What "American Idol" should do next season
Here's my suggestion: copy "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" by having an "all stars" season with past winners and other memorable contestants. There have been six seasons of "American Idol" now, so you could have all six previous winners and runners-up make up a season of 12.
I think this would be really neat! Conventional wisdom seems to suggest that Kelly Clarkson (season 1) and Carrie Underwood (season 4) were the strongest winners, and that Taylor Hicks (season 5) was the weakest one. But what would America think? Would Clay Aiken (season 2 runner-up) outlast Rueben Studdard (season 2 winner) this time? Would Katharine McPhee (season 5 runner-up) outlast Hicks this time?
Fox, think about it!
Some of them are far too busy and successful to do it. Fox can only dream of getting some of these people like Kelly, Clay or Carrie to come back for one night. A whole season is out of the question.
Well, Kelly isn't going to be too busy now that her tour is canceled, she might do it.
Posted by: XOC | June 15, 2007 at 10:53 PM
That is one of the best ideas!! That would be an awesome season, perhaps they could even shorten it by having 2 people go per week so the contestants would only have to commit to 6 weeks. And since Idol still has a choke hold on almost every one of them (I believe they have dropped Justin G. from Season 1 and Bo Bice from Season 4) they really could MAKE them do it!
Talk about your high ratings and millions of phone call votes? The fan wars alone would put them over the highest they ever had, and they could charge for tickets to the taping. They are sitting on a gold mine!!
I am pretty sure it is a great idea that would go ignored by FOX and 19E, but if it happened I would watch it, TIVO it, record it and watch it again and again!!
I hope you can get this idea to FOX, and maybe someone will actually READ IT AND CONSIDER IT!! It would really be interesting!
Posted by: AI FAN | June 15, 2007 at 11:43 PM
But what about #4? (LOL)
Posted by: r | June 16, 2007 at 09:59 AM
Odd that you used Katharine in your intro since she has done so poorly. Taylor may have sold less albums than other winners but he is doing okay. But Katharine has to be the biggest disappointment as far as album sales. Chris and Kellie have already passed up her album count and his album is still building in sales since it came out long after the other ones but it is looking likely that Bucky will outsell Katharine as well.
Posted by: Billie | June 16, 2007 at 12:15 PM
I believe AI should do what RockStar, So You Think You Can Dance, and the Lot has done - have the bottom 3 that America has chosen and let the judges all three agree on who goes home. That will eliminate the Vote For The Worst Idol. Still, the judges can't agree and after all they were all wrong about Clay - they all wanted Ruben to win. Jennifer Hudson, who I loved and voted for, the judges were torn on and believe would have sent her home, too, compared to the bottom 2 that was with her. So, really - it's anyone's guess, but at least it would be a start to a "different" season. Something has got to be different.
Posted by: sim | June 16, 2007 at 06:37 PM
Duh! Repeat Season #2 Clay vs Ruben, that's a no-brainer. Clay won that season, we all know that! He's outsold, outperformed, outappeared and totally OUTSHINED poor Ruben and every winner since! Idol Found-Game Over!
Posted by: carol | June 16, 2007 at 11:01 PM
OMG - NONE of them would even be SLIGHTLY interested in doing anything like that! UGH
not even the "weakest winner" - Tay.
Posted by: hicksfan7 | June 18, 2007 at 08:33 AM
i think that clay aiken should do idol next season
Posted by: allison | June 24, 2007 at 07:23 PM
I'd be willing to bet this idea has been bandied about the network, and if it happens it'll air during sweeps month, because it'd surely draw gazillions of viewers.
Posted by: Angie Hartford | June 27, 2007 at 12:08 AM
It seems the biggest difference between former AI contestants and former Survivor/TAR contestants would be that while Survivor/TAR contestants are much more likely to consider being a reality show star a career onto itself (Rob and Amber anyone?), and thus would love to be continually be associated with and be on reality shows, Idol contestants tend to use Idol as a springboard into the music business, and want people to see them as musicians, not reality TV stars. Thus, I can't really see how any of the Idols with established music careers would agree to this unless it's hidden in their contracts somewhere.
Posted by: g | June 27, 2007 at 01:54 PM