FOX courting fans to tweak faltering American Idol formula

Apparently, there is more to this story. Friday a new survey was quietly passed to select members of ratethemusic, and they asked very direct questions about Ryan and the judges - like if you could replace one of the personalities, who would it be? This site has more info:

http://www.craigandsam.com/

America's Got Talent, I think, improved upon the format in several ways.

Firstly, the judges seemed to be working WITH the contestants to help them get better, but not by criticism or witticism. (Hey, that rhymes!)

Secondly, there was a limit to the number of votes. I actually voted my ten allowable times because I felt like my vote counted. I do not feel that way with AI. The speed-dial text-happy teeny boppers with special computer programs are going to decide who wins.

But these improvements are ONLY valid if you actually desire a competition. I also feel like if ask the producers, their reponse to the voting 'issue' would be twofold...

1) "Who cares? Every time we say 'forty-five million of you voted' we get to charge more for our ads. And we will NEVER tell you that less than a half-million people actually voted."

or 2) "Who cares?" Those are the kids who buy records."

Changes I would like to see are:

1. One vote per phone number.

2. Stop the mentors. We are watching the show to see the contestants perform, not to watch a commercial for the mentor's new project.

3. Cut back on the early audition rounds and the bad singers. It is so obvious after 7 years that the majority of these bad singers know they are bad but are just there to get their face on national TV. If there are 5 audition cities, cut it down to three shows. SHOW ALL THE GOLDEN TICKET SINGERS!

4. Stop with the one hour results show. Is there anybody who actually wastes their time watching this one hour commercial live? I only DVR it and watch the group song and then fast forward to the end. I don't need to see the mentor sell their new CD, or the Ford commercial, or Ryan tease each person as to whether they are save or not. Go back to the 1/2 hour format. Better yet, the vote off only takes 2 minutes, just tack it on to the beginning of the following week's show.

5. Stop Ryan from saying "after a nation-wide vote" every freaking time!

6. Stay within your time limit. I have a DVR, I tape other shows. When Idol goes over their time, I miss the end when DVR changes channels. You waste time during the show and then go overtime...its almost like its being done on purpose so that the show counts in the ratings for the next hour's block also.

7. Definitely get rid of Paula. They are called JUDGES! A Judge doesn't say "honey, you look amazing, I want to eat you up". Judge the freaking performance!

8. Stop showing the stage parents in the crowd, we are watching the singers, not the parents!

9. Give the actual vote totals for each singer. By doing that, you let us know that you are not really sending one of the best singers to the bottom 2 or 3 just to add some suspense to the results. I assume you don't show the votes now because if we knew the total number of votes, then the producers could not change the results when they want to.

10. Dump the stupid "chair" episode.

I agree, its too much of a popularity show. Jason should have been gone along time ago. He can't sing. He isn't strong enough of a singer. His song choices have alot to be desired.

Trade Paula to 'So You Think You Can Dance', and call up Sharon Osborne from the UK show X-Factor.

Can the policy of playing cruel mind games with the contestants each week... what is this - "They Shoot Horses Don't They?"

Fix the process so that talented R&B singers can't get eliminated during "Herman's Hermits week" - just because Nigel Lythgoe is a huge Peter Noone fanatic.

Release the popular vote totals on Thursday morning. It would be nice to know the phone-in vote means something (I suspect it doesn't).

1. Get rid of Paula and Randy. Not only is their feedback predictable and useless, they also have clear biases. The music industry is huge. There are plenty of people who can provide interesting feedback and commentary.

2. Keep Ryan. He's the key to the show. Simon can eventually be replaced.

3. One phone one vote. It's silly that there are people who are speed dialing for two hours, while others vote only once.

4. Put ALL the auditions on the web (for songs you can get the rights from publishers). And let the public vote on a few wildcard spots for the top 24. This would create an interesting community of reviewers, bloggers, and personal sites promoting people's favorite artists.

5. Show fewer bad singers. That's getting real old. Show more decent singers who didn't make the cut. This would tie in to the web vote for the wildcard spots.

6. Give face time to every single person who made it to Hollywood. Getting there is a big accomplishment, and they should be recognized for it. This will make it more fair for the contestants who make it to the top 24.

7. Get rid of the chair episode. That's a waste of time.

8. Provide more entertainment during the results show, and rush through the elimination in the last 5 minutes. Maybe show some "behind the scenes" videos. Make the Ford music videos more watchable.

9. Assign a professional producer to each contestant to give them advice about song selection. It really detracts from the show when half the contestants pick crappy songs.

10. Reduce their promotion activities, and have them rehearse twice as much. And give them even more voice coaching. The franchise is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Invest a few more bucks in the contestants.

11. Invite winners of Idol contests in other countries to perform.

12. Get rid of themes that revolve around a single artist. That doesn't give the contestants enough leeway to choose decent songs that fit them.

13. Get rid of the Broadway theme. It always sucks.

14. Make sure the judges are very familiar with each song before the show. Give them each an iPod preloaded with each song (and the right arrangement of each song), along with detailed info on the artist, song writer, etc. It's shameful that the judges don't do their homework.

15. Don't air the show live. Edit out worthless judge comments. Don't let the show ever run long.

16. Let the eliminated contestant choose to sing ANY song that he or she has previously sung. The way it is, we are forced to listen to the worst song again every week. Let them pick a song they can sing well.

Having the American public choose who stays and who goes is unfortunately, for the contestants, the dumbest aspect of the show. How in the world is Jason still standing ahead of Michael Johns and Carly Smithson?? This is not a popularity contest. Year after year, they prove they have absolutely no ability to pick correctly. Case in point!! Ruben Studdard beating out Clay Aiken? How about Daughtrey getting the boot too early. What a joke that was. He was head and shoulders better than those that remained.
My suggestion would be to hire a large panel of judges all famous and related to the music industry. By large, I mean 12. A group that truly understands vocal ability and would not put up with the likes of Sanjaya and one of our current idols..........Jason.

The music needs to be more mainstream. They're alienating a huge demographic with the song choices the past few seasons - no what the contestants choose but what they have to choose from.

This is the first and only season of American Idol I've ever seen, but there's a few things I'd change already.

First, I'd mix up the judging some. Simon would stay as the permanent anchor, but I'd rotate the other two spots. Paula and Randy can stay and appear from time to time, but they'd be gone as far as weekly appearances. I'd also change the voting format so that the judges have a say in addition to the viewer's vote.

Next, I'd cut the theme weeks back some. It gets tiring hearing everyone do the same artist, especially in the early rounds, so I'd drop all but a week or two of the specific artist themes. The rest would be a wider theme such as a specific genre and/or time period. I'd also make the first couple rounds completely open. Letting the singers pick anything they want to sing would let us learn a bit more about them. Which leads right to me next point....

I'd like to see a bit more about of the singers behind the scenes. I'd don't want every detail, I don't care about their personal lives. I would like to see a little more of their personalities though. As is some of the singers have seemed like one-dimensional cartoons, a little extra time devoted to behind the scenes would go a long way in making them seem more like people.

My last idea would be to change the format of the audition and Hollywood rounds. Those first episodes of auditions were mostly useless for me. Why waste ten minutes of airtime on someone you know will only sing for 20 seconds. I'd cut those episodes down to one or two at most. That would leave room to expand Hollywood a couple episodes and see more of the people who can actually sing, and especially the ones who will actually make the show.

So that's what I'd change. Of course, I'm way outside the target audience of this show. As I said before, this is the only season I've ever watched and I've never bothered to vote. At first I started watching out of boredom and a lack of cable, then I found out through early spoilers online that someone I went to school with would make the top 24 (and is still going strong actually) so that kept me around. Honestly I have no idea if I'll ever watch another season. I just thought I'd throw in my two cents as a mostly outside observer, someone who doesn't have six previous seasons to compare this one to.

I would change it so you do vote for your least favorite, but then that would confuse people. That way you don't have the insane fans voting 100 times for the same person.