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"American Idol: The Search for a Superstar" (2002) More at IMDbPro »

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126 comments in total

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78 out of 108 people found the following comment useful :-
Dangerous exploitation, 1 February 2006
Author: mikehurst33 from Brighton, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I have to say this is the first negative comment I've ever made on the IMDb, and American Idol is a show I've been enjoying lately. But I have to say I was DISGUSTED by tonight's episode, the auditions from Austin, Texas from this season, Season 5. Whoever was responsible for the systematic destruction of a poor 17 year old girl named Tess who appeared on the episode should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Now, just to be clear, I've never met this girl, I don't even know her full name, but she auditioned bravely, but failed to impress the judges. To be absolutely honest I know NOTHING about music or singing, and even I could tell she wasn't going to go through to Hollywood. HOWEVER, the show stooped to unbelievably, dangerously cruel depths to humiliate her. Making it clear with "humorous" sound effects that she was heavy, cutting to Simon's reaction to imply, explicitly, that she was not attractive. It was the cruelest, lowest exploitation I have EVER seen on national TV. I don't want to sound pious but I couldn't help but think about that girl, tuning in to watch herself and being utterly devastated. To be taunted in front of 50 million people. NOBODY DESERVES THAT. And this girl, let me repeat, is 17. 17 years old. A child. I very much hope she wasn't watching, unfortunately I'm pretty sure she was, because it's human nature. Whoever edited and produced this should take a long look at themselves in the mirror. I felt ashamed of myself, just for being complicit by watching it. I enjoy the show, and yeah, sometimes it's fun to watch deluded people who can't sing react to Simon giving it straight. It's addictive TV, but with the power all the advertising revenue and high ratings grant these people also comes some Responsibility. When there's a young girl of 17 involved then you simply HAVE to show some restraint, if not some compassion. Take apart the older, more weird contestants, hey, I'll laugh with everybody else. But young, impressionable girls don't deserve to see themselves ridiculed in front of 50 million people by some sociopath with a working knowledge of Final Cut Pro. It's just not right.

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48 out of 68 people found the following comment useful :-
Optimistic to the Point of Foolishness, 1 May 2006
Author: FrutyOatyBar42 from United States

There comes a time in every reasonable man's life when he must sit down in his living room and watch an episode of American Idol. Truth is I'm not a reasonable man. Or even a reasonable woman, now that I think about it. I have, however, watched an episode of American Idol and will go so far as to say that I have religiously watched three seasons of it. First season was great. Second season was good. During third season, I got wiser and realized that the show wasn't as good anymore, but still I watched. It had lost its magic, its X-Factor, you could say. During fourth season, I watched four or five episodes. By then, I had rediscovered sitcom television. Now comes fifth season, and the inevitable disappointment that lurks around the show reappears again. Yet, people still watch the show because they are too brainwashed not to.

Then again, what else is there to watch on Tuesdays? Or Wednesdays. Or Thursdays. Or any other night of the week, for that matter. I mean, why watch anything else when I can watch the new season or reruns of past performances made readily available via my Handy-Dandy DVD player? (Yes, we bought the Best of Season One. So sue me.) I must say that American Idol has become predictable. A "dude, man, dawg" from Randy Jackson. An "I just want to eat you up and make all our viewers sick to their stomachs with my infinite well of gaga comments" from Paula Abdul. And "Enter sarcastic, British remark here" from Simon Cowell. Cue Ryan Seacrest's idiotic retort and make-the-girls-swoon smile. The contestants are the same: air-headed bimbos, wannabe rockers, real rockers, melt-the-camera-with-a-stare heartthrobs, belters, and the like. For goodness sake, give us something good to watch again! Every now and then we get fantastic singers like Kelly Clarkson, Tamira Grey, and Clay Aiken. The rest are a little more or less than mediocre. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I heard Ruben, Fantasia, or Diana on the radio. Don't even mention Justin Guarini. What a waste of his perfectly good talent. The only thing Idol can do for you is give you a year, if that, of fame, then send you on back home to the karaoke bars in Oneida, Tennessee. Tough break, kids.

It is just unfair to see what they do to these contestants. They get the same amount of men as they do women to avoid any legal problems about gender bias. Completely bogus! Sometimes, there are better men than some of the women on that show (and vice versa), so why should they be cut just so the Idol producers won't be accused of discrimination on the cover of tabloids. The real crime is letting a bunch of less-than-worthy singers get on just to balance things out. And then some of the singers get scolded for song choices. Oh, no, Heaven forbid someone does a Mariah or a Whitney! No, no! Those are untouchable. I just have my fingers crossed that one contestant will finally lash out at Randy, saying, "Well, Mr. Jackson, you give me a list of songs I'm not supposed to do, and I'll make sure I sing them all just for you." Even if they are really good, nothing is as good as the original, so just give up.

The producers of Idol need to take a step back from the show they've created and look at what it has become: a rigged popularity contest. The only thing Idol is good for is delaying House episodes for weeks at a time. What a waste of an Emmy and Golden Globe winning show. Producers, you need some variety in this show. Just keep your fingers crossed that you choose the correct Idol this time, as you seem to think that America is too intellectually inept to do so themselves. Greenlighting this overstayed-it's-welcomed show for another season and thinking that the same people are still going to love it would be optimistic to the point of foolishness. But then again, what do I know? I'm just a kid with a television and a telephone.

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42 out of 66 people found the following comment useful :-
Gives "Reality" TV a whole new meaning., 19 February 2004
Author: thelonewolf74 from Nanaimo BC

If it weren't for Simon Cowell, I have to wonder how many people would watch this show. I admit this says something of my character, but he's the reason I watch this show. His blunt matter of fact, tell-it-like-is approach to telling the unvarnished truth to the no-talent wannabes who audition is something I find very refreshing. Especially when their egos and attitudes are directly proportional to the extent that they suck -- meaning the more they suck, the more ego and attitude they tend to have. (Not with all, but certainly a lot of them) Then there are others who don't have attitude and are devastated by criticism and can be seen in tears later, and even if they were bad I feel a little sorry for them. But that's simply the reality, of the music business and if these kids can't handle it, then they shouldn't be trying to forge a career as a musical artist.

That's reality, and Simon gives them this much needed reality check. It's reality TV in every sense of the word.

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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
This Show Is The Worst, 24 March 2008

Author: TheGame2k2 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

American Idol is the worst show ever made. Mainly because it is the most unfair.

When I first saw American Idol: The Search for a Superstar when it first aired. I immediately thought this was going to be like a great remake of Star Search, where many people with various talents get to compete for the top prize. I was wrong, this show is all about one talent and that was singing, OK I thought I could deal with that but this show didn't include all forms of singing. You had to have the perfect voice, kind of like a pop style voice. You couldn't have a rock voice or a metal voice.

This show only went for the pop style, it eliminated every other style of music. If people like Ian Gillian or Axl Rose tried out, they would be turned down.

And if that weren't enough, they have the worst voting system, which came back to bite them in the butt during their sixth season. Fans can vote as many times as they want, which caused many great singers to be eliminated in favor of a far less talented singer in Sanjaya Malakar. It also caused the elimination Melinda Doolittle, which was one of the only reasons I watched that season of Idol, the rest of the seasons I ignored. But when you have more then half of your audience questioning the elimination of one contestant, then that means that there is something wrong with the voting system on that show.

Overall, this show is an insult to the music business. If had been a little more like Star Search, it would have been a cool show. I don't care how many viewers this show attracts, it is the most unfair competitive show on television.

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17 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Yer basic love/hate relationship, 25 April 2007

Author: Rogue-32 from L A.

I've watched every episode of this show from its inception, and, sadly but not surprisingly, I have seen it become more and more cheesy as the years go by.

For starters, Seacrest has to go. If you look up the word smarmy in the dictionary, you will see his picture. And the judges are all a joke at this point - they've become caricatures of themselves, it seems, and nothing they have to say means anything, nor do the viewers' votes actually count, since I believe the producers of the show will not have someone win whom they do not approve of (meaning someone they can't control). The contestants are still good, though, which is why I still watch: I'm a sucker for a talent show and I do love seeing someone do really well, as Jordin is doing this year. And let's face it, the show is an incredible spectacle - the modern equivalent of, say, the gladiators in the Colosseum.

Last night, they kicked off the "Idol Gives Back" thing, where, for every vote cast, ten cents would be donated by the shows' sponsors - Ford, Coca Cola, and A T & T - toward the world's hunger crisis. Seacrest stood there, in all his sanctimonious smarminess, preaching to us about how we were not just voting this week, we're "saving lives." I'm all for ending hunger in all countries of the world, beginning with our country, don't get me wrong, but this to me feels like a very underhanded and sleazy way to obtain more publicity for the show.

The corporations in question have enough money to fully end all world hunger if they wanted; they do not need our votes to contribute to that cause. And it would be a tax write-off for them, to boot. By telling people they are "saving lives" by voting, the producers of the show (and Seacrest, as their shamelessly pathetic talking head - he's like Max Headroom without the soul) are implying that the opposite is true, as well: if you don't vote, you are NOT saving lives.

About the show itself: the worst thing is how they never let the contestants sing a whole song, they have to condense their song into a minute and a half, and then they get criticized for not having enough feeling or enough conviction or enough personality, blah blah blah. A song has to be complete in order for it to legitimately 'live' - the emotion or feeling of it has to build and you cannot genuinely do that when you're forced to cut out most of it. They have time on the show for all sorts of crap, but they can't make time for the performers to actually SING. I commend anyone who can come on week after week and manage to give a credible performance under these conditions, something the judges don't seem to acknowledge or appreciate.

Where will it all end? I predict a few more seasons, and then hopefully the network will take the show off before it deteriorates into an even tackier circus than it's already become.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
I'm with Simon., 17 April 2007

Author: Son_of_Mansfield from Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Far too much of this show is pathetic. From the cheap looking stage to the under choreographed numbers to the sugary judges, this show frequently misses the mark. But there are some fine singers. Most of them have the pipes, it's just control that they lack, a good singer knows when to not use their powerful voice. Sometimes, in some numbers, you can see what the show was intended to be, a display of top talent fighting for break. The high note for me is the unflinching honesty of Simon Cowell. While Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul spent too much time glad handing decent performances, but Simon keeps his emotions in check, trying to dispense advice. Too often he is put down by window dresser Ryan Secrest for not having fun. It's refreshing to listen to someone try to honestly dissect a performance and for those who think he is too harsh, a lot of people will be telling these contestants that they aren't good enough, it's time for them move past their natural talent and grow thicker skin. The greatest performers have a work ethic to match their talent, that is what should be idolized.

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24 out of 44 people found the following comment useful :-
I enjoy it, for the most part., 24 February 2005
Author: tsprague1 from Oregon, United States

This is the first year (2005)that I've watched American Idol. I surprised myself and enjoyed it. It provides a look into the process and reasons for signing a person to a contract. The only thing that I don't like is the final weeks and how they let people know who has not made the cut. I find it cruel and unnecessary. I also find that Simon Crowell's comments are pretty accurate about the contestants. I used to watch Star Search, with Ed McMahon, and thought that was great, but this is much more interesting. I would like to see the handling of cutting contestants changed. I don't find this to be a popularity contest at all. I also think that if these people cannot take the criticism that is handed to them they should not be in the entertainment business.

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26 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
With Its' Way Ups and Pretty Pathetic Downs, 22 January 2003
Author: BlackX from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

This show is a reality show at heart. Thousands of people audition in front of three judges, the infamous (yet truthful. People, if they're bad singers, don't blame him!) Simon, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul. They're mostly given the boot but some pass and go through many elimination rounds until we, the viewers, get to vote and slowly one-by-one toss out the final ten until we get one American Idol.

The first episodes are definitely the ones that spark its' popularity. As an exchange for a free contract deal, FOX is allowed to videotape and broadcast anyone they want.

This is the 5, 000+ auditioning stage. With so many people of so many cities, we've got to find at least a dozen people who think they can sing. I'm talking about the bad ones. Emphasize on THINK.

It's sad when they say they've always had a singing dream and are awful. But it's hilarious when people outburst because they now THOUGHT (or still think) they can sing. One guy on a recent season 2 episode thought he deserved to be the American Idol 'cause he thought he could sing and he stood out 5 days in the cold. Too bad he sounded like a bird being strangled.

There was another one of the same episode who said he had a dream(so far sad) of being a singer. He sings, and puts way too much into it(he's trying to sound like Enrique Glasias", and is turned down(still sad). He's OK, though, and walks out with a smile(right now confusing). He then walks out and proclaims to everyone he's going to Hollywood(the next round)(a little funny). About an audition later, the camera finds him sitting waiting for an audition. He explains to the security guard with the cameraman he's been invited back(now funny). As this never happens, the security guard doesn't hesitate to correct him and boots him out(kinda funny). He yells while leaving(the security guard lets him walk out himself) "I'll see you all in Hollywood!".(funny)

One last one, a girl couldn't believe they said she was just under average, good only hidden in a crowd of a choir. She denies being turned down, and when the host(with proof) asks her didn't she get refused Hollywood, she states she doesn't know, and tries to get back in to find out. One thing: she's a terrible liar. For ratings, she's allowed back in. Simon asks her hadn't they already seen her. She clearly wants a second chance, but strangely tries to start with (maybe the host was there) "I wanted to know if I'm going to Hollywood". "No, because you're terrible.". And it ends.

The second round is OK, as the crowd of about 200 is brought down to 30. The people who don't make it get a chance to speak out.

After that, we start voting, while the judges provide their thoughts. In a clearly planned move, you take away the bad singers now, and wind up with audience interaction. It's not the same, but you still see one vote and wonder how many people are trying to mess it all up by purposely trying to wind up with a bad singer winning.

I really enjoy the first parts more. But it's truly speechless. You have to see it to believe it.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
So popular but mediocre, 22 May 2009

Author: tupungato from Walnut Creek, CA

I don't feel any compassion for the judges, but I do sometimes wonder if they don't get to feeling mentally exhausted by the all the repetition: so many participants, so few with legitimate talent, so many rejections, too few creative ways to tell a prospect that s/he won't continue competing at the next level. Maybe Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, Kara Dio Guardi, and Simon Cowell get tired of hearing the sound of their own voices.

I know that I have begun to wince each time Kara Dio Guardi patronizes one of the contestants with comments that make her sound as if she has not had as much formal education as formal training, or when Paula Abdul stammers as she sugarcoats her message to an unworthy participant with words such as, "Err... uh... Myyy, you sure look lovely tonight," or each time Ryan Seacrest tells a singer on his/her final performance, "Sorry, but your dream is ending tonight." The contestants with some potential need to hear something more practical and specific, and not trite.

In any case I hear a lot of people pursuing fantasies rather than dreams. While I don't think that Simon Cowell and the other judges are entitled to ridicule the least capable of the contestants, I do believe that anyone in the arts needs to develop the ability to judge him/herself objectively (or surround him/herself with friends and family members that do) so that s/he might make intelligent decisions about his/her professional future.

The judges can stand to self-evaluate, too, especially since they provide an important element of the show's entertainment. For all Simon Cowell's sarcasm and harshness, he actually makes the most degrading comment, I think, when he plainly states who he believes will win when there are still 4-5 weeks to go in the competition. To me, he reduces the 10-12 remaining contestants to participants in a horse race whenever he makes his prediction.

In clear contrast, Paula Abdul seems to make such a conscious effort not to say anything hurtful that she compensates with hyperbole. I wish she would find a way to honor the young singers without the contrived and self-indulgent applauding and dancing. Most need constructive criticism, anyway, not another person competing for the audience's attention.

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10 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Better than X-Factor by a long shot, 6 February 2007

Author: Emma from United Kingdom

Being from the UK and having watched X Factor, a show similar to AI, I think that it is much less exploitative than than our UK equivalent. However, it is slightly worrying to see that contestants are at times being mocked indirectly...this didn't use to be the case in previous seasons. Personally I think that many reality shows are beginning to adopt this sort of 'us and them' stance, where the audience feels superior to the brave contestant on-screen. Although, I am glad to say that this isn't the case with AI! I think the show has got better this season, partly due to a new fresh-faced presenter: Cat Deeley. She gives the show a new spin and has livened it up a little. The last few weeks of each season which run up to the final are always great, as the standard of singing and performance becomes sky - high. You end up seeing some really talented singers, and often a diverse collection of finalists. This makes for some great shows.

With the auditions aspect of the show, these are always entertaining as they are often comical and we can joke about the not-so-great singers (even though this may seem like I contradict what I said earlier, I mean in a light-hearted manner, of course!). Seeing the contestants walk in dressed in crazy costumes and perform mad dance routines, I would say American Idol is a good show, if you're looking for some fun entertainment.

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