[TV] Yveva's American Idol Challenge

[Guest Yveva]

I resist "going with the flow." I refused to read Harry Potter until last year, and only read DaVinci Code because someone loaned me a copy (so Dan Brown didn't get my money), and I read it in my own room so that no one else could see :)

 

Likewise, I've dissed American Idol all along. I watched "X Factor" in the UK, I've even seen 1.5 episodes of the new Grease-themed American-Idol in a different venue show...

 

I am willing to give American Idol a chance, if you, the people make it so. Tell me when it's on, and what you love about it, and I promise to watch three episodes without whining :)

[Guest Emperor]

*shakes head*

 

She has thrown down the guantlet and offered up a prize even I would not suggest.

[Guest Yveva]

yes..... too late to go back on it now. Of course, if no one tells me when it is then I am off the hook.

[Guest Emperor]

Wait, you watched the Grease show?

 

But, but it looked terrible!!!

[Guest Yveva]

it *is* terrible!!! I couldn't tell you what day or time new episodes air, but it is pretty regularly repeated, so I have ended up watching more than I ought to admit.

[The Outsider]

Half the reason I hate AI is that it is on FOX seemingly every night of the week! Seriously it's on at least twice a week. I have watched occasionally the beginning shows like what is on right now, where you have all the people who suck embarassing themselves on national tv, but once they go to Hollywood after they have sifted out all the terrible contestants I never watch it on purpose.

 

And really I hardly ever watch the show at all anyway, even when in these opening stages.

 

We have watched all of the Nashville Star shows on USA though... I'm not really a country fan, but my wife's cousin was a contestant on the second one (he came in fourth though he probably should have finished at least third. Plus another guy who was on the show who was from Ireland became friends with her cousin and ended up moving to our area and getting married, so we sort of know him socially now...

[Guest Haxorsist]

This is definately a guilty pleasure show for me. :D

I think the audition episodes are hilarious, and then I kinda get suckered into seeing the Hollywood round, and then all of a sudden it's the finals. :P

I think it's on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but you have to start watching now, 'cause it's the auditions that really are worth watching. :D

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

For now it's on Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:00 pm EST/PST, on FOX of course. Once the season is fully underway, it is usually Tuesday for girls singing, Wednesday for boys, and Thursday for results. But the format may have changed this year, I don't know.

 

You have to at least watch Hollywood week. That's when they whittle down the contestants to the top 36? 42? Something like that. That's where you'll really get to eyeball the talent and pick a few favs.

[Guest Yveva]

What time is it on? Gotta know the time in order to follow through on my bet.

 

So why do you like the auditions? is it to laugh at the bad singers? be blown away by the really amazing ones? stare in to Simon's eyes?

[Guest Haxorsist]

Definately the bad ones for me. And the weirdos. The weirdos crack me up as well. I don't know what time it's on 'cause I download the episodes.

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

For now it's on Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:00 pm EST/PST' date=' on FOX of course. [/color']

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

Well, the bad ones are funny, but usually FOX over advertises so much that you've pretty much seen all the GOOD bad ones before they are actually on the show.

 

But I like to get sneak peeks of the good talent just as much. But more and more FOX is filling the open audition rounds with just the weirdos, so you have to wait until Hollywood week to actually get to check out the new talent. Hollywood week is my favorite, because everyone flashes by so quick you're trying to make them out for the 2 seconds they have air time... for my friends and I, it's kind of like a horse race. Hollywood week allows you to eyeball the horse flesh and pick your favorites to go all the way, and then compare notes with your friends.

 

*sniffs* I picked Taylor and Katharine last season as good talent, and the season before, Bo Bice was my favorite the first time I heard him sing. 8)

[Guest Yveva]

which week is hollywood week? We could set up a "guess who's going through" pool :) (sorry, for some reason I totally didn't register the time was already there!!!)

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

It won't be next week and possibly not the week after that... I'm not sure. The timing is often weird when they do the open auditions. It'll be like...

 

Tuesday: 2 hrs of Peoria

Wednesday: 2 hrs of Reno

 

Tuesday: 2 hrs of Spanish Fork

Wednesday: 1 hr of Tacoma; 1 hr of Buffalo

 

Tuesday: 2 hrs of Des Moines

Wednesday: 2 hrs Hollywood Week

 

and the next week proceed into the normal sing-off

 

 

So, in short, I don't know. I'll keep my eyes peeled, to be sure. 8)

[Talya]

Yveva, Don't do it....once you start that'll be it

 

*shakes head*

 

If it's anything Like our X-factor (does Simon Cowel do yours as well... think I read that he does) ThenI't awful...I've watched about 5 mins at the most and that was enough....and as for big brother have watch less than 5 mins of that (all the series put together...I really don't like these shows.

 

You'll end up like my colleague who gives me a run down of it all...I have trouble stoppping my eyes from glazing over :D

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

Hey, don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

 

American Idol has been the top-rated TV show in the U.S. for the last two years. Acording to wiki, it's more highly rated than the "NBA Playoffs, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Grammy Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, and the Olympics".

 

If you don't like the show after having watched it because you don't like the different styles of music portrayed, or are just not into music, that's one thing.

 

If you scorn it without ever having watched it, that's dumb.

 

And to say that it "sucks" would be really stretching it, since almost 37 million households regularly tune in. Not to mention it being broadcast in over a hundred other countries (countries that already HAVE their own version of the show--including the UK).

 

I can understand the first criticism of the show, but not the second two. Idol's not some cheesy b-tier reality garbage. It's got real talent and allows people to invest in it emotionally. There's no tacky ploy of people forced into living together for voyeuristic amusement, or pulling people to do stupid and dangerous stunts out of greed. The producers have positioned it quite cunningly.

[Talya]

If you read my post I said I had watched then briefly....enough to know it is a ploy for the producers ....eg Simon Cowel to make a fotune off these kind of shows...And I haven't insulted you in anyway so please don't insult me. Good luck to the Talent that goes on there and I hope that they get careers out of it I'm not denying them that at all. It's the personalities that run it that I don't particularly like so I don't want to watch.

 

My post was said tongue in cheek and I would never call any one names over what they watched...it would cause family feuds

 

If you have heard the fiasco at the mooment in the uk about Big Brother you might understand my feelings for this particular show.

 

Everyone's entitled to their opnion and 37 million doesn't neccesarily make a thing good as there are billions who don't.

 

SO thanks but I'm not dumb!

[Guest Yveva]

well Tessa, I actually enjoyed the first season of X factor during the year I was in the UK.

 

I think one thing about Idol that puts me off is the early stages where it seems like the whole point is to poke fun at the horrible singers that go through. I feel a little wrong about that. Granted, some of them are crazy just to get a spot on TV, and some are bad singers put through in order to make good TV, it just feels rather manipulative (but of course reality TV is manipulative). Hrm, I didn't realize I would be getting myself in to quite so many hours of TV watching with my bet! :) OK if I watch an episode a week? That way I can get to Hollywood week without getting burned out on auditions.

[Talya]

those autions can be cringe worthy...I do feel for the guys the win...they are so tired to Simon Cowel and he makes so much money from the show and the singers....I think the ones that don't win and get a contract with him our likely to get a better recording deal with more freedom. Saying that the ones that win don't last that long which is a shame.

 

Anyway enjoy your watching, if you get hooked you'll have no time for anything else Another reason I don't watch them....lol

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

I don't feel sorry for those people that can't sing, and when the judges tell them that, they get all attitude-y like "What do you know about music. You don't know anything. I'm the shizznit. That's just your opinion."

 

But, I don't know how much I "trust" these really crazily bad people that come in. It almost seems fake. I think a lot of them may be plants from the producers, though I don't remember hearing any scandals about that (except one guy came in from some OTHER TV show, intending to sing bad as a joke, but the AI people didn't know who he was).

 

I try to ignore the bad people for the most part, since most of them aren't even funny anymore (except, like I said above, the people with the diva attitudes and no talent to back it up).

 

They aren't THAT bad to the pathetic people anymore, though... like, you get this really overweight guy that comes in, and he almost seems to be not all there upstairs, and he can't sing at all, but the judges will just say "No, but thanks for stopping by." They don't lambast him mercilessly.

 

But yeah. Just tune in for Hollywood Week. I'll let you know when it is. :)

[Guest Yveva]

ok Wynne, I am counting on you.

 

 

yes, the auditioners are prescreened to some extent, and I'd bet money that they are told to stand up for themselves and not just skulk away afterwards. Though, there have been times when someone's argued themself in...

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

ok Wynne' date=' I am counting on you.

 

 

yes, the auditioners are prescreened to some extent, and I'd bet money that they are told to stand up for themselves and not just skulk away afterwards. Though, there have been times when someone's argued themself in...[/quote']

 

Yeah, and the producers get them all worked up as well.

 

I'm not crazy about this part of the season. It has some cheap entertainment factor, but it's kinda tacky. Let's just get to the singing plzkthx.

[The Outsider]

My sister in-law tried out this year... I can't remember where exactly, Kentucky or Tennessee? I know a friend of thiers who is a doctor paid to fly her there cos' she is a really good singer (got a college scholarship on her ability if that tells you anything). Anyway, to relate her experience, she said she knew right away that she wasn't going to get in to sing before Cowell and the judges. They do pre-screen every contestant, and basically she heard A LOT of really great singers trying out and getting turned away because they didn't have the right look. The pre-screeners didn't give a crap how well anyone could sing for the most part, they were looking for people with a certain look - not necessarily that they always had to look like a model or anything - but it soon became clear who would make it and who wouldnt. For instance, a guy who had trimmed his sideburns to look like saxophones was passed through to see Simon et al and get a chance to be on TV. Also, people who were really bad but didn't necesarrily know it were getting passed through, and she got the feeling that a lot of those people do know they aren't going to hollywood, they are just trying to get on TV, but they really try to get the ones who don't realize how bad they are so they can cut them down on TV for ratings...

[Guest Emperor]

Doesn't surprise me.

 

I would watch Reality TV if it were real. But really it is just as planned as any other tv show.

 

I become intrigued when something bad could happen. For Love or Money got me for a little because I thought there was no way someone would choose a person (a person they just met on a reality TV show) over a million dollars... at least not when you are in a competition with other people.

[Guest Yveva]

A friend of mine auditioned several years ago and had the same experience.

 

 

I think I like Project Runway so much because the contestants are from varried backgrounds, but all have legit skills. Sure they are cast for potential drama factors, but the competition is abotu a real thing (showing at fashion week mainly, not just the whatever representation and car at the end). It's not a completely and totally fake situation of a competition (ie. Survivor, Big Brother, etc). I dunno, the formula just suits me better than some.

 

I also find the tearing down of people really tacky. When there is legit constructive criticism I'm fine with that, but it almost seems like judges are preprogramed with what to say in some cases! :)