American Idol Season 12 (2013)

I actually liked Mariah and Nicki going at it. They both give each other crap and it's funny to me. Nicki Minaj's faces when Mariah would do something diva-ish were hilarious. I don't hate Keith Urban as a person near as much as I hate him as a musician. I liked it. And there were also some pretty good singers.

Not much talent on display last night from the singers or the judging panel. Nicki dominated the proceedings to the detriment of the show, imo. Urban is boring as hell, and Mariah's diva act is already tired. Ratings were the worst ever for an American Idol premiere. Down 20 percent from last year's all new low. It's so bad now that even Vote for the Worst is giving up on the show. Haha, that's funny.

The ratings weren't that bad, EXCEPT that they promoted the hell out of this season. Commercials were everywhere, including unlikely channels like the Big Ten Network! This, along with exorbitant amount of money paid to the new judges AND the hyped "fight" between Nicki and Mariah, were meant to salvage, if not increase last year's rating. IT DIDN'T WORK. This is the end of the expensive, big name judges.

Yep, pay Britney and get nothing for it. Pay Mariah and get nothing for it. Hopefully they'll get the message and focus on the talent, or at the very least focus on having a nice bond between the judges. I found the constant cattiness between Nicki and Mariah to be as off-putting as the junk on X Factor. And based on what Mike Darnell has said, it's only going to get worse. He thinks its what people want to see, so he intends to give them more of it. Sad to see Idol going in that direction.

i hope this show gets cancelled.

Wouldn't that be something! I couldn't agree more, it's gone beyond entertaining....

Tried to watch again this year, at least the auditions. I cannot stand this Nikki girl. I am out just based on that. I am sure other viewers will feel the same so it will be interesting if they pull the plug on her early.

The auditions are never really my favorite. Too much sad story family talk for my liking, but the truth is I normally skip through that stuff anyway so it is no big deal. Not that thrilled with the focus on so many country singers. It is not a style I enjoy so the more time they spend on it the more I want to fast forward through it. I have to admit I had never heard Keith Urban sing or speak before and I surprised he was from New Zealand/Australia. The judges did alright.

For me, the show outside of Simon has always been about the singing so that is all I care about. Like every year there is always talent or one or two good auditions that stand above the rest. I liked the girl who sang Baby its cold outside. I thought the guy who sang Sweet Dreams tapped into the haunting style of the song while bringing his own spin to it.

Holy crap, worse judging panel ever. Minaj is absolutely horrible and almost unwatchable. Her voice is soooo annoying and she is so desperate for attention. Plus she isn't even that talented.

Mariah tries so hard to be a diva she comes across as fake and shallow. Her acting is so bad.

Urban is a lifeless place holder that has no good opinion and does nothing on the show.

Horrible, just horrible.

That should say "She isn't even talented."

Look some of you may not like rap, but to say she has no talent or is bad at what she does stretches your credibility. In very tough industry for a female rapper she found a niche and has been successful.
Edited by spid - 1/18/13 at 9:52am

What does rapping have to do with singing? She would make more sense on X Factor, where at least they have some rap acts.

Idol and apparently the voters don't care about a singer's stage presence, so it really doesn't matter if Nicki critiques that area--just look at last year, when the winner can get away with sitting down, and the second place finisher often had her feet planted on the stage like they were set in concrete.

Some decent and touching moments in the first few shows, some good singing. The girls are already really getting on my nerves though, especially Nicki. What's with her going back and forth between the fake British accent and a heavy New York one? Mariah is a total diva on one hand, on the other seems like she's going to break down and cry with any decent singer or moving story. Keith seems like a decent guy with a good sense of humor, it must drive him nuts sitting between those two.

I doubt many of us would qualify as good singers, but we all come to this thread to judge people who can. She does in fact sing and she works within the business so she is qualified to judge singers.

Sorry, but I've been listening to rap for like 30 years. She is not talented. She can't sing, everything about her is phony, from the stupid British and valley girl accents to her ass implants...

Under those standards almost everyone in show business qualifies to be a judge on this show.

Eighteen posts before this one and barely one word about the quality of the contestants, just griping about the judges. So, for what it's worth, I think some of the contestants have been very good. I especially liked the daughter of Vince Gill's piano player last night. She has star quality.

That's because the show is trying to take the focus off of the singers and put it on the judges. If they had confidence that the singers could carry this show, they wouldn't be wasting all that money on judges.

And regardless of what these singers sound like during auditions, the same results happen every year. Some sound great, and then it is shown that they can only sound great on a couple songs. Some have a unique voice, but then they end up making every song sound the same. Randy Jackson will pronounce that this is the best season ever. It'll turn out that the show only has 4 or 5 pretty good singers, with the rest being mediocre. Then the winner will be crowned, which, going by the last several years, has very little chance of being anything but a white male. After 12 years of this, it isn't hard to understand why the producers think that something besides the singing is needed to keep people interested.

I think I am done talking about the judges for a long while. If you don't like them fast forward like I have been doing for about five years now. I do not remember her what did she sing?

I don't remember the exact song she sang, just that she was very good. She was blond, about 19-20 and very bubbly with a good voice suited to country music without being too "twangy." Her parents and family were there, and her dad (the piano player) wore a big floppy hat.

This show is definitely one to record. DVRs make it real easy to bypass the stuff that's annoying.

I found the entire thing annoying this season and stopped watching, at last for now....

In the old days you could get at least 20-30 minutes of singing out of the 2 hour shows, but now I'm lucky to get 10 minutes. They're clearly more interested in the judging table and telling sob stories than they are showing the people sing.

Two things that struck me about last night show. One there seems to be a glom of blonde girls singing country this year. You always have to factor in the show is edited each year so there maybe the same number of country singers, but they are being shown more. The quirky slightly off the beaten path approaches some singers tried before seem to be replaced by, in my eyes, safe country songs.

I thought about this just this week. Why don't more singers try tweaking rap songs into a singer's song. The last singer choose a song that was familiar to ton of people, but put her own spin on it. The advantage of rap song is you will not be instantly compared to the original singer. Also if you change the tempo of the song it is not as jarring as taking a classic singer's song.

Maybe trying to cash in on Carrie Underwood, the best that ever was on the program...

I think it's funny that Idol's producers wimped out and didn't show the actual fight between Mariah and Nicki. Cowards. And on top of that, for all FOX's advertising of the drama, the episode was down in the ratings another 10 percent. Getting your money's worth yet, Nigel/Simon?

I miss JLo. Heck, Nikki and Mariah make me miss Paula!