And continuing the topic of theme nights, less restraint is good. I’m not opposed to having one night be the music of some artist, but having four nights of it (especially within the same five-week period) was a bit much. Maybe having one or two nights dedicated to the music of different artists, but make sure that they have very different styles of music and are many weeks away from each other. I mean, while Neil Diamond week wasn’t the best (as much as I adore Brooke’s version of “I Am … I Said”), Bon Jovi week from Season 6 was pretty good.

And one more comment on theme nights: we need some new ones. I only really started to pay attention to Idol during Season 6, so I’m not up on all of the theme nights they had before then, but we could use some innovative ones. While the idea of the music from the year you were born night was kind of a head-scratcher (even with Brooke’s “Every Breathe You Take” and David Cook’s “Billie Jean”), it was a step in the right direction. Canadian Idol has had some success with the Unplugged night. And I enjoyed its Number 1 Hits night also. Other nights that would be cool to see: new wave, R&B, and the returns of big band/standards night and disco night.

I think I’m all talked out on this subject now. Haha

I would have to add that I think Fantasia has been on quite a bit also but she always brings some emotion and more @_@ to the show so it doesn’t bother me quite so much. I mean, I laughed for hours over Simon’s face this last time! But bring on Bucky and Ace.. so many others that we care about too!

Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s why it would be a hit the second time around à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’  the parents! the public wants drama and something to talk about.

Oh, this reminds me of something. Did you guys ever see a show called “Showbiz Moms & Dads”? It was horrifically awful in a way that cracked me up for days and days. Just the behind the curtain look it gave you into those kiddie beauty pageants was enough to show you how vile that industry really is.

So yeah, if they brought back Jr. Idol, with a good dose of behind the scenes crazy parents each week, sign me up.

I’m with all of you who’d love an expanded Hollywood week. That’s the portion of the competition that I feel the viewers are shortchanged on.

And, I can live without ever seeing Carrie Underwood or Jordin Sparks again. But, I understand that they have fans out there in Idol world who are happy to see them when they appear on the show. So, I can live with it IF, they rotate it a bit, and also bring back some other people we haven’t seen in a while. Oh, and when they do bring back Jordin & Carrie – they need to dress them better. Carrie looked like a high-class call girl in that outfit, and that gold dress made Jordin look like she weighed 300 lbs.

I agree with everyone else about the age limit. Heck even with Archie being so talented, it still made a difference to people in his believability factor.

I would rather stick with the three judges. I like their chemistry and they all crack me up. I really think that it would make for an awkward sitation in a lot of ways. (prolly behind the scenes too)

I would also like to not see Carrie Underwood next year. I’m sooooooo tired of her. I think it’s wonderful that she is grateful and loyal to the show but it has just been overkill.

Lastly, imagine this season with less restrictive themes! It was mostly all songs that were old. If the must have the themes split it up a bit. We had Neil Diamond and Andrew Lloyd Weber back to back. Gawd.

Some of those parents were awful like an imagined jeff archuleta and daddy mcphee combination. Horrendous.

That’s why it would be a hit the second time around — the parents! the public wants drama and something to talk about. If you try and contain “news” and gossip it makes it seem contrived. When we go to work the next day we want to talk about more than just the songs & singers….we talk about the hair, the dress, the attitude. The producers are the ones playing it safe, which makes it a dull show.

I agree with vfox: I enjoyed the songs they chose…if they sing too contemporary songs (i.e. Beyonce, Alicia Keys) then what you get is Imitation.

I think Daivd C(despite AI kissing) will sell 1 million at least and will be like Carrie U by keeping close ties to the show and thanking them…First week maybe 300,000 or more in sales.IMO not into both Daivds music .

I really dnk what AI does thier do what they do and they will say they listened to the public even if did not. Cuasual fan AI has to keep them the whole competition not just to see what happens durring the end or beginning..

I think alot of people actually believe the fairy tale stuff and they want their idols to be babes in the woods. None of them have been, but the illusion was there. Maybe something has to be done to address that as well.

There’s a big difference, in my opinion and I think in many other people’s minds, between someone like Taylor, Daughtry and Cookie, who work the bar scenes and may self-publish a cd and someone like Carly who has had the force of a major label behind a debut cd. When this show first premiered it was TPTB that fostered the idea of finding undiscovered talent and that is where everyone got that idea from. The viewers didn’t pick it out from thin air. They now seem to want to take a different approach, but I don’t think it was too successful this year. In my opinion, although she had some good performances, Carly didn’t do much more than highlight why she wasn’t a success the first time around.

As for the other suggestions, I wholeheartedly agree with not lowering the age and expanding the themes. Dolly Parton could have easily headed a country night that still would have put a lot of this year’s singers at a disadvantage. ALW could have been show tunes. One artist nights are simply too restrictive. If show tunes is too broad….do show tunes from a certain era. Bring back Big Band night! That was terrific!

But (I’ve read it elsewhere, so it’s not really an original thought) if they didn’t have the restrictive themes — we’d never have gotten Little Sparrow, Hello, Always Be My Baby. Come on, my beloved Cook never would have sung any of those songs on his own without the push from the theme nights — right?

He was in his Innocent box — and got shoved out a bit — which was a good thing, imo. (I *flove* Innocent-studio version, so don’t get me wrong here.)

There’s something to the themes when you can do it up big like Cook. Other wise you get Eight Days a Week and Michelle. (and I love Castro too…!)

One thing I notice with the CI judges is they are less harsh than their AI counterparts. The mean spirit of the judges on Jason Castro’s elimination night was a classic example this season, and methinks that is something TPTB today regrets.

Four judges in CI really makes no difference, it just takes two of them to equal one Simon. I think Paula and Randy should be replaced. Seven years is a long time in reality television.

not sure if anyone caught this, but the day after the finale the today show was talking about both davids and mentioned at the end of the clip that both davids would be on the today show, thursday May 29th…so get your dvr and tivos ready

clip is here if you wanna see it

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=45923059-22e1-4a72-9aea-0c0fcf8d17f5