@Krumple,
Quote:you can('t) just pull people in off the street and make the(m) popstars.
Well to the extent that any of these kids were just pulled off the street, you can:
Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson became huge stars.
Jordin Sparks, Scotty McCreary and Philip Philips may not be in the same "mega star" category as Underwood and Clarkson but they're each having pretty damned successful careers. McCreery in particular has sold 2.5 million albums in the post-album world of music and has had three platinum singles. I don't know about you, but if that was me I would think I had a reason to claim
star status.
If the bar this show had to clear to be considered "good" was to produce, every season, the reigning King or Queen of Pop, then it can't be considered good because it certainly didn't get over that bar. Plenty of duds came out on top over the seasons and the best talent didn't always win, but not all of the "stars" "American Idol" produced were winners of their seasons. Among the "losers" who have made it
big and
pretty big are, Katherine McPhee, Grammy Award winning Mandisa who has sold almost a million albums, Academy and Golden Globe Award winner, Jennifer Hudson, Kellie Pickler, and Chris Daughtry.
Plenty of the other contestants while not achieving anything that can be called star status are making a nice living out of Show Biz and I bet you they all credit "American Idol" with providing their careers a big assist.
I don't get what you mean by
"Plus it totally kills the idea that they put in the work to make it." or what your beef is with the voting. It begins with the selections by "expert" judges and concludes with a popular vote by viewers. Popularity is a terrible metric to use? How else did Elvis Presley, the Beatles, David Bowie, Whitney Huston or Beyonce became pop stars? Critical acclaim? The voting of their peers? And if raw popular votes decided who wins the presidency, Clinton, not Trump would be in the White House right now.
Actually Simon Cowell had a better eye for talent, and more importantly for what sells, than any of the other judges, which is why he has made hundreds of millions of dollars in the music business without writing, playing or singing a single song.
I'm not saying "American Idol" was fabulous TV, but it got such great ratings that Fox was able to sell big $ ad slots for two shows a week. That's unique to only the most successful series. Of course popularity doesn't necessarily make for great TV. "Lost" was very popular and after the first season it was maddening garbage.
Obviously a lot of the picks made in this thread are based on personal taste without much critical backup or a show like "Friends" would never have made the list, and that's fine since a) Personal taste can vary widely and b) This is a fun thread not to be taken seriously
I watched "American Idol" for the first several seasons and enjoyed it, but once Cowell left, I left. Still I'm not the
A.I. Defender. Unlike most of us though, you provided your reasons for thinking the show was terrible which opens the door for discussion and while I don't object to this one being labelled
the worst I just don't get your reasons for thinking it was.
(I will add that one thing I really couldn't stand with the early seasons that was done away with in later years was the cruel and merciless way they treated people who obviously had no talent, but who just as obviously were convinced they did. There were plenty of goofballs who auditioned on a dare or a lark and who knew they stunk but wanted to get in front of the judges and on TV. I'm pretty sure a lot of them went overboard stinking it up so they would improve their chances of getting the
clown pick but some of the people who were truly horrible didn't at all realize they were and were utterly shocked and crushed when they didn't make it through, and, not to mention, often cruelly mocked by the judges. Since the first audition anyone goes through was not on camera and in from of the star judges, this means that the producers had to let these poor people through so they could be made laughing stocks on national television later on. As they didn't have a clue that they were bad, passing the first audition must have seemed to them like confirmation of their non-existent talent and made the ultimate let down all that more heartbreaking. Really cruel **** in my opinion. I read somewhere that it was Harry Connick Jr. who put his foot down and insisted the cruel mockery stop. Apparently the "clown pick" segments were very popular with the audiences at home and so the producers resisted, but Connick threatened to quit if they didn't put an end to it and so it was eliminated. My estimation of Connick went way up after I read that.
