Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham sat in the American Idol judges’ chair formerly occupied by the departed Paula Abdul during last week’s second round of auditions in Denver, and anonymous meanies had their knives out: “It didn’t go too well,” a tipster told Radar. “She tried to hard to be ‘nice,’ but came off as icy and wooden.” And this is different from her Posh Spice persona how? I mean, come on. It’s not like we’re talking about one of the outgoing Spice Girls here! Tell me that Geri Haliwell was “icy” and I’d be surprised. More »
Fox today outlined its plans for replacing Paula Abdul at the American Idol judges’ table, and somewhat unfortunately, they involve retaining the four-judge panel that was instituted on the show last year. The show is going to bring in guest judges! “Our intention is to have guest judges be female pop stars, female performers,” Fox Entertainment chair Peter Rice said. Signed for next season so far: A & R expert Katy Perry and tabloid fixture Victoria Beckham. Even though Beckham is more known for her stick-thin figure and the clothes she hangs on it these days, she was a Spice Girl, right? Uh, sure. Any Idol watcher knows that Fox will likely make some sort of misstep in selecting other people to round out the panel; as a sort of pre-emptive strike against that, we offer up five female pop stars whose presence would make the new-look Idol judges’ table even more farcical than it already is. More »
Last night, Paula Abdul announced via Twitter that she wouldn’t be returning to American Idol to elliptically critique its singing hopefuls, a missive that was confirmed by Fox shortly after Abdul’s 140-character send-off went live. “I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent,but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day1become an international phenomenon,” Abdul typed; “While Paula will not be continuing with us, she’s a tremendous talent and we wish her the best,” replied Fox. (Idol host Ryan Seacrest, for his part, told his Twitter followers he was “shocked and saddened.”) So what does this mean for the show, which is creaking into its ninth season with declining ratings, an increased sense of self-aggrandizement, and—now—a little less spunk? Four outcomes for this season, after the jump. More »
In news that will probably thrill people who feel that network TV needs more incoherent, self-serving screeching, E!’s Marc Malkin is reporting that Kara DioGuardi has signed a deal to return to the televised talent competition for its ninth season. This news got me thinking about poor old Paula Abdul, who’s been publicly tussling over her contract with the show’s producers. Which is pretty annoying, since her comments to the show’s hopefuls, while completely undiagrammable as sentences, are actually pretty useful when you compare them to the endless streams of “dawgs” uttered by Randy Jackson and DioGuardi’s self-aggrandizing sing-offs. This calls for a poll, I think: Which member of the American Idol cast is the weakest link? Let’s go to the ballot box! More »
Today, the three American Idol finalists are making their hometown visits, and along with those visits come the announcement of the judge-selected songs each contestant will sing on Tuesday night. The heroic Idol blogger known as MJ has the scoop on the first pick, and oh boy is it a doozy: Paula Abdul, in a move that either proves she is a shrewd detector of oversized egos or completely whacked out, selected Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Dance Little Sister” for Danny Gokey. I mean… it’s just… oh, the dancing that will ensue. (And come to think of it, I suspect that “Sign Your Name” would have been kind of a great pick for Kris Allen. Oh well.) [Dailymotion; HT MJ] More »
Last night’s installment in the seemingly endless slog through American Idol‘s eighth season of auditions brought us to Jacksonville, Fla. But how to tie this city to Idol‘s shiny pop universe? How about rechristening it in honor of Randy Jackson (get it???), and giving the whole evening a PG-rated “Girls Gone Wild” sheen?
Paula Abdul has been making the talk-show rounds… More »
One thing the people behind American Idol have counted on in the past is the ratings racked up by the early-in-the-season audition episodes, which devote just as much airtime to the biggest sets of pipes as they do to those hopeless hopefuls who seem to aspire to become nothing more than the next William Hung. But one wonders if the news that a former contestant on the show–one who had three minutes of airtime during Season Five devoted to her slightly manic Paula Abdul fandom and her not-all-that-great rendition of “Proud Mary”–committed suicide outside Abdul’s home yesterday isn’t going to give the producers at least a little bit of a pause when they start editing the audition episodes for next season’s first episodes, which start back up on Jan. 13.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the brouhaha over Beyonce’s new video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” the choreography of which is a leeeeetle too close to the steps from Bob Fosse’s “Mexican Breakfast”–a viral video fave thanks to a dub-over of DJ Unk’s “Walk It Out”–for some folks’ comfort. Apparently putting a song over existing video is creative, while remaking the video’s particulars for a new song isn’t, or something, though I am grateful that one blogger was moved to accuse B of “straight up pull[ing] a Kenley” (A+).
Alas, I’m not talking about Annie Lennox. In an effort to bring what a Fox exec calls more “girl power” to the show, the judges’ table for the next season of American Idol will now have a Coke cup for songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who’s shared writing credits on songs including Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away” and collaborated with Stewart on the pseudo-retro project Platinum Weird. DioGuardi, who Idol head honcho Simon Fuller called “a smart, sassy lady,” is being billed as the show’s fourth judge, which I guess means either that the judges’ table will be widened or Paula Abdul will get some time off to “rest” now and again. (One producer claims that Idol was always supposed to have four judges, although it seems strange to me that it took the executives this long to find someone who wanted the gig.) A few highlights of DioGuardi’s career after the jump.
