Fixing American Idol

No, I am not saying American Idol is fixed. There are so many conspiracy theories out there concerning the outcome of American Idol, and this is not going to be one of them. What this will be, however, is my thoughts on how to “fix” the show and regain the ratings it has lost this year.

1. Limit the number of votes from a single source. In other words, one telephone vote per phone number and one text message vote per mobile phone. Once the lines close, rank the contestants in numerical order based on the totals.
2. Make Simon, Randy, and Paula part of the rankings. In my opinion, Randy and Simon are usually spot-on with their evaluations. Paula is, well, Paula. Require each judge to rank the contestants each week.
3. Selling the studio recordings on iTunes this year was genius. Take those sales into account. Again, rank each contestant based on sales. This would require more than 24 hours between the performance and results shows. Additionally, it would require the studio singles being released immediately following the performance show. Why do this? Simple. The ‘tweens’ texting 42,983 times for their favorite contestant will not necessarily translate to album sales. Incorporating sales figures will provide an actual indicator of which contestants truly are selling records.
4. Theme weeks can be killer. You can’t make a rock singer sing great Broadway or Mariah Carey. Sure, David Cook somehow pulled it off and truly showed his versatility. That is not the norm though. The goal of American Idol is to find the ‘next big star’ — and there is no way David Cook would attempt to put out an album of Broadway hits. This week’s theme though (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) was perfect. It allowed the contestants to pick, from a wide variety of songs, two songs that ideally fit them. Eliminating the superfluous themes will better allow the public to see the true artist and what kind of album they would record.

There is one final change that would legitimize the show again — publish all rankings, vote totals, sales figures, etc.

As for this year’s show, it will definitely be a David vs. David finale. Let’s just hope that David Cook is victorious.