The First Time
This weekend, American Idol Rewind wrapped up its audition shows by featuring the New York City auditions from spring, 2002. The highlight of those auditions was, of course, Justin Guarini singing Who’s Lovin’ You? The judges simply gushed, Simon Cowell in particular:
For whatever reason, the producers edited out the judges’ continued reaction after Justin left, where they called him "a star" and "superb," but they left in enough of the in-room comments that you get the point. Justin was a natural, someone who was going to be discovered whether it was through the Idol machine or otherwise.
Speaking of the Idol machine, the Atlantic Monthly has an interesting article about American Idol in its November issue ("Production Values" by Dale Peck). The article is primarily noteworthy for being one of the few mainstream print articles to call out the producers on their blatant manipulation of the results. Peck specifically mentions the season 3 finale, where Ryan Seacrest brought up Fantasia Barrino’s young daughter and placed her in Fantasia's arms after she finished her final song, "apparently in reaction to fears that Diana DeGarmo might pull out an upset."
The Rewind series will eventually culminate in a finale that was also manipulated, from the poor sound mix that minimized Justin’s vocals to the selection of songs specifically written for a female soprano (what male singer would otherwise sing a song about "waiting for that one special kiss?" Come on!) to Randy Jackson behaving so poorly toward Justin that Justin's fans will probably never forgive him. You have to ask yourself, if it’s so clear who should win, why do they feel the need to manipulate viewers? Well, we're reminded of the radio "expert" who commented toward the end of season one that RCA didn't want Justin Guarini because there wasn’t room in the market for two Justins (Timberlake being the other one, who of course was just starting to push his first solo album at that time).
Water under the bridge, right? Here are a few caps from the NYC audition show, with Justin then and Justin now. He’s still got IT.
New York City Audition, Spring 2002:
Introducing Episode 4 of American Idol Rewind, Fall 2006:
"Justin, you know, occasionally you're very privileged when you do a competition like this to hear somebody undiscovered who has a voice like yours. Welcome to Hollywood. Congratulations."
For whatever reason, the producers edited out the judges’ continued reaction after Justin left, where they called him "a star" and "superb," but they left in enough of the in-room comments that you get the point. Justin was a natural, someone who was going to be discovered whether it was through the Idol machine or otherwise.
Speaking of the Idol machine, the Atlantic Monthly has an interesting article about American Idol in its November issue ("Production Values" by Dale Peck). The article is primarily noteworthy for being one of the few mainstream print articles to call out the producers on their blatant manipulation of the results. Peck specifically mentions the season 3 finale, where Ryan Seacrest brought up Fantasia Barrino’s young daughter and placed her in Fantasia's arms after she finished her final song, "apparently in reaction to fears that Diana DeGarmo might pull out an upset."
The Rewind series will eventually culminate in a finale that was also manipulated, from the poor sound mix that minimized Justin’s vocals to the selection of songs specifically written for a female soprano (what male singer would otherwise sing a song about "waiting for that one special kiss?" Come on!) to Randy Jackson behaving so poorly toward Justin that Justin's fans will probably never forgive him. You have to ask yourself, if it’s so clear who should win, why do they feel the need to manipulate viewers? Well, we're reminded of the radio "expert" who commented toward the end of season one that RCA didn't want Justin Guarini because there wasn’t room in the market for two Justins (Timberlake being the other one, who of course was just starting to push his first solo album at that time).
Water under the bridge, right? Here are a few caps from the NYC audition show, with Justin then and Justin now. He’s still got IT.
posted by Essential Crew | 7:36 PM
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