This season sucks so far! Some of the changes they have made really suck and I will break them down real quick. First I want to star by saying I have never been an auditions week kind of guy. I like hearing some of the better people, and some of the crazies are funny, but 6 1-2 hour episodes expanded over 3 weeks is too much. This year’s audition shows sucked especially. The sucky ones weren’t that funny and the addition of the 4^th judge (though she is growing on me) takes up too much time. I have always liked Hollywood Week. The judges usually cut out the SHIT (with the exception of this year’s multi-personality dude) and you get more concentrated on better talent. It’s also fun to predict who goes and stays because it gets a little trickier at this stage. They tend to showcase certain people more than others but it surprises you when the ones who get showcased are booted. They also mess with your head by eliminating large amounts of people by cutting rooms. They separate whoever is left into about 3 or 4 rooms and cut a room or two. This really makes guessing fun because they will stick some people who you think was OBVIOULSY horrible in with someone who was OBVOUSLY wonderful and make you wonder if the room stays or goes. That stage of the game was done well this year. Everything after that has gone down hill so far this year.Normally what the judges do is take the people left from the room chopping, and narrow them down to 24. They would have a camera in an elevator that leads to this huge room. You watch the contestants take the elevator, and then walk this fairly long walk in this room to the judges.  The judges then let you know if you made the final 24. They do it in their traditionally suspenseful way and its fun. 

The final 24 the get to perform LIVE on the show and let America decide whether or not they stay another week. All the guys sing on Tuesday and the girls on Wednesday (or vice versa) and on Thursday 2 guys and 2 girls are eliminated a week until there are only 12 left (6 guys and 6 girls).  This is when it gets really serious. One person gets voted out a week until one stands. But that was then. THIS IS NOW: This year they picked 36 singers after the room chopping. 3 random groups of 12 singers perform live in 3 consecutive weeks. America votes and the top 3 vote-getters from each week are in. So that gives us 9 of the top 12. Where do we get the other 3?  I guess there is a WILD CARD week and some of the losers from previous weeks are selected. Now either I’ve missed it or they’re just not saying it but I don’t know if those contestants are voted in or if the judges pick ‘em. The top 12 now do their normal thing to get their number 1 dude or chick in May, 

Here are my problems with the new system… 1^st - Back to the 4 judges thing  -       Paula herself said that they have done guest judges in the past and it didn’t work. Too much time was taken to hear what every judge had to say. Throw Ryan Seacrest in the mix trying to make things funny and crappy contestants trying to explain why they sucked so bad, things get long awkward, and boring. 2^nd - A lot of the fun is stolen from us -       With this new format, you only get to see the people who got voted to stay once! I remember seeing some of the BEST performances in this stage of the show. Taylor Hicks, Nikko Smith, Chris Daughtry, all had amazing performances in this stage. I think it happens a lot here because the themes are less strict or nonexistent allowing the singers more freedom to do the songs they are more comfortable with. Every week they were fighting for their existence and we got to enjoy the better performers every week of this stage. This year it is 1 and done. You’re in no need to go again. That’s less performances we get to enjoy of the actual good contestants.

3^rd – Too much Crap-       This kind of goes along with not enough of the good but here we go. With there being 12 extra people performing live, we get stuck with having to watch these bums. Normally these 12 crappy people are booted and we don’t have to suffer through them any more but with the new format- here they are! 

The only thing I DO like about the new format is the fact that maybe the 6 guys 6 girls into the final 12 thing can be eliminated. It used to frustrate me when a lesser singer got into the final 12 because they needed another girl or guy.  I don’t mind keeping the sexes even as much in the final 24 but you start to get more attached to contestants in the final 24 stage of the show and they should maybe consider finding some way to keep the top vote-getters in regardless of sex.

I like a lot of the contestants this year so I hope it gets better once we get the top 12. The wild card could be potentially fun too so we’ll have to se how that goes.

OK! There it is. Agree, disagree? Let me know!  MARIOKART REMINDER…. You can play Mariokart Wii online with Lumpy, myself and other listeners by sending me your Mario Kart license number and your Wii console number to psherman@entercom.com.

Here are my numbers: Wii Console Number: 5746 - 0420 - 0894 - 8407

Mariokart License Number: 0387 - 9252 - 6536

Hope to see you online!

Phil