10 Thoughts On… American Idol – Season Premiere Review

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. There is no question that Idol has learned from its mistakes. Last season’s judging panel was an absolute disaster with Nicki Minaj making every contestant comment about herself and Mariah Carey offering the insight that Britney Spears would at a Harvard symposium. The biggest lesson that the show’s producers have learned from The Voice is that the value of chemistry on the judging panel cannot be understated. There is a reason why Adam Levine and Blake Shelton haven’t taken a leave of absence from the show and that’s because their bromance is one of the centerpieces to the show’s credibility.

2. In that same regard, I echo the same sentiment as all of my critic counterparts. Harry Connick Jr., was the standout star of the first episode. Combining effortless wit, effective criticism and not taking himself or his role too seriously… Connick Jr. has made a case for being the best reality show competition judge after only one episode. I will admit that I was initially critical of this choice. I thought that Harry lacked in the star quotient department to join a panel that already included Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban, but it is for this exact reason that his selection makes perfect sense. Whereas previous judges were concerned with using Idol as a platform to push their own careers forward, this panel seemed genuinely interested in making the contestants better.

3. The new fonts and bumpers for the show looked very slick. While this aspect of the show is not receiving as much attention as everything else, it’s subtle nature really made the show seem like it was new and a much bigger deal. It was a phenomenal choice.

4. The one area where I thought the episode could have improved was in airing more of the bad auditions. Idol has made no secret of the fact that it wants to put the focus back on its stars, but this was a show that was made on the back of William Hung and the show should still respect that this is what people want to see in the first few episodes. Almost all of the ‘bad auditions’ were montaged into one segment and this was the only aspect of the episode that I didn’t like.

5. While I initially found all of the J-Lo adoration a bit much, clearly the producers knew more than we did as this was all a set-up for the fantastic Harry Connick segment at the end. BTW, it really wasn’t me that he was cradling.

6. I didn’t think this girl was particularly good, but her Gollum-like reaction to advance was pretty funny.

7. Obviously, I loved the cheerleader.

8. A lot will be said about former X Factor contestant, Jillian Jensen auditioning for this show. Like most X Factor fans, I was devastated when she was unfairly eliminated from Demi Lovato’s team a few seasons ago (as I genuinely thought she would win). While some have argued that the exposure she already experienced after The X Factor, give her an unfair advantage, I do not share this opinion. The fact of the matter is that previous Idol contestants who have made it to the Hollywood round but were cut before the live shows, always come back and audition again. It even happened with last season’s winner, Candice Glover. With that said, I believe that Jillian has every right to compete again and I have every confidence that The X Factor‘s loss will be American Idol‘s gain.

9. Ryan Seacrest is still the best host on television.

10. A friend of mine is auditioning on tonight’s episode and I can’t wait to see it!

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.