needscoffee - maybe it’s just as well Idol never held its audition rounds in front of big audiences, from what you say
This has always amazed me. Not so much when someone is just marginal, but when their complete absence of ability is irrefutable. Do they not have friends or family? Is everyone they know deaf? Who considers it KIND to tell someone like this that they are good, and allow them to humiliate themselves like this???
Based on what we saw, the people around them are just being polite and supportive, without actually telling them they’re good or awful. Sometimes, people do tell them they’re no good, but the performer refuses to believe it - the “nobody’s going to hold me back from reaching my dream!” kind of delusional drama. And once they’re picked for the audition, telling them they’re terrible is counter-productive, so the families are sort of forced into being supportively kind. I will never understand that creepy mother-daughter duo that Cat Whisperer referred to, though. What kind of Grey Gardens did they come out of?
Being better than Randy is a pretty low bar.
And this is precisely why I find X-Factor and American Idol so cruel. You have to assume the vast majority of people who go to audition are decent, though probably not spectacular, singers. People with years of experience singing in the local choir, the local band, regional community theater groups and at the local church are all pretty good and won’t make a fool of themselves - but maybe not quite good enough. The fact that the producers of these shows feel it is necessary to humiliate the woefully untalented, clueless singers is truly evil. Is it funny to taunt them? To give them false hope and then shred them in front of a live audience? Isn’t that pretty much the definition of bullying?
The audition schtick/bullshit/cruelty is the worst part of these shows. I noticed The Voice didn’t do this - they found good singers right off the bat and got down to business. Plus they didn’t waste 20 hours of TV time belittling sad, delusional people.
Is anyone still with this show?
The first “Boot Camp” round wasn’t bad, but I thought the groups suffered from having way too many people in them. I much prefer the groups of 4-5 people on Idol. But I guess you can’t have actual groups competing without putting them into groups with multiple individuals, resulting in the 9-person monstrosities we were getting last night.
Standouts so far are Josh (grizzly guy from Columbus who sang “At Last” in his audition), Melinda, and some 59-year-old guy who we hadn’t seen in auditions but who came out last night sounding spectacular. I haven’t heard a single group I liked yet, though.
I’m watching. Last night all I really remember is being torqued off at that fourteen-year-old rapper who sat on the floor while everyone danced, because he doesn’t roll like that. And then when they sang as a group, his group had a rap song. I wonder what would have happened if they’d asked him to sing a regular song. I predict when he gets kicked off, either he or his mother will cry buckets.
I’m also interested to see who goes farther, the talented, pretty blonde twelve year old girl, or the phenomenally talented chubby thirteen year old girl.
Looks like it was the chubby one, unless the blonde ended up in that hodgepodge of groups. Seems like cheating to short two groups and then make two of your own. Other than that, I’m pleased with the results. I really loved the guy in the ball cap who sang Rascal Flatts–I’m not normally a country fan, but he had a beautiful voice. There are a lot of stand-outs, and I loved that “Boot Camp” focused less on the backstage drama (which seemed minimal) and more on the singing.
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by that. I’m kind of glad the Little Richard guy made it too. I’m not sure he’s talented or stable enough to go far, but I just wanted to see something nice happen for him.
I don’t know about this going to the judges’ houses thing. Especially since Simon got the girls!
Kinda surprised Paula didn’t get the boys, too, but as a choreographer, groups should have gone to either her or Nicole. Nicole getting the over-30s was not something I saw coming–I figured that either Simon or LA would have gotten those.
I find this far more entertaining than Idol.
I also think the “judge’s houses” are not their real homes at all.
No, of course not. 
I think it’s probably good that Paula didn’t get the boys. She’d end up trying to seduce one of them and then puke on him once she saw his penis. Oy, she makes me bonkers.
But I’m enjoying the show in spite of her. There is some damn good talent here. I love the Joe Cocker type guy. I think he might clean up nicely and I love his voice. Chris Rena (?) and Melanie are good. The Country singer in the hat mentioned earlier is hella good too.
Well, I’m glad someone bumped the thread, even though it was a spammer.
Love the rapper. Hate Simone. More updated opinions as I keep watching.
Minus points to Tora for complaining about nearly forgetting the lyrics to “Satsfaction,” of all things.
I’d like Nick more if he could ditch that Vanilla Ice haircut.
I don’t really understand, where’s the “mentoring”? Why pick 8, fly them around the world, do absolutely nothing to change, imrpove or mentor them from the time you picked the 8, then make them audition again so you can get rid of 4 BEFORE you do anything else?? What’s the point?
And did anyone else have a repeat of last week on Wednesday, then Judges House 1 last night? It was supposed to be Judges House 1&2, but that’s how it was here in LA on Time Warner. WTF?
They’re choosing which four they WILL mentor throughout the live shows. They aren’t mentoring yet.
This is still an audition stage. Once they choose their four, they work with those four in the hope that one if their four will win. It gets surprisingly - in a good, entertainment way - competitive and bitchy between the judges. They always really want to win.
Baseball rain delay screwed the first one, so it aired yesterday and the second one is supposed to air Sunday, unless there’s more baseball.
The most recent show sucked.
LA Reid (sp?) showed he can throw up a free lunch - every one of his singers was horrible, thanks to him.
The groups were OK - I guess Paula does have some talent after all.
The older group had two singers who were so good it was hard to ruin them.
Simon’s group was pretty weak and way over-produced.
So far, it looks like these “mentors” are not all that great at mentoring.