Quote:Last season was my first recapping American Idol for EW.com, so I watched it “a million bazillion percent” (– Randy Jackson) more intently than I had in the past. I was more enamored by and hopeful for the contestants, more critical of the judges and their outfits, and constantly mining the stage for unsung heroes/hidden gems. So if Idol had changed, it’s possible I didn’t notice the subtle shifts precisely because my approach to watching it had also changed.

That said — was last year’s sing-athon really much different than it had been from 2002-2010? The audition rounds made us sob; our host was comfortingly Seacresty. Randy returned as the constant gardener, watering down and serving up different verbal combo platters of the same seven sentences he’s grown accustomed to saying on TV. The biggest difference from olden times was that there wasn’t a cranky British man yelling at everyone. I suppose the atmosphere was all-around friendlier, but as the season progressed, the judges’ affability grew monotonous — and later, when they inexplicably shut down talented third-place growler Haley Reinhart, infuriating.

(01-09-2012, 01:05 PM)Miguel Wrote:

Quote:Last season was my first recapping American Idol for EW.com, so I watched it “a million bazillion percent” (– Randy Jackson) more intently than I had in the past. I was more enamored by and hopeful for the contestants, more critical of the judges and their outfits, and constantly mining the stage for unsung heroes/hidden gems. So if Idol had changed, it’s possible I didn’t notice the subtle shifts precisely because my approach to watching it had also changed.

That said — was last year’s sing-athon really much different than it had been from 2002-2010? The audition rounds made us sob; our host was comfortingly Seacresty. Randy returned as the constant gardener, watering down and serving up different verbal combo platters of the same seven sentences he’s grown accustomed to saying on TV. The biggest difference from olden times was that there wasn’t a cranky British man yelling at everyone. I suppose the atmosphere was all-around friendlier, but as the season progressed, the judges’ affability grew monotonous — and later, when they inexplicably shut down talented third-place growler Haley Reinhart, infuriating.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/09/x-factor-american-idol-fatigue/

(01-09-2012, 04:32 PM)fover Wrote:

(01-09-2012, 01:05 PM)Miguel Wrote:

Quote:Last season was my first recapping American Idol for EW.com, so I watched it “a million bazillion percent” (– Randy Jackson) more intently than I had in the past. I was more enamored by and hopeful for the contestants, more critical of the judges and their outfits, and constantly mining the stage for unsung heroes/hidden gems. So if Idol had changed, it’s possible I didn’t notice the subtle shifts precisely because my approach to watching it had also changed.

That said — was last year’s sing-athon really much different than it had been from 2002-2010? The audition rounds made us sob; our host was comfortingly Seacresty. Randy returned as the constant gardener, watering down and serving up different verbal combo platters of the same seven sentences he’s grown accustomed to saying on TV. The biggest difference from olden times was that there wasn’t a cranky British man yelling at everyone. I suppose the atmosphere was all-around friendlier, but as the season progressed, the judges’ affability grew monotonous — and later, when they inexplicably shut down talented third-place growler Haley Reinhart, infuriating.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/09/x-factor-american-idol-fatigue/

I expect we will see many more references to Haley as we get closer to AI-11.