends and family. I'm not sure why the Idol producers think that's good TV, but I find it exploitative and in poor taste. Sadly for Idol (and the other shows as well), even the better singers are usually not that great -- they're just hyped by the show to try to convince the audience they're great.

 

Harry hates runs.

This should make it one of the most interesting seasons ever.

 

OK. We're at the live shows.

It will be different having Randy Jackson replacing Jimmy Iovine. Just hope that Randy can be as tough as Jimmy was.

Should be an interesting week. Idol brings in 31 contestants on what they're billing as "Rush Week:.

Debra and I didn't agree with some of the judges choices last week.

On Thursday through voting and the judges' wild card pics, there will be 13 finalists.

 

After such extremely promising audition weeks, they have once again managed to chop the contestants down to basically the same boring, totally forgettable group of people the show usually has every year. To top that off, the few people who were left that had any uniqueness, the "coaches" obviously talked them into leaving their instruments behind so they could either just blend into the blandness of the rest of the chosen beige singers, or quickly fall away. Tonight's performances wouldn't/didn't showcase their real gifts. Even the three or four last choices of the ten this week -- who were the only ones I would be disappointed if they were cut -- didn't really showcase what made themselves stand out early in the process (save for MK).

There were soooooo many people I was knocked out by during the audition weeks, that were nowhere to be seen from later into the show. And here we are left with this boring lot, yet again. It will be the same deal all over again tomorrow with the guys, only worse I'm betting.

 

It was truly an awful show. I know some of the contestants have a difficult time the first week of "live" shows because they are dealing with a huge audience, earpieces, big set, et cetera but some of the performances ("Roar") where absolutely terrible. I can only imagine what Simon of the first few seasons would have thought.

The only interesting moments were when Harry truly cut loose and gave real advice.

 

It's not a good omen for the balance of the season when the judges have to amend their raves with a gentle reminder to stay in key

 

It's the same every year: Some people wow in the early auditions because they've had time to adequately rehearse singing a specific song a cappella. Some people continue to wow during the following elimination rounds prior to the live shows, presumably due to a mixture of editing and talent. It's when the live shows hit that the wheat really gets separated from the chaff, and inevitably people who seemed awesome before become just mediocre. Idol is lucky when they have a top 3 or 4 who can actually sing consistently well live (some years they don't even have a good top 2), and this season will probably be the same despite the early hype from the judges.

 

our family has finally lost even casual interest, despite Harry being a good addition. Considering this thread is only one page so far, I assume it's a common feeling.

 

I just don't recall it being this bad in years past. Last night I believe the first several contestants to sing got the "pitchy" advice, then the judges apparetly just gave up. One contestant-- MK-- is such a fan favorite that her truly awful performance was lauded by all three, with the only advice for improvement offered being that she just move around a little more. It seemed at season's outset that Harry would perhaps be the long-missing voice of truth on the show, but he appears to have succumbed to the "everybody's great" ethos that has plagued the show for many years, and is (in my opinion) the cause for its continued slide into irrelevance.

 

Couldn't agree less. Harry has mostly not agreed with one or both the others. As for the talent at this time of the season, about the same as the past and everybody complains around now. Doesn't change. Down to the final 3 to 6 will get better. Love the rock dude. He's got the pipes.

 

...except now, when it counts. They were in lockstep last night

 

MK is not very good. We were surprised that she ended up in the top 13. Hope she's voted out soon.

Also the judges seemed to like Majesty Rose who sang “Tight Rope” by Janelle Monae. We did not like the performance. Thought she was (if I can use an overused Randy Jackson ism) "pitchy". She was especially sharp during the first part of the song.

Wonder if the producers have told Harry to dial it back a bit. Too bad if they did. Harry definitely was soft on a few of the contestants last night.

 

That would be my guess. If they have a judge saying that many of the contestants aren't very good, it's also sending a message to the viewing audience that maybe the show isn't worth watching. I think it's a mistake on the producers' part since the show was much more watchable when you had Paula Abdul being nicey-nice to everyone and then "the evil Simon" getting booed for giving honest feedback about what he didn't like.

 

Yes indeed, that was the dynamic responsible for the show's initial boundless success

 

At the very least I think the correct person was sent packing first out of this 13. She may have technically been a better singer than some of the others still there, but I think she would have always been boring, since that is all she has been so far.

Both of the guest performers tonight were horrible in our opinion (wife, 12 year old daughter, and me).