I never watched the first one, and I don’t plan on watching the second, but I have seen the constant promotions for its upcoming debut. The commecrials highlight the British (?) judge cutting people down left and right. I remember hearing a few things about the judge’s remarks during the first one, but didn’t pay much attention. Are the judge’s remarks at all justified? It looks like he gets some of these people in tears.
If someone is going to tryout for the show then do they “deserve” whatever they get? Are they supposed to know that they’re no good to begin with? From the commercials it’s apparent that the people he makes the comments to are pretty bad, but his comments make him more of a jerk than funny. Am I wrong?
It seems to me that they are encouraging Simon to be mean. It probably helps the ratings. The big deal about the first American Idol was “Simon, the mean judge.”
Simon’s intentions are good though often he is a bit harsh in the delivery. He is sick of people like Paula Abdul who tell everyone at auditions that they are great and to just keep trying. He tells people with no talent to give up trying because they aren’t going to get anywhere and 99% of the time he’s right. I think the reason he is so harsh is because I think it actually hurts people less if you seem like an asshole. If someone like Paula said to stop trying people would really be hurt vs. someone you can at least say was an asshole.
It’s entertainment. The last two (three?) seasons of it over here in the UK have always done better when there’s been tension; audiences apparently love the nastiness (which is often a nice balance against some of the ludicrously naive hopefuls). It’s all manufactured, just like Anne Robinson’s nastiness.
Yes, they are justified. I agreed with Simon far more than I disagreed with him. The few times I disagreed with him involved when he cut people out because they didn’t “look” like the “American Idol” – the were overweight. I especially was annoyed that he told one heavy girl that she was going to the second round of competition even though she was self-conscious about her weight, and then booted her because of her weight. If he KNEW it was going to be an issue, why raise her hopes?
But anyway, that was a minor thing overall. Generally, he was right on the money with both his criticism and compliments (though the criticism gets much more play).
Some people should, yes.
He’s blunt. Some people think that makes him a jerk. Some think it makes him funny. Some both. But as has been mentioned, I’d rather have his bluntness that the sickly sweetness of Paula Abdul. Bleah.
Incidentally, I’ve read that the contestants this time are more difficult to “shock.” Many, instead of being upset by his comments, have thanked him for his opinion. I think this makes them much more mature than many of those last season (including Kristin, who whined about him and is now returning as a “correspondent” for the show – ugh). But it also doesn’t make for as good TV.
It’s tough love, and it’s well deserved. Crappy annalogy, but here goes:
In college, I had three portfolio professors. The first one had a reputation for being an asshole. We would show up at the beginning of class, put our stuff on the wall, he would walk around the room, look at it, then walk around again and tell us what he thought. He would spend ten minutes talking about the good in one person’s ads, take a step to his left, wave his hand over the next person’s work, proclaim “This is crap,” and move on. People hated him for it. The next two profs were always nice and wanted everyone to see “the golden nuggets in all their work.” The result? A lot of shitty work and people upset with their portfolios.
The point? In the real world, people aren’t going to be polite. If your work sucks, they will tell you it sucks. They won’t be nice and sweet, they’ll tell you you suck. It’s the same with the “American Idol” competition. Why be polite to people and tell them nice things, when the truth is: They have no chance!
Was it mean to tell people they’re overwieght? No. Face it, we here in America have ideas of what “perfection” in terms of our “idols” are. I was suprised that Kelly made it as far as she did, but I knew she was going to be cut because no mother wants her fourteen year old daughter idolizing a single mother who’s never been married and isn’t even 25. Face it, it’s a fact. Look at all the pop stars we have out there. What percentage of them are overwieght? Same with models, movie stars, and any other type of celebrity. They all fit an “ideal” that has somehow become “what people want,” and if you don’t fit that image, get a haircut, lose some wieght, get in shape, pierce your nipples and learn to speak with an accent. Otherwise, get a real job.
I only saw part of one episode but from what I can tell the judge isn’t mean at all. He’s just being brutaly honest. Most of these people have no talent nor do they have the style that can be used in many caes to mask a lack of talent. Someone needs to tell these people the truth.
I didn’t watch last season and I won’t watch this season but from the commercials it sure looks like he’s being more than brutaly honest. Brutaly honest would be something like “You’re really terrible. You can’t sing, and you haven’t got any style.” Instead he busts out with stuff like “You sound like a dog dying” and “If you were doing this back in the middle ages you’d be stoned to death”. That’s just being mean to get ratings.
I don’t quite know why I’m throwing this in, since I’ve never seen American Idol nor even, I swear, the UK original Pop Idol, but I’d gathered from the coverage of the latter in the British press that Simon Cowell already had established this as his persona in that version. The decision on the part of the US producers was presumably to run with the tried-and-tested formula. No encouragement necessary.
OK, I guess I can see how he wouldn’t need to be nice or give constructive criticism. He’s important, his time is money, he shouldn’t have to put up with talentless wannabes. I agree with Kezermezer though, from the commercials it looks like he’s not just being mean - he’s being gratuitously mean just because. I don’t think I’ll tune in for this round either.
Kelly? I have a vague memory of the show, I think Kelly (Clarkston)was the winner. The single mom was the short haired Nikki McCibbins.
I remember this because, she had her kid come up and give her flowers after a preformance. All staged to get the “aww how cute” vote from America. Which I thought was rather tacky considering she really had a lousey night that evening.
Simon is for the most part a straight forward blunt judge. He will not blow sunshine up anyones ass. He comes off cruel at times because he has to think of new ways to entertain the masses with his verbal assult. Kinda like your typical doper in the pit.
Osip pretty well hit the nail on the head. If he just says, “You suck,” every time, it loses any value as TV entertainment. So he has to keep thinking up new and different insults. Some of them are pretty good. And the fact remains that he only launches them when he thinks they are necessary.
I, for one, am awaiting the second series anxiously – though that might have something to do with having two websites about the series.
Basically, these people deserve whatever they get. They are all extremely self-centered, shallow, venal, vain, vapid and stupid. There was not a single interesting personality or stand-out talent on the first show, and I don’t expect one on this show. Simon is far too kind in my opinion. I really couldn’t stand that insufferable skank with the two-tone hair and the bastard baby who claimed she was into rock, but then said she had never heard Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker.” I think that Paula Abdul is patronizing and phony and they should replace her with Joan Rivers. I also think that the audience should pelt the contestants with rocks and garbage when they suck. Most of all, I hate that the song selections and arrangements are sanitized for maximum insipidity. If one of them thinks they can do rock, then let’s see them get out there with Metallica and do “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
A live IQ test for each contestant would be amusing too.
And please get rid of those moronoc hosts and their idiotic post performance interviews with the contestants
I watched the first series, and I thought Simon was right on in his assessments most of the time. I have no doubt that he’s being deliberately cruel because it makes for a more interesting show, but he never said anything that wasn’t true. In the first couple of rounds, they went out of their way to highlight the really bad singers, sometimes showing the clips several times. I also suspect that the rivalry between Simon and Paula was partially staged. I’m sure they were encouraged to argue.
As you can probably tell, I didn’t pay THAT close attention to the last season. Thanks for clarrifying that. Not like it seems to matter much, though. I mean, everytime you see Kelly doing anything, it’s in a frickin’ commercial with the loosing contestants, so they’ve all pretty much got the same amount of popularity.
Just out of curiosity, how successful are the winners of the British version? Because aside from the occassional little story on Entertainment Weekly, I haven’t seen or heard shit from Kelly. I know she made a few appearances on television morning shows when she first won, but it’s been a year now, and as noted above, I have no concept of her “carreer”.
Er, except that Kelly Clarkson had the #1 selling single of the year, which broke a number of records for fastest leap to #1 for a newcomer and stuff like that… Not to mention that she also has a DVD single out and a full album coming… sometime.
The second-place guy is more successful than the winner, in part because Simon likes him more and thus did more to promote him. Both of them had several singles – mostly remakes. And neither was accepted the way Kelly so far has been. Neither is exactly ripping up the charts right now.
Um, then you weren’t really paying attention. As I noted, her single was the top-seller of 2002. She put out two videos. She went on tour with the other Top 10. They all did a TV special together that focused a great deal on her (for obvious reasons, since she won). She is working on an album. She is working on a MOVIE with Justin (the second place winner). Etc. Etc. Etc.
Just FYI, I remember from news stories that Nikki was married when she had her baby, but had been divorced by the time the show came around.
And on preview, I was going to point out a few of the things that David B did. Kelly’s done pretty good. Not that I expect her to be a diva, still making hit records 10 years from now, but she hasn’t done bad for herself since the show ended (in September, I think??)
Frankly, I do expect Kelly to still be around in 10 years – but only if those who are managing her now allow her to sing better songs than the two she’s released so far. The question is whether they will manage her to give her the best shot at a real career or just to make money off of her in the short term. Unfortunately, I think it will be the latter, but I also think she has the talent to overcome it eventually.
Now the next winner might not be so lucky. After all, pretty much everybody remembers the first Survivor cast better than the second. I suspect the same will be true with American Idol. But we shall see.
Funny, I still have no recollection of having heard her songs, seen her videos, or anything else. The only time I see her is on ads for the newes AI series, and when ET talks about “What the cast from the first show is up to now.”
I don’t live under a rock, so I’m not sure exactly what all this means (aside from the fact that she obviously doesn’t have enough talent for the entertainment world to be THAT impressed with her).
