Top 24 Chosen
I’m hearing that today is the day the Top 40, chosen mid-November in Los Angeles, will be whittled down to the Top 24.
The eliminations will take place at the Pasadena Civic Center from 10 am to 4 PM today.
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In other news…
USA Today reports that American Idol producers have finally secured permission to perform songs from the Beatles catalog–a big coup for the show. Says executive producer, Ken Warwick, “We’ve got the permission. [from Sony, which owns the publishing rights] Certain songs are still off limits.” But, “They said, ‘Tell us what songs you want and we will do our best.’ ”
They should get enough songs cleared to do a theme week. Warwick thinks the Beatles theme may be performed by the Top 12 finalists.
Ideally, Paul McCartney or George Martin would appear on the show to mentor the kids, but that’s still merely an item on the producer’s wish list.
A Beatles theme, during Top 12 week–I have mixed feelings about that. I’d rather they wait until later on in the competition, when only the best singers are left. I’m not really looking forward to hearing some of my favorite songs in the world butchered by nervous and/or inexperienced singers.
A couple more items from the USA Today article:
- The online competition to write the “coronation” song for the next Idol is in the final stages of being put into place. A group of “experts” would choose around 100 songs that fans could listen to and vote for online. During the season, Idol would hold a special in which former Idol singers would perform “10 or so” of the favorites, with viewers voting to pick two songs for the Top 2.
- During Top 6 week, according to Warwick, “…we’re going to have a big special, with lots of stars. It might be an extra day [during the week].”
