How ‘American Idol’ Got Great Again (And Why You Should Be Watching It)

It’s the beginning of Hollywood Week on American Idol, and Selena Moreno is having her moment in the spotlight. She’s smiling brightly, maybe a little too brightly — the way you smile when there are blinding lights trained on you and you don’t want to let on to the fact that you’re completely and utterly terrified.

She finds her courage, and begins belting out a song by Joss Stone, in the melisma-heavy style so popular with young Idol hopefuls. It seems like she’s in with a chance, but then the worst thing that can happen happens – her voice cracks, and she freezes, a look of panic on her face. “You got it girl!” her sister yells from the audience.

“No she doesn’t!” my boyfriend shouts back from the couch, waving a fork at the TV to emphasise his point. “You can either sing or you can’t! She’s out!”

You need to understand something here: My boyfriend hates reality TV in general, singing competitions specifically. He’s not normally the type to get caught up in this kind of silliness. That’s the thing aboutAmerican Idol, though. It sucks you in whether you like it or not, calibrated perfectly so you just can’t help but shout at the screen.

The current season of Idol is good. Actually, it’s surprisingly good. It’s better and more entertaining than it has been in years. In fact, it’s good enough that it may just restore your faith in the whole sorry business of reality competition shows.

These Last Few Years Have Not Been Kind To Idol

When American Idol debuted in 2002, the concept of regular people taking a crack at stardom felt fresh and exciting. There was a lack of polish to the show that proved endearing; the contestants had no clue how they were meant to act in front of Randy, Simon and Paula, so they just acted like themselves — season one winner Kelly Clarkson is the embodiment of that early naiveté.

The show was a huge hit but, with each year that followed, the formula became more entrenched and the contestants became a little slicker in their presentation, as people figured out how you were meant to look and act on a reality show. Though still pretty dominant in the ratings, Idol was in competition with its past, as well as with a number of imitators and, after a while, the whole thing lost its lustre.

The nadir was hit in Season 12, otherwise known as the year of Nicki and Mariah. By that stage, it seemed that the focus had shifted completely from the contestants to the judging panel — a big mistake, in that Idol is a singing contest and all. Pre-publicity for the show hinted at the possibility of a personality clash between the two divas and, as the auditions kicked into gear, the cameras lingered on every one of Nicki’s sidelong looks, and the editing called back to every vaguely snide comment. Hints were dropped that a walk-off was imminent, that weaves would soon be flying through the air. The ‘feud’ amounted to very little; in fact, I’m pretty sure Mariah slept through the bulk of it.

That negativity carried over to the auditions, where the guiding principle was to point and laugh at freaks. Damaged, unstable people are attracted to shows like Idol – the producers know this, of course, and they exploit it for the sake of compelling TV, but Season 12 pushed it to its limit. The audition rounds were all tone-deaf performances, tear-streaked meltdowns and furious losers storming out of the room with middle fingers raised, telling the judges to suck it. There was one lady who spoke to the voices in her head throughout her audition. The whole thing felt a little icky, even as you reminded yourself that the parade of no-hopers, charity cases and wannabe divas with too-high self-esteem knew what they were signing up for.

With every off-key performance of ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’, things got a bit more depressing. By the time auditions were over and the fairly disappointing Top 12 contestants were performing for the voting public, it was clear that something had to give. 

Idol’s Suddenly Great Again, Thanks To Harry Connick Jnr

American Idol has completely revamped itself this year. Superficially, it’s the same show – young hopefuls from the inner city or the deep country try their best to impress a panel of judges to make it to Hollywood. The outlook, however, is totally different. The schadenfreude of previous years seems to be gone, the slate wiped clean. The freaks, the screamers and the sore losers are no longer there for you to gawk at. Instead, the focus is back on starry-eyed kids with big voices and big dreams.

An early episode featured pre-taped interviews with the judges, speaking about how the contestants are real people, deserving of constructive and kind criticism. It goes against all the current principles of reality TV — and it kind of rules.

The biggest sign of change is the presence of Harry Connick Jnr, joining veterans J-Lo and Keith Urban on the judging panel. In Harry, the show features a mature adult, who has constructive things to say to the contestants and takes a no-nonsense attitude, while simultaneously making the time to be cheeky and flirty with everyone around him.

Not to put too fine a point on it, he also knows his musical shit. In the past, critiques often consisted of vague, made-up terms like Randy Jackson’s “pitchy”. Harry, on the other hand, hits contestants with actual meaningful words, like “pentatonic”. His presence has had a weird effect on the rest of the panel, who seem to have lifted their collective game as a result. (J-Lo even busted out the phrase “sui generis” at one point.)

Then there’s the fact that very few of the young contestants have any idea who Harry is, which makes for very amusing interactions. Some well-scrubbed young hopeful with an acoustic guitar strapped to their back will enter the audition room and gush about how they grew up with Keith’s songs, how they think J-Lo is so pretty. Then they get to Harry, and a look of deep confusion comes over their faces, as they stammer something like ‘my mom loves you.’  He doesn’t seem to mind this at all, and even thrives on it. Throughout his brief tenure, he has brought life back to the judging table.

I think the episode where he picked up teeny, tiny Munfarzid Zaidi and cradled him like a baby in the audition room was the one where I decided that Season 13 was fine by me.

The Focus Is Back On Talent

In Season 12, “you have a really unique look and I love it” was Nicki’s main reason for sending someone through to Hollywood. This year, the goal posts have shifted, and the focus is back on vocal talent.

While the contestants who made it through the audition rounds are an ethnically diverse bunch, there are a few points of commonality between them: most are upbeat in demeanour and smile a whole lot; most come toting acoustic guitars; and more than a few of them seem to be junior ministers and worship leaders, or at least religious in some way. Funeral home singer Tiquila Wilson, for instance, is repping hard for Jesus. Above all, though, they are a seriously impressive bunch of singers.

In the middle of Hollywood week, the contestants are winnowed down from several hundred to a few dozen, and I have a few favourites. There’s Alabama’s CJ Harris, who impressed the judges early on with a husky-voiced and soulful performance of an Allman Brothers song.

–

Jena Asciutto’s version of ‘Video Games’ completely kills it, even if she does bring some wicked harsh Boston accent to the vowels.

–

Then there’s Alex Preston, who gave a baffling acoustic performance of Britney and Will.I.Am’s ‘Scream And Shout’ in Hollywood week. He may either be terrible or wonderful, I’m not sure, but he has a pile of messy hair and carries himself like the nerdy guy in a John Hughes movie whose dream girl doesn’t know he’s alive, and I want to see where he’s going from here.

–

Strangest of all is Keith London, who sings Beyonce’s ‘If I Were A Boy’. The judges are wildly confused by the novelty of the song choice, and the intonation of the guitar, which Harry says is out of tune. They ask him to do another, so he picks ‘Same Love’ … is there some kind of a theme emerging here? He’s totally adorable, and his version of ‘If I Were A Boy’ is better than Beyonce’s on SNL.

–

Any of these people could be out tonight, come the notoriously challenging group performance round in Hollywood — but the fact remains that this season of Idol is a step way, way up from previous years.

In choosing to emphasise the good over the bad, positivity and good vibes over meanness and snark, season 13 of Idol is pulling off the improbable feat of restoring lustre to reality TV.

–

American Idol screens on Eleven, at 7.30pm on Thursdays and Fridays.

–

Alasdair Duncan is an author, freelance writer and video game-lover who has had work published in Crikey, The Drum, The Brag, Beat, Rip It Up, The Music Network, Rave Magazine, AXN Cult and Star Observer.