The cat didn't catch Simon Cowell's tongue when he said American Idol couldn't survive without him. The acrid creator of the highly successful X Factor singing talent show proved to be a prophet as Idol failed - (Alison Martin of SimonCowellOnline.com photo)

New Idol judge Katy Perry has a lot to prove to justify that she is worth her $25 million a year salary - (Joella Marano from Manhattan, NYC photo)

PHILLIP PHILLIPS WINS IDOL TITLE   PHILLIP PHILLIPS selected # 1 by (?) - (FOX photo)   JESSICA SANCHEZ eliminated @ # 2 - (FOX photo)   Jermaine Jones disqualified @ # 12- (FOX photo)

Video Beat - AMERICAN IDOL RETURNS 4 its 2nd DEATH?

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Idol was once perceived as a show that America couldn't do without. As the show gained in popularity it appeared as if it was being too full of themselves and bullet proof. It was that attitude that made them lose the plot

Sunday, March 18, 2018

IS THE HANGMAN WAITING?

Former American Idol judge Simon Cowell famously said that the show couldn't do without him. As it turned out following his departure in 2010 it became obvious that HE WAS RIGHT as the show went on to have a slow death while leaving behind a soiled reputation.

Idol was once perceived as a show that America couldn't do without. As the show gained in popularity it appeared as if it was being too full of themselves and bullet proof.

Former judge Paula Abdul was the first to draw negative attentions when she was linked to having an affair with a contestant and being on drugs due to her faulty memory and misspoken words.

It was later revealed that she was on drugs for a severe back injury. But eventually her spotty judging performance led to her being replaced.

When the show began June 11, 2002, Cowell was one of the three basically unknown judges, including Randy Jackson and Abdul. For American audiences Abdul was the best known.

The show took off with good ratings and the contestants were the stars. Cowell gained a reputation of being rude and at the same time colorful resulting in him receiving most of the media attention which he gloated on. . Somewhere along the line he began to assert himself and began overshadowing the two other judges.

The show grew into a phenomenon largely due to its personal engagement with the contestants by prompting the viewers to vote, and the presence of the acid-tongued Cowell as a judge. By 2004, it had become the most-watched show on U.S. television, a position it then held for seven consecutive seasons.

After a few years of sharp declining ratings starting in 2012, with rating falls of over 20% each season, the network announced that the fifteenth season would be its last, ending its run in April 2016.

It was the 2011 season that was the final straw for many viewers due to the obvious bias towards the eventual winner Phillip Phillips. The result stunned many as Phillips' voice was inferior to Jessica Sanchez.

Sanchez seems to have been set up to fail in the finals when she was given a song that was horrible and out of the lane of the voice while Phillips was given a song more complimentary to his tone of voice. The songs were intended to be made into a record for the winner. It was as if the fix was in.

Early in the season the show received criticism in the way they dismissed BLACK contestant Jermaine Jones. Jones had a warrant out for his arrest in New Jersey for some minor incident which he failed to show up in court to be judged thus the warrant.

Idol producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick had the cameras rolling when they called Jones in to inform him that they found out about the warrant and it was company policy that they had to let him go because he failed to disclose his entire history.

IT WAS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. Idol was overwhelmed with complaints that they EXPOILTED the situation about Jones simply to receive ratings. That plot backfired on them as that was the seed that set into play the decline in viewers. Some complaints said Jones could and should have been dismissed privately off camera.

It was if Idol's effort was to destroy a man's dignity and disgrace him in public. It was as if Idol powers wanted to verify the mighty whitey power they have had for centuries over the black, brown, red and yellow skinned races. Idol's handling of this situation was embarrassing for the show which inadvertently sent them on the road to destruction.

The judges that season had a bad habit of talking down to contestants in their critiques. It was so blatantly obvious that we wrote a column about it titled, AMERICAN IDOL'S STRANGE GOINGS ON! - SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE AMERICAN IDOL PICTURE.

We followed that up with another column subtitled APPARENTLY THE FIX IS IN.

The judges that season were Jennifer, "I want you to win Phillip" Lopez, Randy Jackson (an original judge) and Steven Tyler who seemed burnt out by the end of the season.

The Phillips decision appeared to be in sympathy due to his medical condition and his strength and courage to fight through it. Phillips suffered from kidney pain and was taken to the hospital before the Top 13 results show, and later received medical procedure to alleviate a blockage caused by kidney stones.

He was reported to have eight surgeries during his Idol run, and had considered quitting the show due to the pain. He underwent surgery to remove the stones and reconstruct his kidney soon after the season had finished.

Season 12 had a majority MINORITY cast of contestants and winner. It was as if the Idol producers went overboard to overcome their treatment of Jones in the previous season and wanted to show the viewing public that they were not racists.

The result was it was poorly thought out, didn't work and was THE WORST season in Idol history putting the final nail in the Idol coffin. We didn't do coverage of that season as it was unbearable to watch plus we vowed to quit following Season 11.

Other than the awkward and questionable Phillip, Sanchez result the show had two other unreal questionable results when Taylor Hicks defeated Katharine McPhee in season 5 and Kris Allen defeated Adam Lambert in season 8.

Both Hicks and Allen fall into the where are they now category. Voter fraud that went unnoticed by the Idol staff was attributed to the Allen win. The bottom line is Idol went from a show that one can't do without to a nightmare.

In May 2017, ABC acquired the rights to the series and announced that the program would return for the 2017-18 television season. At one point Cowell came up with the idea that the judges have a royal entrance at the beginning of the show by walking down steps on to the stage as if they were royalty when they were introduced.

This was the point when it was obvious that the show was (unfortunately) focused on the judges. It is a procedure Cowell currently employs in his X Factor show.

In its 15 season history the show frantically gobbled up 11 more judges. The obvious focus on what the producers perceived as star power judges was blatantly displayed when they hired Ellen DeGeneres, a comedian with NO MUSICAL BACKGROUND.

That blunder lasted one season as Degeneres left admitting having done her best considering her lack of musical knowledge.

You could go on and on about the mistakes the show made with their focus on thinking it could only be popular by having well known judges which wasn't the case when the show began and became popular without superstar celebrities as judges.

That mistake is currently in progress as Katy Perry is the centerpiece of the three person judging crew that includes country singing star Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie a pop star who was most popular in the 70's. Perry comes at a price of $25 million, a record salary for an Idol Judge. Previously it was reported that Mariah Carey and Jennifer, "I want you to win Phillip" Lopez received $10 million salaries.

There once was a rumor that Cowell was making or demanding $100 million a year. That was at the time that he was expressing his displeasure the way the show was being managed. He also had his X Factor show being acclaimed in Britain to fall back on as a Trump card.

Host Ryan Seacrest remains the only survivor from season one. Seacrest recently has been involved in a sexual abuse allegation which has somewhat been shoved under the rug but the cloud remains hanging over his head.

Again, the show is set up to fail as they vainly go up against The Voice which has become America's singing show of choice.

American Idol was once the only game in town but now with The Voice being popular and Cowell's X Factor dominating viewer's attention and most of all… RESPECT Idol has a tough road to travel.

With that being the case it will be an uphill battle for Idol to survive and avoid experiencing A 2nd DEATH.

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