That’s pretty much what they did on Rock Star Supernova. Every week the contestants with the three lowest vote totals had to perform a new song for the judges to redeem themselves, and then the judges would pick which one went home.
I much prefered that system. For one thing, you’d get three new songs on elimination night, rather than hearing a lame sing-out by the loser featuring the worst song from the night before. Second, some of the best performances of the show were on elimination night, because the performers have to pull out all the stops to keep from getting the boot. Third, the judges actually have some say in the proceedings, rather than just giving their opinions.
There was a lot about that show that was just way better than the format for American Idol. I wish it had survived.
I think the fact that AI gets huge ratings while the other show is gone shows that Idol ain’t broken from Fox’s perspective, and they ain’t gotta fix it.
I think the other failed for other reasons. The extreme lameness of the whole ‘Supernova’ concept, for one. The walking train wreck that is Tommy Lee for another. The whole notion that a rock and roll band would have a shred of credibility with the public or the rock media if they picked their lead singer on a TV show. A host who sucked the life out of the room every time she opened her mouth.
But the presentation of the show and the performers was fantastic. The band was phenomenal. The contestants were very good (almost all of them better than the best contestants on AI, in my opinion). The way the contest was carried out was pretty cool, in terms of the rules anyway. I liked having the bottom three have to sing for their lives, so to speak. It beat the hell out of publically rejecting someone then telling them to sing their sorry asses off the stage.