Thursday, March 22, 2007

Worst. Theme. Ever.

From the Fox press release for next week's "American Idol":
Grammy Award-winning artist Gwen Stefani will work with the Top 10 finalists next week on AMERICAN IDOL Tuesday, March 27 (8:00-9:07 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), and will perform “The Sweet Escape” with Akon on the results show Wednesday, March 28 (9:00-9:30 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX. It will be a pop-themed week, as contestants pick their favorite songs from that genre.
When I assumed Stefani would be there for another '90s Week, I thought that was bad enough, since decade themes are just an open invitation for every contestant to pick the most boring song possible from their respective niche, when we all know that the best performances tend to come on themes that force the contestants to challenge themselves.

But Pop Week? Given how elastic the producers let the themes be, that's pretty much an excuse for the contestants to sing any damn song they want. This will be spectacularly boring, I think.

4 comments:

Matt said...

Well, they could have narrowed it to just her and No Doubt's songs, but that makes it hard for guys (then again, need I remind you of Sebastian Bach's rendition of "Hollaback Girl?") and for diva-types ("Underneath It All" and "Don't Speak").

Jefferson Burns said...

Lame, lame, lame and vague. To broad. And yes, I see boring stamped all over it.

Anonymous said...

At least it's not too narrow. Or something excruciating (I personally can't handle country themed nights, but I recognize a lot of people love country).

Alan Sepinwall said...

I'll take too narrow over too broad any day. Some of the best Idol performances have come on nights when the narrowness of the theme pushed contestants out of their comfort zones, whether it was Kelly Clarkson doing "Stuff Like That There" on Big Band Night, Clay doing "Solitaire" on Neil Sedaka Night, Fantasia doing "You Were Always On My Mind" on Country Night, etc.