'American Idol' Executive Producers Promise New Themes

Credit: AmericanIdol.com

Despite a plethora of format changes for American Idol XIII, none of it will matter to fans unless one of the show's biggest problems changes: the stale theme weeks. So now would probably be the time for fans to rejoice, as the executive producers of American Idol XIII have promised a complete overhaul of the themes for this coming season.

"We have a new approach for the music themes this year to get the kids to sing songs they really relate to," new executive producer Per Blankens revealed in an interview at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour. "The song list is still there, but we're going to work differently with the themes."

The song list is also much longer than in years past. "We have expanded the song list; there are many more contemporary songs," says executive producer Trish Kinane. "We want to find out more about the kids and kind of mold the themes into songs that reveal something about them rather than tying them in to Burt Bachrach or the Bee Gees."

The EP adds, "It's very much more a choice in what they can pick."

Kinane says that she and Blankens, who ran the popular Swedish version of Idol, are looking to get the show "back to something that reflects what the kids are and how they're growing. There's this kid that shows up at an audition in Detroit and then suddenly ends up at the Nokia Theatre, so what is it they're developing in themselves through that process?"

So what would the new theme weeks be? Well, Kinane and Blankens offered the "This is Me" theme as an example, and it's hard to argue that such a theme wouldn't be more appropriate theme to young contestants than the antiquated Motown Week, or yet another season of Birth Year Songs or the Music of Leiber and Stoller.

"Per knows and loves the 'American Idol' format," Kinane explains. "He did that for a long time in Sweden, and [the judges] know and love the format and our producers do as well, so I think we've got a sense of 'Yes we can refresh this, yes it needs some new energy,' but we're not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater and go to the extreme because that isn't the show. This show works, and when it's done at its best with really great judges and really great talent, it works."

American Idol XIII premieres Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 8:00 PM ET/PT on FOX.

Via: Zap2It