THIS is American Idol (2002–2016)

In the summer of 2002 people were telling me I had to watch the new singing competition, American Idol. These were the same exact people who had the opposite views of my tastes in television, music and movies so it was as good a reason as any not to watch the show. I remember my wife having dental surgery and reading a New York Post article on Mr. Nasty, Simon Cowell, telling contestants how bad they were. As they say in England, it’s not my cup of tea. But we had nothing to do on an evening in August 2002 so we watched the results finale where people were very interested whether Kelly Clarkson or Justin Guarini would be the first American Idol. As with the final results show, the judges had a smaller role than usual. Kelly Clarkson won and it was a nice enough way to spend 2 hours.

I wasn’t watching when Second 2 started in January 2003. Then, around 9PM, during Wild Card Night, probably in late February, where they had someone who had been eliminated sing one more time, I turned the dials and saw Clay Aiken singing Elton’s John’s Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me. I’ve heard that song a billion times. OK, that’s not true, I’ve heard it much more than a billion times. I loved Clay’s version.

I thought Clay was wonderful. An average guy, who was not a professional, who had a chance to become a recording artist. I started to watch every week. The contestants were talented, likable, had different personalities, you could develop a strong rooting interest, yet there was nobody you intensely disliked, which happens so often with politics and sports. I liked Ruben Studdard and the way Clay’s personality changed over the years, I might have supported Ruben in a do-over. But I wanted Clay to win, tried to vote for 2 hours after the final performance show but could not get through. The Season 2 finale drew 38 million viewers! It was exciting, suspenseful and Ruben won, though Clay would become the more successful recording artists. All of America was watching and everyone had an opinion. A Christmas special in December 2003 with just Kelly, Ruben, Justin and Clay (who was a very good host) was a pleasure to watch. Season 2 was the only season where they took the Top 6 on a Monday night and Ryan spoke to each of them in an interview format. The show was HOT! HOT! HOT!

I was all ready for Season 3 starting in January 2004. It would begin with auditions where the talented were mixed with the not-talented. This was the year when William Hung sang his version, of Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, and told the judges he has no professional training. Just from that, William became a celebrity, recorded an album, made appearances, did commercials and came through the experience fine.

Let’s talk judges and we’ll start with the man-Simon Cowell. Nobody has ever done their job as well as Simon Cowell. In one or two sentences he could tell you why a performance was great, awful or somewhere in-between. He could do it with humor or sarcasm or straight-forward. He didn’t hold grudges. If you were terrible the last 4 weeks but great this week, he would congratulate you. I’m sure bad reviews would hurt a contestant’s feelings but when Simon said something good about you, it might be among the high points of your life. John Stevens a 16 year old red-haired “crooner” started out well, then gave several bad performance and Simon let him know it. John started to get hate mail because people kept voting to keep him on the show. Toward the end of his run, John had a good performance, Simon congratulated him for the singing and how John had taken the criticism like a man and should be proud of himself. Simon had so much influence. When other judges told the contestants they had given a great performance, and then Simon told them they weren’t good that night, the next night on the results show, the conversation centered on how the contestant had a bad night. And Simon would admit mistakes. Sometimes he would tell a contestant he had gone back and looked at their performance and realized he had been too critical. Yes, Simon had cost them votes, but he didn’t have to say that.

Randy Jackson was very good in his role as the first judge to give his opinions, relaxing the contestant, congratulating them on getting through the song. Usually Randy was very positive. If Randy wasn’t it meant you were in trouble and Simon would be embarrassing you in a couple of minutes or Simon would surprise everyone by disagreeing with Randy and saying you did well.

Paula Abdul was one of the most successful performers ever from her songs in the 1988–1991 time period. There must have been a lot she could offer the contestants. But she acted weird, never said anything negative about a performance and had silly fights with Simon. But people loved Paula and to this day she has big supporters. Whatever it was, people loved the chemistry of the three judges. Well, I really liked two. The show started in 2002 with Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman as co-host but it was just Ryan by Season 2. Ryan never added anything to my entertainment life, wasn’t an all-time favorite, but I realized Ryan was as talented in his job as Simon Cowell was. Keeping a live show moving, keeping it on time, interacting with the contestants and judges, he was the ultimate professional host and he was loyal; he kept doing everything from his radio shows to American Idol even when he no longer needed it for his career.

Season 3 was Fantasia’s winning season. I didn’t have a real favorite that year. The voting became controversial. Jasmine Trias had week after week of bad performances but the state of Hawaii wanted their own American Idol and she made it to the Top 3. A phone outage happened in Jennifer Hudson’s hometown of Chicago and she only made it to the Top 7. But Simon Cowell was philosophical when the voting didn’t go his way and said that’s what the country wanted.

In Season 4, Simon Cowell said that Carrie Underwood would be the biggest star to come out of American Idol and he was right. I’m not a country music fan so it was another year I did not support the winner, but it’s great how the show discovered a star and she has been a success without just making headlines with personal life. The contestants were getting more interesting and more polished. Constantine Maroulis made it to the Top 6 and would become a Broadway star and be a really cool guy.

By season 5 in 2006 I wanted a winner. Normal weekly show, not finales, but normal weekly show were drawing more than 30 million viewers. The other networks didn’t even try to compete with American Idol. Because of the electoral college in Presidential elections, viewers said they thought their vote made more difference in American Idol than in Presidential elections! It was a great way to spend 3 hours of TV a week. During certain weeks in February the show was on three night and Ryan Seacrest said that American Idol was here to entertain you three nights a week and the other four nights you were on your own. I really liked Taylor Hicks. I really like entertainers. He was 28 when he entered the contestant which is the oldest you can be. With his somewhat grayish hair, he seemed to have more in common with me than any contestant so far, meaning just older and more mature than the others. He sang great, showed enthusiasm, named his supporters “The Soul Patrol” and his performances were always something to see. He was a controversial contestant. Many were upset when Chris Daughtry only made the Top 4 and Chris did go on to become one of the biggest stars out of American Idol. Simon had been very critical of Taylor at times but as they got closer to the finale Simon gave Taylor his blessing. I was sober when I told someone that Taylor Hicks winning American Idol was as important to me as The Yankees winning the World Series. My wife and I would talk about American Idol as we would about our other mutual interests. And with 36 million people watching in May 2006, Taylor won and sang, “Did I Make You Proud.” When I was growing up, every show seemed interesting. There were now very few shows left like this and I was enjoying it for all it was worth.

Season 6, starting in January 2007. did not have any big personalities. Melinda Doolittle seemed on her way to winning American Idol. But because she was such a favorite and she is so talented, not everyone felt the need to call or text American Idol to support her so she only made the Top 3. The finale between Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis had no suspense. Jordin was much more talented and Blake was just happy to be there and Jordin won easily.

Season 6 was also known as the season of Sanjaya. He was a marginally-talented, happy, good-looking guy who made it to the Top 7. As he advanced each week, it was considered proof of the decline of Western Civilization. Sanjaya was not someone I supported but did a pretty good job of immersing himself into the theme of the week. He was probably the only contestant who did justice to the “British Invasion Week” with his version of The Kinks’ You Really Got Me while others did Shirley Bassey and slow Gerry & the Pacemakers songs.

What Season 6 lacked in drama, Season 7, starting in January 2008, made up for. It was the battle of the Davids; David Cook vs. David Archuleta. David Cook was very talented and could make any song sound, like they said on the show, “his own.” David Archuleta was a nice young guy who if he was around in 1972, would also be the favorites of Donny Osmond fans. As the season drew toward its conclusion, the judges were letting us know, that David Archuleta was their choice and David Cook just was making too many mistakes with song choices. For once the viewers rebelled. In the most surprising finale yet, David Cook was declared the winner. I cheered so loud and so do my wife. It was like The New York Yankees winning the World Series! A great moment in reality TV!

We bought David Cook’s CD, listened a couple of times but that was it. Just winning the contest did not translate into becoming a big recording star. I read in Simon Cowell’s book, “I Don’t Mean to Be Rude But” where parents asked him how their children could become pop stars and Simon said their children had a better chance of becoming a Fortune 500 CEO. There’s no simple formula. People were not telling The Rolling Stones that they would be big stars. They probably told them to get a haircut, take a shower and get a real job.

Season 8 starting in January 2009 introduced Adam Lambert to the world. After a good start, his performances became amazing such as with The Tracks of My Tears and Real World made even Simon Cowell stand up and applaud. His main competition was what became known as “CGWG” or “Cute Guy With Guitar” Kris Allen. Adam was a little too cutting-edge for a massively mainstream TV show and Kris Allen won the finale. After the finale Adam admitted he was gay. It showed that we have made progress because this did not hurt Adam’s image (this was 2009 and even much more progress has been made since then) though his over the top performance on the November 2009 American Music Awards did hurt his image.

One problem for contestants was how to live in their post-Idol world. We saw Taylor Hick at The Beacon Theatre in New York in 2007. We had such a connection with him through the show. He gave a very spirited 75 minute performance but never mentioned the show. Between songs he would ask, “how you doing New York?” and explain what the next song was about. Taylor’s CD sold about 300,000 the first week and was #2. Today that would be a huge hit but a disappointment in late 2006.

We saw the American Idol Season 8 Tour at the Prudential Center in the summer of 2009. It seemed strange that American Idols tour would only come to New Jersey and Long Island but never Manhattan. We saw why. They were kind of low budget affairs. Very little interactions between the contestants, just a few duets. They started with the 10th place contestant and moved up to the winner. Very little mention on the show. It was only the visually impaired contestant Scott MacIntyre who mentioned the show such as imitating Simon Cowell on a bad performance of his, and reminding people how Ryan Seacrest gave him a high-five when he could not see it.

Through the first six seasons, it was Randy, Paula & Simon as judges. In season seven, ratings went down a bit. For season eight, Kara DioGuardi was brought it There were rumors that Paula Abdul might not be around too much longer and they wanted to groom a backup. By season nine, Paula was given an offer she could refuse and left the show. Ellen DeGeneres was brought in to replace her. Everybody loved Ellen but she added little and was gone after one season. After a terrible first season, Kara was better in season nine. She was the third judge to offer her opinions and moved from the overwhelming praise of Randy and Ellen to a more realistic take until Simon gave the real verdict. Simon announced that Season 9 was his last as he was bringing The X-Factor to America.

Season 9 in 2010; without Paula Abdul; some blamed her absence for the lack of interesting contestants. Some said Simon didn’t seem interested but you could say that about any season. It got down to the very talented and expected winner Crystal Bowersox and underdog Lee DeWyze, Not as talented as David Cook, he could take songs you don’t necessarily like and make them sound good. Lee looked like he could use a hug. The Crystal vs. Lee finale was the judges acknowledging Crystal’s superiority but saying Lee had done his best. In a big upset, Lee won. Lee was talented but couldn’t believe it and the crowd cheered the underdog. Then in a moment we all deserve, Lee sang U2′s It’s a Beautiful Day with confetti showering him and the crowd cheering wildly. And a footnote; a shout-out to General Larry Platt for his auditions show memory, Pants on the Ground in which William Hung came back to join in the Season 9 finale. You get a lot of great memories watching American Idol.

Season 10 in January 2011 and it looked like a miracle; American Idol had rebuilt the judges panels. Beloved Aerosmith rock icon Steven Tyler joined Jennifer Lopez who can be lovable when she wants to be and good ol’ Randy Jackson and of course Ryan Seacrest. Initially the chemistry was wonderful between them. Was this another dream team?

Simon Cowell always kept things real. The promos for Season 10 about dreams coming true sounded a little too positive for a show with a reputation for a cutting put-down for a poor performance. After the auditions, with the normal, “you’re a star” to “maybe this isn’t for you” any sort criticism was shouted down. In previous seasons, Simon would give his comments, the audience would boo and Simon would smile and say, “let me finish.” I recall Randy slightly criticizing a performer, the audience booing and JLo blowing up at his criticism. Since criticism was so rare it probably ruined the most talented singer that season, Pia Toscano. She kept singing ballads and was encouraged to sing a rock song. So when she sang Ike & Tina Turner’s River Deep-Mountain High and their critique wasn’t great, she was eliminated that week and only made it to the Top 9. The finale between 17 year old country singer Scotty McCrerry and 16 year old country singer Lauren Lalina was not for me. But ratings for the 2011 finale results was up from 29 million from Simon’s previous year of 24 million.

I stopped watching early in Season 11 in 2012. Ratings were down. The finale dropped from 29 million to 21 million. NBC’s The Voice became the popular reality TV singing song. Ratings for Season 12 with Randy Jackson and Mariah Carey, Nikki Minaj and Keith Urban dropped significantly and the judges panel had become a mess. The show was still successful enough to keep on. It gave Fox 3 hours of the 14 hours of prime time programming it needed. For Season 13 JLo came back, Keith Urban stayed and Harry Connick, Jr. joined. I had seen Harry previously as a guest judge and mentor. He seemed to have the right qualities to have been the tough judge but now in 2014 it was too late. Despite (from what I’ve heard) good chemistry between the judges, ratings went way down and were now under 10 million per night. In 2015 the show was cut back to once a week Nobody was talking about the contestants on American Idol anymore.

On May 11, 2015 FOX announced the show will come back for one final season in 2016. Harry, JLo and Keith are the judges and they said there will be surprises during the year. Everyone hopes Simon, Paula and Randy will come back to take a bow. Hopefully it will go out with a bang. The show has a great history. I really appreciate the memories.

(Updated April 8, 2016)