The Idol producers did a press conference yesterday for journalists to talk about “The Next Great American Band.” I’m on the lookout for transcripts! Anyway, Rodney Ho of AGC.com, asked a few questions about the Atlanta auditions. He posted a few interesting tidbits on his American Idol blog.
Five years ago, 46 people from the Atlanta …American Idol auditions made it to Hollywood. Last week, only 49 people were even trotted before Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. (We dont know how many made it to the next round.)
Lythgoe said that this isnt necessarily a reflection of less talent emanating from the auditions. …Weve been very very picky this year. Weve just cut out a lot of crazies. The truth is once we have them on tape, we can use them in montages. It seems silly to waste the time of the real judges.
Of the seven audition cities this year, he said San Diego was the strongest while Dallas was the weakest. …With Kelly Clarkson the only big star out of Texas, it truly the Lone Star state, he joked.
And this:
He also repeated an earlier comment that …Idol next year will focus more on personalities, less on guest stars and …Idol Gives Back and Sanjaya hair and such.
Less crazies? More Talent? Featuring the contestants instead of guest stars pimping their latest whatever? Giving up on Emmy bait cause they probably will never win one anyway? It all sounds too good to be true. Really, it does.
