That's fine. He could have rectified that situation by saying, "I'm not sure if your look is right for this competition." The audience would have been fully aware of what he was implying and chuckled just as much without intentionally hurting the guy's feelings. There was no need for his comments intended to embarrass the guy.

I agree that last night was the first night I felt really uncomfortable with watching the show for a few minutes, particularly with those couple of people aforementioned. Not much talent last night. I think Jordin Sparks was the best of the group, but that wasn't saying much. I think the 19 year old sister and 17 year old brother were interesting as well, but she is going to have to work on confidence a great deal if she is going to succeed.

I agree with the sentiments that the show bordered (or was over the line) on cruel last night. The worst was the larger guy after the guy with the big eyes. I'm sorry I don't remember his name. I didn't get the feeling he knew what he was getting in to. I also would not be surprised if there was a group of people that talked them into trying out, knowing what would probably happen. For the show to capitalize on that nonsense is pretty low. I have enjoyed the bad singers in the past, but I think they should do fewer of those and more of the borderline ones and the ones that make it. When 90% of the show is the failed auditions and the other 10% is one or two that made it, followed by a brief glimpse of some others that made it walking out of the room with their yellow tickets, I think we need to rethink things.

Not to mention that it gives an unfair advantage to some of the Golden Ticket winners whose stories are played up early on, while others are anonymous, 2-second glimpses. In a competition where the TV audience chooses who moves on, it is incumbent on the producers to give us as much information about the contestants as possible and have as level a playing field as possible. In 2 weeks, we'll be seeing all of these people again, but some of them will have a distinct advantage if they make it to the top 24.

Uh, I would submit that is on purpose. It's a show and not designed to be "fair" to the voting public. I'm sure the business of American Idol feels no obligation to provide a level playing field to the voting public who will vote regardless and would prefer to highlight what it feels ultimately is a marketing success.

I'm well aware of that, I just think from our perspective, fairness is a consideration. But I recognize that the show ultimately succeeds because of storylines and them pushing the contestants they feel make the show more compelling.

I wonder, if you go back and look at the auditions/Hollywood Week shows that aired for the previous seasons, what the correlation between early recognition and, say, top 6 status is. Clearly, Taylor Hicks was one of the Golden Ticket awardees from last season who was highlighted because of how different he was and how old he looked. I wonder if there's a similar correlation from previous seasons.

that would be interesting

get jbmagic on this

No, get that chick from Tuesday's show in Minneapolis who was the huge AI fan. I'm sure she could tell us off the top of her head.

I bet he already has the answer, but just can't tell us. :(

Definitely yes for Reuben (and Clay who came in #2 that year). They were both heavily highlighted from the beginning.

Going by who they've shown so far, I think a female winner is by far the favourite at this point.

But that ain't why people watch Simon. Sure some people may have thought he went too far on some of those. But I'm sure a lot of others enjoyed it.

And, as the last guy who went through said, Simon is done. He was in a horrible mood from all the crap singers. And the show realized a golden oppertunity for more controversy and possibly some more ratings.

Usually those that are headed towards the top 24 the last few seasons are heavily highlighted. They visited Carrie Underwood's home, had Constantine tell his band he was leaving, went on Vonzell's postal route. Last year I know they went to Daughtry's hometown and Pickler's home and I believed they went to McPhees home and watched her do voice lessons if I remember right... For the most part, those in the top 24 do get alot of face time in the early stages.

I like how one of the guys last night threw Taylor Hicks back in his face. "You didn't believe in Taylor Hicks, Simon, and he won!" At the time of the taping, that was pretty harsh, and Simon looked a little (*very* little) taken by the comment.

Now, of course, a comment like that would elicit a giant belly laugh from Simon and a big ol' "Ifuckingtoldyouso"

Ain't no "possibly" about it.

More people watched last night's episode than all the other English-language broadcast networks combined.

These first two episodes drew more viewers than any other AI airings except for the Season 2 finale. More than 1 out of every 7 Americans watched last night (a 15.4 rating), nearly 1 out of ever 5 people ages 18-49 were watching at 9pm.

So what you are saying is that Bush Baby Boy is famous.

As easy as it is to be critical of where they've gone with these first two episodes...I'm still watching. I'd like to see some things changed, but it's not enough to justify turning it off.

I just wish that Hicks imposter had actually gotten that goop in Simon's hair and received the beat-down he was seconds away from getting...now THAT would have been must-see TV!

I wonder if they search people. The way it's going someone could very well kill simon right on camera. Or at the very least give him a mace facial.

Is that the one who sorta looked like a tall version of the caveman from the Geico commericals?

With all the hand-wringing today about how "cruel" last night's episode was, I think it's interesting to note how successful it was. And it's not like there wasn't some pretty serious promotion of what it was going to be like. I don't believe I've watched five minutes of all the AI episodes from every season combined, at least not unless you count the clips that make the news shows & such. It's just not the least bit interesting to me outside of the pop culture phenomenon aspect of it, and I can follow that just fine without enduring all the crappy pop music.

And yet I knew what last night's show was going to be about, Fox did a fantastic job of promoting the freak show aspect of it well in advance. The only people who should have been surprised by any of it were those who had been in comas or otherwise incommunicado for at least a couple of weeks.
And yet more people, far more people (5 million more than last year, +18%) tuned in. It speaks volumes about what the strongest aspect of the show is, and why Simon might just be one of the strongest characters ever in TV.

No. I think you're referring to Red.

The freak show aspect is not necessarily new, but they've ratcheted it up this season. Plus, I don't think they're differentiating between the people who have what appear to be social/intellectual issues and those who are just plain nuts - in a non-clinical way, of course. I knew how they were promoting last night, but they still went farther than usual and I was caught a bit off-guard by it.

Case in point being William Hung. If you put him side-by-side with the Zitsman Serial Killer dude, they kinda acted the same way - socially inept, clueless, etc. But Hung's issue was almost entirely culturally based, which is why he became such a phenomenon - he had an endearing innocent-yet-clueless quality to him (well, that's the best explanation I can come up with). Serial Killer dude and a few of the others have serious issues, the least of which is being embarrassed on national TV.

That's not to say it won't continue to be popular...but many will continue to be a bit uncomfortable with certain segments. Again, though, it's not enough to kill my interest in the show completely.

Part of the problem thus far is the fact that Minneapolis and Seattle have had the most dysfunctional miserable pathetic collection of misfits they've ever drawn.

That, and the producers seem to enjoy letting some of these people through to the auditions. I mean, there is no way 10,000 people get through to sing in front of the cameras, right? There has got to be some initial screening - like where they have everyone holed up like Katrina-victims in an arena somewhere.

Yes and the judges are fully briefed as to who they are seeing. I'd guess in a given day maybe they see 100? Say 5 minutes a person is 120 people in 10 hours.

It looks like everything is pretty well scripted out, including who gets through to the judges. In fact, you can tell when the judges know they're getting a legit contestant by the way they act when the person immediately walks in the door. They've got the person's story in front of them and they seem to know beforehand that the person isn't a loon, as if they've been told "X person is coming in - you know, the one we told you about who is in the Navy." That kind of thing. I'm sure they do the same, to a degree, with some of the freaks they know they are going to highlight.

I believe they have tables in middle where they do a 10 second audition. If you are picked to go through to the judges, at that point, you better realize that you are one of 2 types of people - Either you can sing or you are a freakshow.

One thing I noticed last night was that segment they showed of a bunch of the misfits awkwardly singing the same song (I think the first one was "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me..."). They clearly asked them to sing those lines as either a 2nd song, or brought them back in later on to do it, since we saw each of them walk in, sing their own song, get crushed by the feedback, and walk out.

Someone mentioned how those are poorly edited and you never see the judges in the same shot in those clips. I'm wondering if those are actually clips from contestants singing to the producers before they even get to see the judges?

Has this been posted? Paula in an interview.

I couldn't finish... how embarrassing.

hxxp://kingnutter.com/articles/view/248/

There were several contestants that had complaints aired about this. I think it was Season 3. They complained they were voted off people of lack of air time. I'm not sure if that's any relation, though.

I learned about this last year. Either before or after these idiots audition (not sure which), they ask them to perform a particular song in front of producers or other off-air people. These clips of the episode's idiots singing the same song are never performed in front of the judges, which is why you see cut-away clips to the judges' expressions or generic remarks, but never an actual exchange between the two, because as someone said, we see these idiots go in front of the judges and get sent off.

It has to be before. No way you get some of those people back in there.

Probably. It's most likely billed as their "pre-audition" before the producers to make sure they're talented enough to go before the judges.

Great. Just saw an article where Rosie O'Donnell opened her yap about the cruelty of the judges. I certainly think that the judges didn't need to attack some of the people about their physical appearance, but isn't it about time that someone put a muzzle on this woman to save her from herself? A job on The View doesn't mean that she suddenly is promoted to 'the conscience of America'.

monkey girl

I have hated Rosie since before she was popular. They used to air her stand-up comedy routines on VH1 and she was terribly unfunny. America got it right with its rejection of Margaret Cho, but somehow this fat, unfunny, annoying bitch not only made it through, but is thriving. It's sickening.

Didn't I just see Margaret Cho in a preview for some new sitcom the other day? Guh.

Yeah, that Brad Garrett vehicle. Man I hate commercials.

Yeah, the irony that she's involved in a spat where Trump called her fat several times over without ever actually saying the word 'fat' is not lost on me.

Trump's comments regarding Rosie's Idol comments: "Rosie shoudn't be critical of Simon. She shouldn't be critical of anyone. Rosie is a comeplete mess."

From MJ's AI blog:

Reality TV Magazine has started playing the Domain name game. Last year, the producers registered all 44 or so semi-finalists on the same day, December 9, after Hollywood Week. All it took was a Whois search to figure out the identities of all the finalists.

This year the producers got smart. It appears that they registered the Top 40 through private domain registrations. Reality TV Magazine has performed whois searches on all the contestants featured so far on Idol. They found that Anna Kearns, Sanjaya Malakar, and Shyamali Malakar all had their names registered as domain names on November 18, 2006, the day after the Hollywood rounds ended. All were registered by Domains by Proxy–a service that hides the identity of the entity registering the domain names.

There are rumors that Anna and Sanjaya have made the Top 40. I expect that, since this can of worms has been opened, there will be more to come…

BTW, there are rumors that the Top 24 have not been chosen yet as I previously reported. I can’t substantiate that rumor at this time.

More good stuff:


Meanwhile, Steven “Red” Thoen and his Mom are also angry over Steven’s portrayal:

Steven Thoen, 28, said the Fox television show’s producers were disrespectful and unfair to him. His mother, June Lorimor of Superior, said that the show took advantage of Thoen’s mild mental retardation and made him a laughingstock.

First Idol Scandal of the Season
And, that didn’t take long, did it peeps? TMZ.com has dug up the arrest record of Seattle auditioner Thomas Daniels. According to TMZ, in in 2004, Thomas was convicted of DUI in Clackamas, OR, pled guilty and was sentenced to a one-year alcohol diversion program and a $680 fine. After the completing his DUI sentence, the incident was wiped from his record.

In December 2005, Thomas was arrested again–for hit and run. He failed to appear in court for the arraignment and was subsequently rearrested. Thomas says both incidents are the result of being “young and dumb”. It’s not clear whether Thomas disclosed his arrest record to Idol producers.

If he didn’t disclose his record to the producers, and managed to advance to the Top 24 on Monday (it’s possible, Thomas is a very good singer) I would say his Idol career is now toast.

This probably goes without saying, but...

Don't let him go audition then... It's very, very simple...

Dola - too bad about Thomas... I felt like he would have been a solid contestant.

I'm not sure whether the subtitle for this should be "It's the End of the World As We Know It" or "They Got the Last Laugh"...


In a sign of Idol’s pop-cultural influence, auditioners Kenneth Briggs, 23, of Bothell, Wash. — whom Cowell derided as looking like a “bush baby,” an African primate — and friend Jonathan Jayne, 21, of Renton, Wash., appeared Friday on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. “They’ve become celebrities. They wouldn’t have changed anything,” Cowell said.

Meanwhile, both Jonathan and his friend Kenneth “Bush Baby” Briggs were on the Today Show this morning. Apparently, they both have secured agents…

Interesting article at votefortheworst.com about the audition process, including those end-of-episode montages and the cut-and-splice way they manipulate the auditions for TV:

hxxp://www.votefortheworst.com/node/33

Holy Crap. The guy from georgia whose wife just left him is Izulde

I vote for the former.

Since you are in the know, how many months did the producers have to put last week's show together? After seeing all of the clips on YouTube, most of it was purposely planned - allowing the gong show contestants to go forward. I wonder if they are calling this the Hung Factor?

I agree with many of the comments here and on the idol board regarding the cluelessness and lack of reality checks. But they know that it sells and that they can get hundreds more just like them, hoping to cash in on the Hung Factor.

The two things I've enjoyed the most so far tonight have been:

1: the girl who was an opera singer.
2: the guy in the Alvin the chipmunk shirt and hat (I have GOT to get that outfit).

I am, however, about 20 minutes behind the real broadcast on my DVR.

I missed the first hour last night, because I went by the TV listings that showed it as an hour episode starting at 9. But I did see Beauty and the Geek at 8 anyway, and it looked like last night was more of the same formula, so I probably didn't miss much.

And yeah, on the opera singer...holy crap. I can only recall 2 moments where I've been excited about a contestant's choice of song - when Bo Bice broke out Badlands, and the chick last night auditioning with a Jeff Buckley song. I don't know how long she'll last, but an opera singer with a unique look who appreciates (and knows!) Buckley gets a standing O from me.

If you are talking about the young girl with braces, what a spoiled little bitch.