Idol-Talk: Season 10 Premiere!

American Idol 10: Premiere!
Airdate: Wednesday, January 19, 2010 [8-10pm]

Audition: New Jersey

After coming off of a lackluster season last spring, we said goodbye to Simon Cowell. Who would have thought that during the summer that followed, both Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres would say goodbye as well, creating a media frenzy about the reasons for their departures, and how the show would replace the three of them.

During the opening minutes of the two-hour season 10 premiere of American Idol last night, we were shown a montage of clips featuring that media frenzy. I don't think Kara or Ellen (or even Simon, I don't think) were mentioned by name at all, but we obviously already knew the backstory.

Then the video montage moved into some of the names that popped up as possible replacements. Finally, they showed footage from the announcement event held in Los Angeles, where host Ryan Seacrest introduced the new panel: Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, pop/Latin singer Jennifer Lopez, and returning judge, Randy Jackson.

The winner will be signed to Interscope Records, with the help of big-time music producer and new Idol in-house mentor, Jimmy Iovine. I've been mispronouncing his name this whole time; it sounds like the 'o' silent and it is pronounced like "Eye-veen," or did I hear it wrong? But no matter, I'm looking forward to seeing how Idol incorporates him into the show as the mentor.

The opening title sequence is different than we've seen before, though the theme song remains the same (but I thought I heard a slight alteration at the start of the song). The past three or four or so seasons, the intro has shown all of the Idol winners. This time around, it not only shows the winners but other former finalists as well; it seemed to me that they wanted to feature some of the successful singers to come from the show, such as Adam Lambert and Jennifer Hudson. Since the producers are hoping that the show can regain that success story of finding a star, I guess I'm not surprised they did this.

After this inital introduction to all the changes, we come back from break at about 15 minutes in and see the start of the first audition stop in New Jersey. Season four finalist Constantine introduces Ryan at the cattle call audition.

And then the auditions in front of Steven, Jennifer and Randy began. Besides the new judges, this first audition round seemed just like all the past audition episodes in previous seasons. And I kind of hate to admit this, but I didn't really think about Simon at all during the episode; maybe I was too focused on getting to know the judges and seeing what their roles would be on the show.

When Steven and Jennifer were first announced as the new judges, I didn't mind the choice of Jennifer at all. I felt she might be the kind one in the group while still providing some constructive feedback. But with Steven, I had other feelings. Even though I have heard some Aerosmith songs, I did not know who Steven Tyler was at all. And I started reading about his previous (or still ongoing, who knows) drug abuse, as recent as six months before the announcement. From that time on, I have been very wary about him. But the past few weeks or so has changed my mind. We started hearing about his personality. And when promos came out showing what the judges were like and after seeing him appear on talk shows, I started taking a liking to him. It seemed from those promos and appearances that he would bring his outrageous and wacky nature to the show, while still providing quality feedback to the singers based on his 40+ years in the music business.

So, the premiere begins, and we're off! Steven seems to love interacting with the singers, being wacky as mentioned, finding some of the female ones attractive, and giving great feedback and advice. Jennifer started out having a very hard time saying "no." But she soon toughened up and showed us that she can not only be kind but honest as well. And Randy...well, Randy was a little pointless if you ask me. Over the years, Randy has become more of a background judge, not standing out when giving comments, and just saying "yo, dawg" all the time. In the premiere episode, I don't think I heard him say "dawg," but he didn't really bring anything to the table. Maybe that was due to editing, but I saw him no different than he's ever been. In interviews, he's been saying that he's more assertive; I understand we still have a lot more audition stops left, but if the premiere was anything to go by, we shouldn't hope for a change in him. The judges can be perceived a certain way in the auditions because of editing, but the true test will be the live shows, where they don't have editing to showcase their strengths (that was, unfortunately, Ellen DeGeneres' downfall last year).

The way I organize Idol-Talk during the audition rounds is different than other recap articles you may read elsewhere online, where they bring up most if not all of the featured auditioners. During the show, I write down contestants that stood out to me and mark which ones were my favorites and that may have a shot to go far. Unfortunately, I only saw maybe one (or two) that I could see lasting. Next to the name, I put some notes down so I can remember who they are (such as song title and/or their sob story, etc).

Great:

• *Devyn Rush - "God Bless the Child" (singing waitress)

Good:

• Robbie Rosen - The Beatles' "Yesterday" (as a child, he was in a wheelchair)
• Kenzie Palmer - Carrie Underwood's "We're Young and Beautiful"

Good to Average:

• Briell Von Hugel - "Endless Love" (dad: cancer-free)
• Victoria Huggins - (higher-pitched southern accent; happy personality)
• Ashley Sullivan - "Gimme Gimme" (Britney lover)
• I initially had Ashley on my list, but crossed her out when she started begging to be sent through to Hollywood.
• Melinda Ademi - (sounded just like original; Kosovo: dad was war refugee)

Bad:

• Michael Perotto - "Proud Mary"
• Steven: "Did you eat a lot of paint chips as a child?"
• Yogi "Pop" Asano - Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A." (from Japan, MJ imitator)

51 auditioners make it through to Hollywood.

Devyn Rush and Robbie Rosen were, I believe, the two best singers of the night, with Devyn being the best. I also wrote down two bad singers because I wanted to mention them briefly for notable reasons. I want to bring up Michael Perotto, who sang "Proud Mary," because of what Steven Tyler said to him: "Did you eat a lot of paint chips as a child?" That was by far the best line of the night. In interviews, Steven has brought up that line a few times. If that line is anything to go by, then Steven is going to be hilarious on the show, and should bring the wacky that we had with Paula. The other bad singer I wrote down was Yogi "Pop" Asano. I mention him because the producers seemed to feature him in a way as to have a successor to William Hung (or even General Larry "Pants on the Ground" Platts). I don't think that will happen, but don't put it past the producers to bring him back for the finale.

The season 10 premiere is behind us now, and we have about 17 more weeks ahead of us.

Tonight, the American Idol season 10 premiere week continues with a one-hour episode at 8pm featuring the auditions from New Orleans, Louisiana. Should be fun; I'm looking forward to more of Steven Tyler! See ya then...