First Idol Post of 2008

Bernie and I watched American Idol last night to see the 12 guys sing. There's too many of these people to run down strengths and weaknesses individually, however, I will say that all twelve of these guys are better than any of the guys from last season's finals. Including Blake.

Nobody earned less than 7 out of 10 on my (fictional) scorecard last night, whereas I don't think I would have given that many points to more than a couple of male performances during last season.

I think the Hernandez guy (first performer of the evening) and Chikeze (Jacuzzi, according to Simon) were the worst of the lot, with the falsetto dude Menard close behind. The best was David Archuleta, who if they don't let him giggle like a retarded child on camera too much (like they did last night) might have a chance to win this season. The guy with the dreadlocks wasn't bad either. The Australian guy irritates me for some reason, and he's a quarter pitch flat most of the time. I actually liked the gay kid and the Ellen Degeneres look-alike kid, though Simon hated them.

From what I've seen of the ladies this season, the female contingent will overwhelm the guys once we go head-to-head in 3 weeks. If the guys are better this year, the girls look to be stellar.

Judge-wise, Simon was the worst he's ever been on last night's show. He's definitely scripting his insults before the show airs, and he isn't a good enough actor to hide it. It really doesn't make sense to blather on and on about being "relevant" and "modern" if the theme is 60's night. The contest is for singing, not for arranging (if it was, I'd enter and win). The judge comments were the least interesting aspect of the show last night, which is a switch. I'm beginning to think that Randy actually is the best judge of talent on the panel these days, even if 90% of what he says is indecipherable.

One day, they'll let the vocal coaches from Idol get on camera and tell us what they think. That will be interesting to hear. Probably the only intelligent commenting we'll ever hear from this show.