American Idol is Rigged, in My Opinion

Up until 2003 or 4 the TV show American Idol was a show that did a fine job of judging young people on their talent in singing in a singing competition show. That all changed with the onset of the automatic dialer, something that anyone with half a brain can download off of the Internet. This was never so apparent when last year the public voted an almost fully gray hair man named Taylor Hicks as its American Idol.

During the show Hicks sang songs that boarded on living room performances and at best lounge acts at the local Travel Lodge. As time went on and with the help of the producers at Fox he got better and I feel that he obtained the status of maybe an opening act to someone else on American Idle but truly no one of no real stature and certainly no big name venue. Bare in mind that Fox and it’s producers like Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Cowell are looking for marketability in the future and record sales too. They weren’t counting on some old guy and this fictitious “soul patrol” as Randy Jackson coined the phrase to catch on but then they underestimated the power of the Internet as well.

In one such part of the plot; On the April 25th show, whose theme was Greatest Love Songs and featured guest coaches Andrea Bocelli and David Foster, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe forced contestant Taylor Hicks to change his song a day before air time (and the same day as the dress rehearsal). Hicks' chosen song was "Try a Little Tenderness," but Lythgoe, in a radio interview, claimed the song was more appropriate for a Blues Brothers week and was not a song that Andrea Bocelli would sing. Hicks changed his song at the last minute to "Just Once" (James Ingram) and appeared very uncomfortable on stage. Hicks fans were distressed, feeling that a) Hicks' original choice of song was very appropriate to the theme; b) The producers changed the song at the last minute even though they must have known Hicks' choice the previous week as they must obtain clearance for all songs; c) Lythgoe's statement that it was not a song Andrea Bocelli would sing was dubious, as other song choices that were approved were songs sung by Bryan Adams ("Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman," sung by Chris Daughtry) and Donny Hathaway ("A Song for You," sung by Elliott Yamin)

So why did he do that; was it because they could obviously see that the people were voting for this no name person no matter what they did and there was nothing they could do about it?...well yeah..duh But it didn’t do any good and pushing for Elliott Yamin which we all could see that the judges were doing did no good at all.

I mean he was pretty good and everything but he wasn’t the best of the group either. Everyone who watched the show last year knows for sure that the winner should have been Chris Daughtry, but that’s not what this blog is about. It’s about whether or not the American Idol contest is rigged and whether or not you believe it.

This year there’s also obvious bios when it comes to female vocalists, whether it be with the public or the judges or both. It’s obvious to me at least that between the three judges that they only prefer African American females and as for the males there is no preference. Not that I’m calling anyone a racist but it’s clear that the first to go are the white girls this year regardless of their singing abilities and regardless of their marketabilities. There’s also, because of other prior threat of law suits I suppose, one person of size picked again this year for the third time that I can recall. There was Ruben then Mandisa and now Lakisha. In between Ruben and Mandisa I believe there was the threat of a law suit from the Large Persons of America or something like that.

I think that a couple of years ago the bulk of America with the power if the Internet behind them figured out that the first part of the show was scripted like a sit-com. You’ll have your over-weight but great singing person that Simon makes a joke about at first and then has to apologize to later on.

Then you’ll have the cutesy blond or brunette who makes silly comments and makes us all laugh early enough on so that the audience just loves her. It could be two of them but they get kicked off anyway.

Then you’ll have the adorable young heart throb. Last year we had 'Chicken Little' and this year it’s Sanjaya Malakar who frankly I have no nickname for without sounding racist myself. There are some out there though that I heard but I’m not posting them.. Well ok, I think if thirty million people can watch him sing then I can just pray that half that many will be pissed that I made a bad joke with his name. Ok; Camel Singer and we’ll leave it at that. My point is that they’ll always have the cute young boy for the teenie-girls to go for and then he’ll get voted off for sure.

Next you’ll have the bitch. Last year; Brenda, this year, can anyone say “God loves good people”? My goodness how sacrilegious can you get; and on National TV?

So what can be done? What is the answer for the producers that came up with the rules that you can call as many times as you want for your favorite contestant. Well I have a suggestion for them now that the cat is out of the bag, presuming that they know about this little glitch in their system and presuming that they even care; come up with their own telephone answering that detects any one telephone number calling in more than, let say, 50 times and let that be the limit on how may times each telephone or IP address can cast a vote. With the advent of high speed internet it’s possible to set a computer to redial for two hours and get in probably 2,000 votes and if you times that by a consortium of 200 geeks that equals 400,000 votes. Just think if it were 2,000 geeks or more. Remember as I said in the beginning of this blog, you can download this sort of program or buy it for $39.00 just about anywhere.

I don’t know who’s going to win this year’s American Idol. All of the men seem like they are winners, my money’ on Blake. The girls are all pretty good too. What it looks like is that the producers are on to what I just described above but instead of taking the honest route however they chose to take the usual Hollywood approach and played it as they always do. Reverse bigotry and putting in only talented people. No goofs this year, except for maybe Sanjaya but he does have a pretty nice voice, just not American Idol standards. America has the choice to make this year; embarrass us again or don’t, it’s that simple in my opinion.

If you’re gonna pick someone for American Idol then pick someone who is an excellent singer, can draw them in the stadiums, can WOW them in record sales and is someone who America aspires to look like. That’s what an “Idol” is, Get it? “I.D.O.L.” look it up in the dictionary, man. An idol is something that you worship so much that you wish you could become that in which you idolize. Now do you know anyone that wants to look like Ruben Studdard? Or look like Taylor Hicks? I didn’t think so. Sound like them sure.

And what is this crap tonight’s about the girls sounding better than the guy’s last night? Randy Jackson; Are you smoking dope Dude? The guys last night did a great job and Jordan, while doing an ok job with her song wasn’t high enough with her rendition of her Pat Benitar song for me. And last night the judges not knowing a 311 song when here in Ohio we, at age 48, we all know it? What’s up with that?

There seems to be something wrong with Idol and like I said I think it’s rigged… or just plain broke. In this case, if it’s broke, please fix it!

That’s the Lazlo Report for March 7, 2007