Monday November 5, 2007
Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell at The 24th Annual William S. Paley Television Festival in West Hollywood, CA. on March 1, 2007.
Kevin Parry/WireImage.comAnd you thought that American Idol contestants' singing was entertaining....
Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe has announced that contestants will now be able to play instruments during their acts, the New York Post reports.
Other changes in store for the next season (which debuts on Fox in January):
• Fewer celeb mentors — like Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani — will appear on the show, to avoid taking attention away from the contestants.
• In a possible bid to boost the fledgling sales, the annual summer Idol tour may be combined with the So You Think You Can Dance? tour.
The Idol season is already underway.
"We just finished auditions," Randy Jackson told at the 2007 Angel Ball in NYC October 29.
At the end of the month, 160 candidates will be whittled down to just 24 by judges Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul in Hollywood.
So how were auditions this year?
"Crazily good," Jackson told Us.
eh, that's going to change it into a whole new animal.It will probably hurt many of the singers.
Works for me! They get brownie points if they can play an instrument, preferably the guitar. Love me some rocker dudes :)
Glad to hear that.
They allowed competitors to play musical instruments on CI last year. And in previous years they sometimes played instruments during the go-home-night.
It really improved CI in my opinion. You got a real sense of the competitors personalities when they played an instrument and it attracted a lot more talented competitors.
I think AI has to do something. I only watched Season 5 because of Elliott. For me Season 6 was somewhat brutal to watch. The judges are not helpful and incredibly rude. And I never got a sense of the competitors personalities because to much time was focused on the judges and guests.
I'm being critical but I do prefer the CI for those reasons, competitors can play a musical instrument if they want or have someone back them up during the initial audition, and the judges are not as nasty.
I agree May, I love the way CI runs as opposed to AI. Plus, this really will help get more of a sense of the personalities, which is one reason I liked AI5 so much.