Thursday, January 14, 2010

American Idol - Simon Leaving, Week One Thoughts - January 14, 2010

American Idol returns for its much anticipated ninth season with a two-night season premieOne of the big entertainment stories of the week is that Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol. When it was announced that Paula was leaving last year, I knew that was a tough shot for the show but I said that Simon leaving would be a much bigger hit. Well, here is the bigger hurt coming cause, for me, Simon is the heart of that show. He is an important part of the show and I tend to agree with him more than any of the judges. Is he way too harsh on people? Of course. He has a fun personality on that show when he just has fun and I laugh at him quite a bit. I just don't know what this show is going to be like next year without him so all of us Idol fans probably better just settle in and enjoy this season. Cowell is leaving the show to take over his other show that is coming to Fox, The X Factor.

With that news, American Idol returned this week with season nine and drew 30 million viewers holding steady with its premiere last year so the loss of Paula is not showing so far. Highlight of the week. Come on, it has to be “pants on the ground”. LOL. Funny story is that I got home from church and got on Twitter as I started watching Idol. On the trending topics, I see “pants on the ground” and I’m thinking why in the world is that a trending topic???!! I watched Idol and then my answers were given to me. LOL. If you missed it, 62 year old veteran, General Larry Platt sang this song which was an original of his and the judges were loving it. It has become an internet sensation already and it was a lot of fun. Best line was from Simon saying that he had a feeling that this song was going to be a hit and he would be correct. If you didn’t see the clip, I’ll have it later in the Wrap Up in the Video of the Week. It was fantastic. I did my usual tally of how many good and bad auditions that they showed and I’ve got it at even for the most part. So, that was refreshing. My one complaint right off the bat is why do the producers have to be so cruel with their editing? They take things way too far sometimes and the reenactment last night with the guy who talked of having three near death experiences was over the line. Anyway, let’s get right into the episodes. Boston was the starting ground for the auditions with Victoria Beckham as the guest judge. The thing I noticed with this episode was that the 16 year olds were bringing it including Katie Stevens and Maddy Curtis. Other contestants made noise in Boston as well including Ashley Rodriquez with her breaking out Alicia Keys for her audition song with Kara giving her the nod for best performance so far in the auditions. The judges did battle on several with the women loving some of the contestants and the men feeling completely opposite. Overall, 31 moved on to Hollywood from Boston. Atlanta was the site for the next round of auditions and had a lot of strong auditions with guest judge, Mary J. Blige. I liked Jermaine Sellers who was the guy who performed Joan Osbourne’s “One Of Us”. Vanessa Wolfe had personality and a voice to her. When she was singing, my thought was if this could be the next Kellie Pickler that fans might push? I would like to point out that Vanessa was wearing pink just like Kellie did in her audition. Holly Harden, I have to give her credit for showing guts. She went in there with the guitar girl thing planned and surprised the judges. Most of the time when people walk in wearing a costume, it is bad news. She was not bad news and was put through to the next round. Skii Bo Ski, another big personality. His voice surprised as well with the judges telling him to just bring the vocals next time. Simon hated him and wasn’t shy about saying it. LOL. Bryan Walker, a police officer, went in and wowed the judges as well. Some solid performers in this round of auditions this week but no one really jumped out at me big. I do have to comment on the way that they are doing the cameras on the audition room itself. Very unique with how they are showing the full wide shot and including the computer in there as well including the entire production of it. Really shows off just how much it takes to produce this thing.

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