‘Idol’ back with clearer focus, little competition
In past years, “American Idol” usually pulled more than 25 million viewers a night. This season, which begins Jan. 15 against competition ravaged by the seemingly never-ending writers strike, just imagine how high those numbers might climb.
Those heady possibilities were clearly on “Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe’s mind during a conference call with reporters last month.
“There will be very little else on, other than repeats,” Lythgoe said.
While the dearth of competition bodes well for “Idol,” there were signs last year that the juggernaut was losing steam. Ratings edged downward, and two former “Idol” winners —Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks — were reportedly dropped by their record labels.
“I’m not into jumping sharks on this program,” Lythgoe said. “If we lost 50 percent of our audience tomorrow, we’d still be the biggest show on television.”
Lythgoe, though, acknowledged there were problems with the 2007 iteration of “Idol.”
“We held our hands up and said we thought it was our fault,” Lythgoe said. “I think we got carried away with the (celebrity) mentors last season.”
With all the time devoted to celebrity coaches and theme nights, audiences never got to know the contestants personally, Lythgoe said. That will change.
“It’s not about the judges, and it’s not about the mentors,” he said. “First and foremost, it’s about the kids. That’s what will keep people watching.”
As far as past Idols are concerned, Lythgoe said you have to separate the show from the solo artists.
“I’ve never believed that the television audience is the same as the record-buying audience,” he said. “If that were true, they’d be selling 60 million albums instead of 2 million albums.”
Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson found success because they found their own sound after they finished the show. Lythgoe said he thought Studdard in particular ended up in the wrong genre and never reached the right audience.
“At the end of the day it’s about the product, it’s not about the person,” Lythgoe said. “There are no guarantees that come with it. I don’t necessarily look at that as a reflection of whether people are going to watch the show next year.”
The biggest format change of the new season will come once the contestants reach Hollywood, where they’ll be allowed to play their own instruments for the first time.
“For some it worked out brilliantly,” Lythgoe said. “A couple of others really crashed and burned. It’s very difficult to sing in tune and play the drums at the same time.”
The “Idol Gives Back” charity show will return, although Lythgoe said it would likely be on a different night to prevent a repeat of the criticized fake-elimination round of last season. He refused to go into specifics on other surprises, although he said not to expect a Britney Spears guest spot, and Beatles fans will be out of luck, too.
“Every year people say Paul McCartney’s doing it this year,” Lythgoe said. “Let me be upfront: No, he’s not.”
‘Terminator’ is back
Fox has another high-profile debut coming next week: The hotly anticipated (at least among sci-fi geeks) “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” which premieres at 7 p.m. Sunday.
Turning the long-running Terminator franchise into a weekly TV show is a mixed bag.
Fox gives the proceedings high production values, so the effects are at least as impressive as those in the 1984 original. Summer Glau (“Serenity”) offers a nice take on a pipsqueak teenage terminator sent back to protect the Connors (I trust I’m not giving anything away to anyone who’s seen the commercials on Fox). And even though the “bad” terminators lack the menace Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick brought to their metallic roles, the action sequences are brisk and don’t disappoint.
There are problems, though. Lena Headey (“300”) as the titular Sarah Connor has the same problem Linda Hamilton had in “Terminator 2: Rise of the Machines,” namely that much of the action revolves around John Connor. And Headey lacks the tough physicality that Hamilton brought to that sequel.
The biggest issue, though, is that “Terminator” started off as a horror flick — not much different from the original “Alien.” Both franchises became action-oriented in the sequels, but the premise of every “Terminator” is that there’s a big, bad computer in the future that will keep sending cyborgs back in time until one of them kills John Connor good and dead.
Adapt that premise to a weekly TV show, however, and it’s hard to keep the suspense alive. (Mostly because we know they didn’t kill him.) Maybe, given the time hopping inherent in the story, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” will find ways around that roadblock.
All in all, it’s a pretty good effort and, after seeing the first episode, I’d wager “Terminator” fans will be back for more.
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