Idol Made the Decision to Tour the Top 11 Before The Save

By On 03/25/2011 · 57 Comments · In American Idol, American Idol 10

Share on TumblrShare via email

19 Entertainment president Iain Pirie tells USA Today that a decision to include the Top 11 on the summer tour  was made separately from last night’s save of Casey Abrams. In fact, he swears it had nothing to do with the save, at all:

“It was actually totally unconnected,” Pirie says. “Any of them could have been in the bottom. Whether that person was saved or not saved, we made the decision that we wanted to tour these 11 kids and make an exception this year and really celebrate the strength of this cast.”

Pirie says the decision was made very recently, but before the results of this week’s audience voting was known. “The decision was really based on our genuine enthusiasm for how this season is evolving and the quality of talent we’ve been able to find.”

The Grassy Knoller in me is going Hmmm… So…even if Haley Reinhart or Naima Adedapo–two frequent bottom-dwellers–had been eliminated last night, Idol producers would have been willing to bear the extra expense to take them along on tour this summer? Particularly after last year’s outing lost money?

I’m having a hard time buying it. What do you think?

ETA: At the very least, the decision had to be about the fear of losing somebody they wanted on tour. There have been other extremely talented casts–I’m thinking Season 5 & 7 & 8, yet those tours were not expanded. Heck, when Season 2 lost both Corey (DQ’d) and Josh Gracin (Marine’s wouldn’t release him), they STILL only toured with 11 contestants.

UPDATE:  A source tells the Hollywood Reporter that:

the added cost of adding another cast member to the production and travel schedule won’t make a major impact on the tour’s budget. “The thinking is, ‘It’s a great season, why not pull out all the stops?’,” says an insider.

Taking 11 contestants on tour because it’s the Greatest! Season! Evah! is a way to hype the season I suppose. Actually, Season 10 isn’t the best ever in my opinion. But maybe TPTB figure if they keep repeating it–even to the point of padding the tour–people will believe it.

 
← Older Comments
  • broddybounce

    No, MJ, this definitely is not the best season. Far & away, Season 8 was the best (Gokey notwithstanding) — and not just Adam & Kris & Allison (albeit very big reasons) but that was simply an outstanding group altogether.

  • jammasta

    I actually do think this is a better season than the last two (at least in terms of how spread the talent is).

    In Season 8, Kradison seemed to dominate, but the changes kinda seemed to throw people off. Top 36 was awkward and cut a crapload of people who could have gone much farther, Kara didn’t turn out so well, the 10th-7th place finishers did not hit their stride until the tour (which was a little late for TV), blah blah blah…..

    Season 9… well, that was a total disaster. The Top 24 return was a good idea IMO, but for whatever reason, the voters cut the talent so early that the season was terrible. Hell, it was so bad it may have shot down Paul McDonald’s chance of winning this season, as the abundance of guitarists last season was “solved” this season by limiting instruments. “Solved” in quotations because it wasn’t the best solution at all.

    Cut to Season 10. We’ve got Nigel Lythgoe back and changes to the judges panel that were awesome (well, in Steven Tyler’s case, he started out awesome, but now is too nice) there’s probably only one or two contestants who got eliminated too early (Lauren Turner and Kendra Chantelle), the talent is spread out among the 11 we have right now. We may not have had any real “moments” when it comes to singing, but we make up for that with a relatively solid group where everyone deserves to be there, and, compared to the previous seasons, there were not as many talented people being cut too early. Thia and Haley might be the two weak links, but both have had some interesting performances.

    Best season ever? Probably not. However, it’s one of the more evenly spread groups in terms of talent. It seems like half the group or more have been considered front-runners at one point or another. I sense a few dark horses if some of them step it up. For the past two seasons, we’ve had people front runners declared for finale already (and being at least half-right). This season, I don’t see the finale as definite. Granted, I do have my Top 2 for finale, and I do want a third in there (James and Scott are my Top 2 with Pia as my third), but I can see that changing throughout the season if many of these contestants continue to improve.

    Yeah, that was a lot of past season rehashing, but I felt the “BEST SEASON EVAH” thing had to be commented on. I still think S5 and S7 were the best groups overall. But the balance in this group may be a breath of fresh air compared to S6-S9 (probably S5, but not sure) where the front runners seemed so obvious even at this point in the season that the other contestants seemed to be scoffed. Granted, it’ll probably happen again this season, but I think I’ve declared 7 different contestants in our top 11 a front runner, and 1 of them a dark horse. I believe it calls for a good season. Now we just gotta hope that a bunch of these people don’t pull a Lil Rounds on us.

    Could Nigel Lythgoe coming back have been one of the best things to happen to this show?

  • gangreen29

    Taking 11 contestants on tour because it’s the Greatest! Season! Evah! is a way to hype the season I suppose. Actually, Season 10 isn’t the best ever in my opinion. But maybe TPTB figure if they keep repeating it–even to the point of padding the tour–people will believe it.

    They didn’t call it the greatest season ever. They called it a great season. YOU are the one who brought greatest season into this.

  • Elek

    Now that Simon Cowell is not in the panel, I am sure that having even the Top 24 on the road will not be a burden on the tour budget. The guy was paid a hefty load and I don’t think the existing judges are costing the producers that much.

    What I always hear them (AI) saying is that this season has the BEST group of all so using GREATEST would actually mean the same. But how can this group now be declared as the best when it is a fact that two previously rejected contestants made it to the Top 24 and one even made it to Top 10?

    One way of determining which is the best group is probably comparing the number of garnered votes during the Top 11 Performance Night of each season. The highest would somehow mean that the contestants of that season must be that good that they have to vote hard (bleeding fingers as fanatics would say) in order to keep the very best in the group. I do not have the figures and I am not going to make a research just to make a point here but I know that someone could produce those here for further discussion.

    I have seen practically all seasons and comparing the pre-selection that occured then and now, I have noticed that a lot of good singers are OUT before the Top 24. And if the judges were not only insisting on the contestant’s so-called uniqueness and marketability, I am sure that any season could have had a much solid group of great aspiring singers.

    The problem (perhaps the success) of finding the best crop is choosing the best panel of judges first and foremost. Judges with real ears for outstanding and uniquely distinctive voices and who are not affected by the contestants personalities are the best people for the task. It is when the judges dig into one’s personality that they cannot avoid creating their favourites in them. But I guess that is so much of a human factor.

    Considering the group right now, my pick for the top spots goes to (1) James Durbin for his star quality, uniqueness, incredible high pitch and Tourette’s; (2) Scotty McCreery for his great love for country music and his deep solid voice not to mention how he showed the world that he is a true gentleman at his very young age; (3) Thia Megia for her very distinctive and pleasant voice that I could actually close my eyes and listen to wonderful music; (4) Lauren Alaina for her very relaxed voice and youthful take on all the songs she chooses; and (5) Stefano for delivering some great moments in the show.

    Though Thia and Stefano have been bottomed recently for the first time, I know that they would do better next time and my impression towards them still remains strong.

    IMO

  • fuzzywuzzy

    I think that there’s a lot of talent this season, but it’s a bit odd for me because I don’t think that anyone has had a “wow” moment that separates them from the pack. Regarding the goal of the show (to find a major recording star), I’m not sure that there’s anyone that fits the bill so far. I’ve learned to ignore Randy and his yearly claims that they have the most talented people ever.

  • tripp_ncwy

    It seems there could be some truth to the decision of TPTB to go with 11 on tour. TMZ reports that Casey had another blood transfusion Thursday morning.

    http://www.tmz.com/2011/03/26/american-idol-casey-abrams-save-voted-off-hospital-stomach-heard-it-through-the-grape-vine-ryan-seacrest/

  • nncw

    Logically – if you are saving someone then you don’t need to have 11 people on the tour as the person with the least number of votes next week would not go on tour say that would be determined at the top of the show; and at the end of the show the person with the 2nd lowest number of votes (tenth person) would go on the tour. I think it is just to hype the show and the talent – but changing rules is always risky and I think Nigel has a history of doing it on So You Think You Can Dance (where injured dancers were treated differently as to whether they could stay if they missed a week of performing). Maybe it would be more transparent if the show said at the start we will have a judges or producers’ pick for the tour as an option that would add a bit of suspense like a wild card pick for the tour.

← Older Comments