American Idol Has A Cruelty Problem - Editorial
I'm not entirely sure this is something I would ever have written, even dating back to a season ago when deserving contestants were getting cut left and right. But there's a systemic issue with American Idol this season that goes far beyond deserving talent going home. In short, American Idol has a cruelty problem.
Okay, "cruelty" is probably too strong a word, since it conjures up images of war crimes and those cute dogs in those Sarah McLachlan ads that remind me why I don't listen to "Angel" and don't plan to any time soon. But "cruelty" doesn't necessarily have to carry with it the connotations of human/animal rights atrocities. Hell, cruelty can be something as simple as picking on the lonely girl at school for being a little different, or using someone who loves you for your own gain because you know they care about you too much to say no. Hell, cruelty can even be telling someone, "Yes, you will receive a shot at obtaining your dreams, except LOL no you won't." Basically, this season so far has taken some of the best talent the show has had in years, and mired it all in a rigmarole of...well, bulls***. I'm going to enumerate my three big grievances with American Idol this season below.
Credit: FOX
1. That Damn Bus: It's been weeks, yet the bus from Day One of Hollywood Week still sticks in my craw. The show has deployed plenty of different mass elimination tactics in the past, from cutting entire groups, to quarantining a bunch of contestants in a room to await their fate. But placing the remaining contestants on two buses, with one going to Hollywood and the other going to the airport to take them home, seemed uniquely cruel. It bordered on Disney villainy, almost. You had a bunch of contestants on the brink of an emotional breakdown as they watched the road, trying to piece together where their bus was headed, losing hope as their transport went farther and farther away from the bright lights of the city. All the while, they're never given an explanation as to why they were cut, they don't get to say goodbye to other contestants, nor do they get to speak with the judges as in seasons past when the contestants were all put in a room and eliminated. It just felt powerfully unnecessary to put these people through such a thing, particularly when, and this is the big part, it didn't make for better television anyway. It was just a waste of everyone's time.
Credit: FOX
2. Where the hell is [Munfarid, Paula, Ryan, etc.]? This season is possibly the worst the show has ever been in terms of high-visibility talent just dropping off the face of the Earth arbitrarily. Why dedicate so much screentime in the early stages to people like Munfarid Zaidi, Paula Hunt, and Ryan Nisbett if they were just going to vanish from the narrative completely, without explanation? It's to the point where the show punishes the audience for forming an attachment, as so many people are put through to Hollywood that there's no time for the editing team to cull down the footage to a manageable length, meaning early favorites fall through the cracks. But even people like Keith London and Austin Percario got the old "And we also say goodbye to..." elimination edit. They even showed Tiquila withdrawing!
So why the subterfuge? Yes, we can presume our early favorites were cut when they don't turn up later, but usually that's during group rounds or final solos. There's absolutely no reason we should be at The Final Judgment and wondering what the hell ever happened to [so and so] when every indication suggested they were still in the competition. You want to know why people don't watch the early stages of the competition anymore, Idol? Well, for one, America is likely over the whole joke audition aspect of those early rounds, but I would also imagine that another factor is that the series doesn't really reward loyal viewership and emotional investment. Viewers would understand if their favorite was cut, and they'd even understand if they were cut without explanation, but to cut a highly-visible contestant off-screen altogether?
It's practically a violation of the unspoken agreement between the program and its viewers, that if we become invested in a contestant, and the editing goes to lengths to boost that investment, the show won't arbitrarily leave a viewer in the lurch as to that contestant's fate, even if it's just a rudimentary "Also leaving us is..." cut. But none of that was in evidence here. In short, the show isn't just dicking around its contestants, it's dicking around its audience now too. So why even watch the first six weeks of the season? Why not just skip that and tune in when live voting rounds begin? At least then you know the editing won't arbitrarily elide the elimination of an early favorite. Plus, you have the added benefit of actually getting to hear everybody sing...
Credit: FOX
3. That B.S. "Rush Week" Twist: ...or not. In what's pretty much the most incendiary twist the show has ever done, not all of the 30 contestants put through to America's vote were given the chance to sing. The judges cut five guys and five girls, who were then eliminated without ever singing note one. Basically, the judges would be cutting an entire third of the field before America even got the chance to pick up the phones. This, of course, begs the question:
Why in the hell did you put through 30 people in the first place?
Credit: FOX
Why not just skip the arbitrary, time-wasting mess of the "Rush Week" workshops and instead use the extra time to actually let five other people sing? The show is essentially removing the one constant American Idol still has left (after the Judges' Save removed the certainty that receiving the lowest number of votes means you're done). They've removed the one constant that even people who've never watched the show could tell you: once you're put through to America's vote, America actually gets the chance to vote for you. One of Idol's big strengths in the early seasons was the simplicity of its format. It's partially why I had such a hard time getting into the early seasons of The Voice, and why American audiences seemed to have no patience for The X Factor (among many other reasons). A simple format, with constants on which you can depend, speaks volumes. When The Voice has a more fluid, less complicated system than you do, you know you're in trouble, Idol.
But here's the part that really chaps my ass...
Throughout much of the two "Rush Week" performance shows, the judges, in their critiques, would talk about how hard they struggled to decide on the right 10. They would mention reviewing tapes, watching old performances, and viewing the rehearsals for this week. That last point is huge, because I can't think of any planet in which the judges saw Marrialle Sellars' rehearsal of "Roar" and thought, "Well damn, this is someone whose name we need to call on Tuesday night." Ditto the unfortunate business with Emmanuelle Zidor, who caused nightmarish flashbacks to Nick Mitchell/Norman Gentle in Season 8. Maybe they didn't see all of the rehearsals, sure. But if that's the case, it seems a bit unfair, especially if they happened to see an awesome dress rehearsal performance that could have swayed their opinions on which singers to put through. Keith Urban himself noted that decisions went down to the wire, so maybe they saw something at rehearsals that changed their minds or made their decisions harder?
Credit: FOX
I don't really want to get too deep into speculation though, since the process by which they reached their decision doesn't negate the stupidity of the twist that forced them to make such decisions in the first place. If you want to be cruel to the contestants, fine. I don't like it one bit, but they signed the contract, so if making Kenzie Hall and Briston Maroney cry gets you off, then it's your prerogative. But I don't have to enjoy or appreciate being told I can vote for my favorites, only to then find out that, well, no. No, I can't. Because you apparently didn't think far enough ahead to realize that 2 hours isn't enough time for 15 contestants to perform for each category, not that this was a problem for the sixteen acts put through to live shows on The X Factor USA, but I guess FOX is just pretending that show never happened. Cutting five contestants, and drawing out the eliminations by having the judges announce one name at a time? That isn't good drama. It isn't better TV than we had before, nor is it better TV than it would have been if you'd just put through twelve guys and twelve girls for a Top 24 that all got the chance to sing. I didn't mind the Judges' Save when that was introduced because it made for great TV, and it provided the option of undoing America's mistakes, since voters did occasionally get it wrong. But this is something else entirely. I'm not sure how the top brass didn't think this would piss people off. Sure, viewers will get over it. Hell, I'll get over it, just gimme a week. But I doubt people are going to forget it. And with a brand already as tattered and diminished as Idol, why risk the bad press? Why even risk inspiring people to pick up the remote and wonder what else is on?