American Idol's Ratings Reach a New Low with Sinatra Week

Is it a surprise? Theme weeks based on singers who were popular before contestants or their core audience were alive? Contestants that are boring and have absolutely no stage presence. I always liked and looked forward to AI and am pissed at what they did to the show and the crap talent they have this year. Notice we haven't heard Ryan tell us this is their best group of talent ever in a long long time.

I find the Lee pimping utterly bizarre. He's basically a poor man's version of Kris (Chris?) Allen who was a second rate David Cook. Do they really think Lee will set the charts alight? Do they reall want to market yet another white male, guitar playing singer?

But congrats on the audience finally figuring out this season is a pile of shite.

Not much of a resume builder for this year's contestants, I am afraid.

"Which season was I on? Oh -- that would be #9 -- you know -- the last season before the show was canned due to lack of interest. Yeah. I won that season. Don't you remember that? No?"

Nor has he been bragging on how many bazillion votes they got...breaking records. The show is in real trouble. Everyone just seems tired. What can they do to bring in a younger audience...I guess start out with talent..

Lee is awful, I don't know how they can pimp this guy. Maybe they are just trying to sell tour tickets to the frauen?? He is fug enough for them to moo over.

This week's low ratings are no surprise. Frank Sinatra was a HUGE celebrity for his time (1940s to 60s) but that doesn't mean anyone wants to tune in to see five insipid performances of his music. An hour of simply having Harry Connick, Jr., performing the five songs would have been much more entertaining. BTW, I think next week's theme is the Irving Berlin song book:

Crystal: "God Bless America"

Aaron: "The Girl That I Marry"

Michael: "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"

Lee: "Cheek to Cheek"

Bank on it!

The ratings drop isn't a shocker. Cowell has been going through the motions this year. Half the time he is bored. The other half of the time, he's being flippant.

The contestants aren't great this year, but I really believe that they're being dragged down by problems with the production of the show, and not the other way around. Of course, getting rid of decent contestants and turning the competition into a sausage fest hasn't helped either.

Running long. Piss-poor sound. An uninspiring musical director. 5 minute mentoring. Judges that rarely offer up anything of value with their critiques. These are just a few of the issues with the show this year.

Add in Seacrest's banal attempts to ask probing questions, and his general weirdness....

and yea,

AI has always been a train wreck.....but this year, they never left the station.

Of COURSE there'll be a Season 10! And the talent will be BETTER than EVER!

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How horrible was the results show? I love this genre of music and this show sucked. WTF was Lady Gag-gag on for anyway? Didn't exactly fit the Sinatra theme. She's a talentless overpaid steaming pile of dog shit. The only people that like her are skanky divorced mothers (& their clueless little girls) and gay party boys. I'd rather listen to Fat Mike again.

Even Harry Connick Jr. wasn't very good tonight, and I actually like him. But hey, at least Goat Boy is still around. That should count for something....shouldn't it?

One of the problems this year is that the contestants are just performing and not competing as entertainers. There is a huge difference. So many of them seem either tired, bored or unconcerned. I've never seen a group who puts so little into their performances.

Even though I am not an Adam Lambert fan, he at least looked as though he was "giving it his all". His performances were entertaining and sometimes wild. This year, we just have low-key performances, with the exception of Hippiesox. Big Mike seems to be having fun, but his performances are not unique, just standard R & B.

This group really has problems with projection and they lack stage presence and charisma. I have found that folks either have this or they don't. It's difficult to work up a good case of charisma if this doesn't come naturally to a person. Introverted people don't seamlessly "connect" with an audience because that's not their natural personality. Therefore, AI currently has contestants who desire to make their living in the music business, but they want to be a performer who plays music and not an entertainer who plays music. Again, there's a huge difference.

The main problem today is that our culture demands an entertainer and a performer. Therefore, even if someone performs good quality music, if they are not entertaining, their career may place them on a regional stage instead of in the national spotlight.