Lopping off thirty minutes is a start, but isn’t nearly enough.
At FOX’s up-fronts last week, the network’s executives made the startling announcement that “American Idol”’s results show will be limited to a half-hour next season. A great cheer rose up from “Idol” nation at the news, as this will surely limit the time allotted for ex-contestants pretending to have music careers on the nation’s biggest show.
Of course, this news was met with a drop of cynicism. Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post wrote that FOX’s announcement of the time reduction was simply the executives’ “way of reminding us the network still has a sense of humor.”
It’s not surprising that the news would be taken with a grain of salt. After all, “Idol” is such a money machine that to reduce the amount of airtime advertisers can buy during its airtime would be like tearing up a license to print money. It seems that is precisely what “Idol”’s producers are doing, and the result should be a much tighter “Idol” season with far more suspense.
Of all the things that were ailing “Idol” this season, the hour-long results shows were the worst. Despite this, shortening them seemed the least-likely change due to the aforementioned monetary considerations. After doing this, the sky is the limit for the changes the producers can make.
While the running time of the kick-off shows may have been the thing most in need of a change, it certainly wasn’t the only aspect of “Idol” requiring a tweak. The following are seven more suggestions to make “Idol” more interesting next year.
1. Two Words: Guest Judges
Okay, they tried this experiment before in the second and third seasons and it failed miserably. This is mainly due to the fact that the judges were also the mentors of the singers during the week, and let the singers off easier than Paula. This isn’t the way it has to be. The producers needn’t bring in former stars, or even people associated with music to act as guest judges, just dynamic personalities who will tell it like it is.
At this point, hearing the judges’ assessments of each contestant has become more predictable than a Julia Roberts romantic comedy. Randy will say “What up Dog”, Paula will float in mid-air and Simon will give a snarky line or two, only to be cut off by the music. We get it. Bringing in a fresh voice each week would help cut through the monotony of the three-headed monster and eventually pave the way for replacing Paula and Randy.
A few good choices: Any of the judges from “The X Factor”, the British version of “Idol”, they already know what they’re doing and will appear fresh to American audiences. Edwin McCain, he sang the top-40 staple “I’ll Be” and previously appeared in several very funny taped segments on the early audition shows explaining what not to do. Tony Kornheiser, he hosts “Pardon the Interruption”, “Monday Night Football”, and a daily XM radio show where he thoroughly dissects “Idol” every Wednesday and Thursday. Plus, he served as a judges on the ESPN reality competition “Dream Job”, so he already has the experience. Either Kornheiser, or his Washington Post colleague De Moraes would be great outsiders to bring in.
2. Make the Voting Cumulative
 A big problem with “Idol” has always been the abundance of lackluster singers who move much deeper than they should into the competition. While these shockers may make for great drama early in the show, they kill drama in the later rounds by normally leaving one or two massive favorites against a field of weaklings. This season is a perfect example, once Michael Johns and Carly Smithson got the boot; everybody knew it would be an all David finale.
 A simple solution for this is to make the voting cumulative. That is, do not make each week a single-elimination competition, let votes carry over from week-to-week so singers are judged on their entire body of work rather than just one performance. This prevents bottom-dwellers from moving on due to a more talented singer having an off night and allows for a more dramatic endgame. This year, it should have come down to Michael, Carly, Syesha, David, and David. This would have left it nearly anybody’s game with four more shows left.
This isn’t something that should carry on from start to finish. That is, votes shouldn’t accumulate starting with the top 24 and ending with a winner, there should be three separate rounds. The first would see votes accumulate over the top 24 unisex shows. Voting would then be reset and accumulate from the first top 12 show on to the first time the “Idols” sing more than one song in a night (usually the top 5 show). Starting with the final five, the show would revert back to its old single-elimination format, raising the stakes and drama for the final weeks while assuring the top talent is present for those shows.
3. Add a Wild Card Spot
This would go along with the proposed cumulative voting format mentioned above. One problem inherent with “Idol” format is that the audience tires of the contestants after seeing them every week for several months. This is easily remedied by adding a wild card slot.
The wild card would work in the following way. Once the top five are determined and single-elimination voting is reinstated, the audience has a chance to bring back its favorite previously eliminated contestant from the top ten. The top ten are already under contract for the tour and seem to show up again every week any way, so why not give them another shot? Imagine seeing Chikezie hit the stage for another try this season, or giving Jennifer Hudson a second chance all those years ago. The wild card would undo the complacency of the final rounds and give America a chance to write a previous wrong. Of course, this will add another week to the proceedings, but this is remedied by voting out two contestants from the top 12 in the first week on the big stage.
4. Raise the Age Minimum
Oddly enough, Simon suggested exactly the opposite of this a few weeks ago. He thinks the talent pool in America is becoming increasingly shallow, and the show will soon need to allow 14-year-olds onto the program.
Is he crazy? Not only would this practice cannibalize the contestant pool for upcoming seasons, it would also allow even more unseasoned performers onto the stage than we’ve already seen.
Just the opposite needs to happen. Right now, the assault of 16-year-olds on the competition has led to many great singers who simply don’t have the performing chops yet. Two perfect examples are this year’s prodigy David Archuleta, and Paris Bennet of a couple years ago. Both have all-world pipes, but look very awkward on stage. It’s hard to think that “Idol” isn’t better served by letting these types of singers take two years to develop their performing skills and wow us with a total package after their 18th birthdays.
5. Less Talk, More Rock
“American Idol” is turning into NBC’s coverage of the Olympics: the singing has taken a backseat to the personal histories of the contestants whose interminable taped introductions eat into valuable performance time.
The results are rushed half-songs that never give the audience a real sense of the singers’ true abilities. There’s no reason to shortchange the performances with these stories that are often cues for the audience to go grab something from the fridge or hit the bathroom quickly.
It’s time for the producers to limit these stories to thirty seconds of airtime, this year they averaged nearly two minutes. This will give the contestants a chance to dig into a song for a full three minutes, without really sacrificing anything of substance.
6. Ditch the Restrictive Theme Nights
Each night should have some sort of theme, but some of the theme nights cooked up by the producers recently are simply inexcusable. Andrew Lloyd Webber night, Mariah night, and Dolly Parton night are just a few of the countless examples of themes that have hamstrung contestants over the years.
When the producers choose a theme that severely limits not only the song pool, but the genre of song the contestants can perform, it creates a distinct advantage for some contestants who may not be as talented as their peers whose style simply doesn’t fit the evening’s theme.
The way to solve this problem is to choose more all-encompassing themes. This year, these included Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame Night, Inspirational Song Night, and The Year You Were Born. These themes allow endless song choices and every genre and style in the book. This gives “Idol” aspirants the chance to show who they are as an artist through their song choices as well as their actual singing.
7. Make Winning Matter
The truth of “Idol” is that it doesn’t really matter whether or not you win, as long as you get some good exposure. It’s less of a competition and more a showcase for aspiring talent to launch their careers. The promise of a record deal for the champion isn’t really much incentive since each talented contestant will sign with a label soon after the show is over.
Winning this show jumped the shark after its second season when the producers released Clay and Ruben’s singles on the same day, essentially stating to America that winning the competition on the show doesn’t matter at all. The producers need to up the ante and make winning a big deal again. In the UK version, the champion was originally given a million pounds in addition to the record contract. A million dollars probably seems like window dressing to the average viewer who assume that everybody with a record contract is extremely rich, but that isn’t true and it would be a good incentive.
Another idea would be to give the winner an opening slot on a major tour. Imagine competing for the chance to open for Mariah Carey or even Kelly Clarkson, that would add a tremendous wrinkle to the competition, making winning “American Idol” more than just gaining a title.
Shortening the results show is a tremendous step towards improving the show, but with seven more changes, “Idol” can get back on the path to becoming the transcendent show it was a few years ago.
*photo by jslander via flickr.
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