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American Idol fans have been waiting with bated breath ever since last year’s critically slated season wrapped up – how were the producers going to jazz it up? How do you keep a 10 year-old reality competition fresh? And what were they going to do without Simon, the judge who seemed to be the glue holding it all together?
Questions were slowly answered over the months – as rumours of replacement judges swirled the blogosphere, the new 3-person panel was announced: Old Dawg Randy Jackson, previous mentor Jennifer Lopez and the wacky Steven Tyler. The combination was intriguing and yet worrying; could this odd set gel properly on camera? Would they make insightful comments to further the careers of aspiring Kelly Clarksons and Jennifer Hudsons?
Indeed, my mind was full of questions – doubt and anxiety plagued me as I tuned in for Thursday night’s first audition show. With an open mind, I watched to see just how the changes came into play. And I’m happy to say, by the end of the two-hour telecast, I breathed a sigh of relief – for now, anyway.
There is something very refreshing about the New Idol. First off, the ratio of successful auditionees to cringe-worthy ones, a ratio that’s often regrettably favoured the latter, seemed to be scaled at a more optimum level, focusing more on the Golden Ticketers. And while there was still the occasional sob story I’m not so fond of, it didn’t seem overproduced and over-manipulative like they have been in the past. Ironically, despite the commercialisation of hiring superstar judges, this new incarnation of my favourite singing show felt the most organic and comfortable it had in years.
Most pleasantly surprising was the effortless banter buzzing behind the judges’ table – Steven Tyler blurted out unpredictable comments, but you could tell they were spontaneous rather than premeditated. Jennifer Lopez, however much of a diva she may be rumoured to be, was sweet-natured and engaged deeply with the singing hopefuls, and even the repetitive Randy ‘yo yo, dawg, wassup?’ Jackson stepped up to deliver some harsher and more inventive critiques. They were at ease with each other, playfully teasing but also possessing chemistry as if they’d known each other for years. But best of all about the new format was that the attention felt like it was focused squarely on the potential Idols as the main course, with the judges being the perfectly complementing side-dish.
Was there something lacking with no biting criticism from Simon Cowell? As someone that’s grown accustomed to his presence for the last 9 seasons of Idol and the last 7 series of X Factor, I expected to be unsettled by his absence. But I soon realised that whatever good Simon did bring (the honesty, the anticipation for insults, the deadpan delivery), it came with a lot of bad that I did not miss – undermining his fellow judges, at-times-inappropriate cruelty and above all, drawing attention to himself. With him not there, it felt like these kids could take centre-stage without any silent dread about what the mean British man was going to say, and how his opinion would affect public popularity.
It’s too early to call Idol season 10 a success – we still have to see how well this apparently charismatic panel will choose the top 20, how they’ll perform under pressure of live TV, and just how many perky 15 year-olds we’ll have to endure (a change I’m not so thrilled with). But the first 3 hours of Idol 10 were promising enough to be indicative of what could very well be an Idol renaissance.
The auditions continue on Thursday at 8pm on ITV2
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