Clay Aiken Slams American Idol Premiere: 'These Judges Have Put Me To Sleep!'
Last night was the final season premiere for American Idol, and it featured several past finalists including Ruben Studdard, Taylor Hicks, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze and Season 2 runner-up, Clay Aiken. However, Aiken's appearance on the show didn't prevent him from slamming the premiere on Twitter.
Aiken live-tweeted last night's show, offering his opinions on the episode as it continued. He made a point of noting that this was the first time he'd watched the show in a decade, which helps provide some measure of context for his later negativity, since American Idol is a very different show now than it was even five years ago, much less ten years ago. Still, as the premiere went on, Aiken grew more irritated by the "boring ass responses from the judges", adding that Simon Cowell was clearly the reason American Idol was a hit. It's pretty scathing stuff, honestly, even though it starts out well enough with a pretty nice tweet about not knowing what you've got til it's gone.
Watching @americanidol for the first time in a decade. You never know what you've got til it's gone. #idolpremiere
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016But it didn't take long for the tweets to turn sour...
Well... now I know why the ratings are down. ????
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016Oh good Lord... those boring ass responses from the judges!? Where is Simon when you need him!? That guy need a hook to pull him off stage.
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016It's VERY clear now that @SimonCowell was the reason @AmericanIdol was a hit. I've watched root canals more entertaining than these judges.
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016Leave it to the contestants from #Raleigh NC to totally make tonight's show worth watching!!
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016Now that #Raleigh has shown out and these judges have put me to sleep! I'm changing over to watch my girl @tyrabanks on @black_ishabc
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016After suffering backlash, Aiken's tweets grew defensive:
When your favorite team that you've cheered for for years happens to play a shitty game, you're absolutely allowed to be upset about it.
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016We're all more critical of the things we care about most.
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016When you really love something you only want the best for it, and you have high expectations from those you know are capable of it.
— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) January 7, 2016I wonder if any of these tweets will prevent him from getting invited back for the finale, which has now been bumped up to April 7. I doubt it, but you never know. After all, it's just an opinion, right or wrong. I think part of Aiken's irritation stemmed from him expecting American Idol to still be the same show he watched ten years ago, when that isn't really the case. For example, no joke auditions last night! And the one singer whose audition was played for comedy still had a bit of a voice on him. Ultimately, while the premiere wasn't exactly riveting television, I don't think it was the full-scale disaster Aiken was making it out to be.
But what do you think? Do you agree with Clay or do you feel he was overreacting? Sound off in the comments!
And if you missed last night's premiere, check out our recap of last night's auditions!