One of the best things about the original American Idol was the hilarious singers that were, shall we say, lacking in the musical talent department. From contestant William Hung’s off-key rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” to General Larry Platt’s LOL-inducing original song, “Pants On the Ground,” these misfired auditions were what made the show i-c-o-n-i-c.
According to The New York Times, Fox canceled the show in 2016, but it was picked back up by ABC for “the 2017-18 television season.” Upon its triumphant return to our living rooms, not only did the program bring on Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie as judges, but the pee-in-your-pants hilarious auditions from the not-so-good American Idol hopefuls had been scrapped. But why? The program’s showrunner, Trish Kinane told The Hollywood Reporter, “It doesn’t feel comfortable to put borderline unstable people up on stage and laugh at them.” She added, “We want the humor, but we don’t want the exploitation.”
Okay, fine. But the eccentric contestants are what made the show so entertaining, and with the revival straying away from that formula, many longtime viewers were ticked off to the max. “The judges of American Idol are boring,” one viewer tweeted, in part. “They lack the chemistry and spontaneity. Everything seems scripted– from their jokes, critiques and their interaction with contestants.”
Another critic tweeted: “American idol is so staged it’s almost awkward to watch.”
Welp, America has spoken, and the consensus is: the show is fakety-fake-fake!
