But the blatant pimping has been going on from the beginning of the series.

It’s just worse this year. Previous years I just watched with some mild amusement at the pimping, this year I felt they have crossed a line into a level that I find offensive. The pimping was both excessive (both Adam and Danny) and disproportionate (Danny in particular), as well as distasteful at times (vis-Ã  -vis the dead wife affair) and unreasonable.

However, I don’t think I would be as annoyed as I was if the excessive pimping weren’t coupled with the odious semi-final format. I assume because of the way the semi-final was formulated, they had to do this mad pimping just to make sure that can get the people they want into the Top 13. In previous years, you feel that despite all the pimping, it is ultimately the people who decide what happens to the contestants. This year it felt more like a producers’ and judges’ game, that they have written a script well in advance before the semi-final that there should be a Adam-Danny finale with a supporting cast of Lil, Scott, Jasmine, Megan, Matt and Anoop among the Top 13, and they will use all the tricks they have, and add a few more (jugdges’ pick, judges’ save and what have you) just to get what they want.

I think that, for a variety of reasons, neither Danny nor Adam would have won this year, and it is quite fortuitous that Kris won because I think there were other semi-finalists who could very well have won this year if they had advanced to the Top 13 (Ricky Braddy, Felicia Barton and quite a few others). It is what made it felt so unfair, and why I felt the producers have violated the spirit of the competition and the reason that made AI the success it has been – the viewers feel that they are the ones who are creating the stars; they vote for them, watch them grow (or falter as the case may be) as they progress through the show each week, root for them, support them after the show is over and obsessively track their post-Idol career. This year it felt more like the producers and judges were saying – “we have a couple of people here we want to make a star of, just vote for them, stupid”. Few, perhaps as few as two or three (and Kris is one of these very few), outside of their pre-ordained finalists got a fair chance to progress. The whole thing just sticks in the throat for me.

Im not opposed to the 4th judge/Kara….i have more of a problem w. ryan’s time consuming lame jokes and paula/simon’s childish antics. instead of controlling this, the producers infamously decided to split up the judging ‘ ¦an idiotic move that Ken was responbile for yet he receives a pat on the back by Fox.

Im ok with the top 36 format….as it gives more kids the opportunity to appear before America. Who knows, maybe Allison and Kris would not have made a top 20 cut. What I do not agree w. is putting in “personalities” over real talent (norman gentle anyone???) AND wasting the wildcard on the likes of package “artists” like megan and jasmine. I understand the judges make this decision but i find it hard to believe the show producers dont have a say in who simon and company select.

And yes, hooray for more hollywood week airtime…but a big boo hiss for wasting 75% of the airtime on jerry springer style drama. No more bikini girl..thats why we have the audition rounds, to laugh at these type of silly performers.

Hollywood week is supposed to be about talent. And for anyone that believes you need bad singing/drama to create memorable moments….two words for yall..White Chocolate. Now THAT performance was what hollywood week should have been all about. I would much rather have seen kris/matt the other contestants practice for their routine than watch bikini girl roll her eyes and twirl her hair.

IF you spend more time on the contestants during hollywood week, then you can have a top 36 that people are somewhat familiar with. And if you do a top 20, then at least we would understand why some people didnt make the cut. Again, another idiotic move by Ken.

So my radical proposal is get someone other than either Ken or Nigel. Surely there are producers out there that would love to work on the most popular show on TV who are competent like Nigel, but not with his negatives? Of course, why didn’t they hire that person instead of Ken, we’ll never know.

That would be you, mj!

I miss Nigel. There. I said it.

Sigh – don’t we all…..

The one thing he did do right, to be fair, is to give Hollywood week more airtime.

The results shows overall were also greatly improved this year. More entertainment, less filler. So, I’ll give Ken that.

I don’t think it is an accident that the winner of the show is someone who wasn’t pimped to high heaven early on, an unfancied one who somehow managed to squeak through the blatantly unfair semi-final heavily stacked in favour of the early favorites. Many people just have this gag reflex when they see the producers and judges trying to shove their favorites down our throat. If they want to pimp someone next time, do it with some subtlety, OK?

But the blatant pimping has been going on from the beginning of the series. It’s what stopped me watching it, except in clips and/or recaps, for years. I couldn’t take it anymore. And Nigel has been doing the same thing, again quite successfully, where success is determined as the person the show is clearly pimping wins, on SYTYCD as well. I wouldn’t have watched AI again unless I had seen Adam’s RoF clip, become addicted and then went back and watched the rest of the show and was hooked going forward. I’m done with SYTYCD after last year’s successful pimp job for Josh Allen. So regarding the pimping? I don’t see how it would get any better if Nigel were back in charge.

Now it certainly does appear that Nigel runs a tighter ship, both from how much better things ran when he was at AI and how smoothly things run at SYTYCD. So there is that. But he still does the pimping stuff galore and I lobster hate all the crap he brings to both shows with attitudes about ‘manliness.’

So my radical proposal is get someone other than either Ken or Nigel. Surely there are producers out there that would love to work on the most popular show on TV who are competent like Nigel, but not with his negatives? Of course, why didn’t they hire that person instead of Ken, we’ll never know.

But seems like the show is fine with the amount of money they are making, which despite lowered ratings, is even more than before. And would rather just harden what they do have, rather than make another change after only one season. I disagree. If someone isn’t working out, than you don’t keep them on.

So it seems the Peter Principle is alive and well on AI.