‘IDOL’ MAKERS REMEMBER THOSE DAYS OF GLORY
Final season brings out the nostalgia for good and bad alike
As American Idol enters its final season, fans will treasure favorite moments from the phenomenon that launched superstars Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood and once drew such huge audiences that frightened competitors called it the “Death Star.”
Those fans include the host and judges of the Fox singing competition, which continues auditions Thursday (8 p.m. ET/PT).
Ryan Seacrest, the only original cast member remaining, has memories of waiting hours in a room before he got his own “golden ticket”; meeting original judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson; and cultivating “the sport (of) having fun with each other.”
He recalls talented singers “that got an hour off of work to come audition, because they’re waiting tables in a restaurant. And all of a sudden, they’re a Grammy winner.”
Inaugural Idol Clarkson was among those who rose from obscurity to stardom.
“I have a special place in my heart for when Kelly Clarkson won,” says judge Harry Connick Jr. “I was doing Will & Grace. Debra Messing (and I) would talk about ( Idol) in the makeup room. We went to the finale together. I had no idea down the road that I would be part of it in any way.”
As the Ruben Studdard-Clay Aiken battle captivated fans in Season 2, Carrie Underwood be- came a country superstar after winning Season 4 and Cowell’s putdowns turned auditions into a national spectacle, the audience topped 30 million viewers in 2006 and 2007, an unheard-of number for a TV series today. ( Idol, which has suffered big ratings declines in recent years, averaged about one-third of that peak audience in Season 14, trailing NBC’s The Voice.)
Jennifer Lopez, a longtime fan and judge, says the show defined an era.
“It’s kind of like any of the great shows, almost like The Ed Sullivan Show,” she says. “It wasn’t just America. I remember friends of mine in Europe writing me and going, ‘ Oh my God, I loved Idol this week!’ It touched the world. It was like magic in a bottle.”
There were less-than-stellar moments, too, including awful auditions and bad singing by the likes of William Hung and Sanjaya Malakar, who made it to the Top 7 despite brutal critiques.
Judge Keith Urban says he’s thrilled to work with Lopez and Connick, but asked about his previous panel (Jackson and the feuding Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj), he’s diplomatic: “It was a bold experiment that didn’t quite work, but I give Idol props for trying.”
Besides monster ratings and singers who fulfilled the show’s mission to discover stars, Idol should be remembered for uniting people, Seacrest says.
“When this show was launching (in 2002) ... the nation needed some vehicle to bring families together,” he says. “I think this show will go down in history as one that everybody could watch together and moms and dads and sisters and brothers could talk about. And I’m proud of that.”
“It’s kind of like any of the great shows, almost like ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ ... It touched the world. It was like magic in a bottle.”
Judge Jennifer Lopez