When I was in the third grade, my friends and I, like most kids our age, loved American Idol. We would gush about our favorite competitors, laugh at the judges, cringe while recounting the bad performances, and have impassioned conversations about who should and shouldn’t be voted off (I’m still not over Chris Daughtry’s departure…seriously, America?). Overall, each time we heard Ryan Seacrest announce that “THIS, is American Idol”, we knew we were going to be entertained. But as the seasons progressed and American Idol became less and less like the show it once was, my friends and I fell out of love with it. Thus, when Ryan’s white knuckled grip on the it loosened up, and it finally came to its slow and painful end, I definitely wasn’t sad. But now in 2018, someone has decided to resurrect and reboot the show. So the question is, is this new take on an old classic worth the watch? Let’s discuss.
For me, once the original cast of judges left the show, it lost a lot of its value. Watching Simon destroy people’s dreams while Paula tried to soften the blow and Randy just sat there using the word “dawg” more times than ever previously recorded in the history of spoken English, was truly iconic. They were a dream team.
In this new reboot, producers have chosen to elect Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie, and Luke Bryan to fill these vacant seats behind the judges’ table and personally, I am very confused by this combination of stars. Listen, I love Luke Bryan and I’m pretty convinced that once he realizes that this “thing” with his “wife” is just a phase, he and I will be together. But, I don’t think he belongs on this show. I know he truly believes in power of the golden ticket and wants to help make someone’s dreams a reality, but I think he is just too good for American Idol. Moving down the line, we have Katy Perry. Let me just ask, wHy? Katy is trying to win back public favor after her showdown with an LA nunnery, and I must say, wearing crazy stage costumes, inadvertently flashing herself, and stealing a young boy’s first kiss just doesn’t seem to be the way to do it. Finally, we have Lionel Ritchie. While Lionel is a music legend, I’m not sure why they chose to reach back into the 80’s to retrieve him and stick him on this panel. I feel like he should The three of them just don’t seem to mesh together as well as the OG three.
Although American Idol has spawned off some of today’s biggest stars, they also gave us some very memorable flops. Pants on the ground man? William Hung singing “She Bangs”? SANJAYA?! These people were amazing and beyond entertaining. However, in this new reboot, there doesn’t seem to be the same level of ridiculous contestants and comedic content. The bad singers were half the reason I used to watch American Idol so with a lack of out-of-touch with reality contestants, mediocre singing, and meme worthy fails, the show really takes a hit for me.
So what’s my verdict? It’s gonna be a hard maybe from me, dawg. Honestly, I think that the original American Idol was amazing. But, once the three original judges left, the show did not age gracefully and when it died in 2016, it’s body shouldn’t have been exhumed in 2018. Although it’s hard for me to admit, my longtime love Luke Bryan is not enough to make me stay (sorry bae). So while I will not be continuing to watch, I would say it’s worth checking it out for yourself ,even if it’s just for one episode.