American Idol is a culture staple in America these days. It’s the chance to pursue a dream and a chance for us to watch young people pursue those dreams. However it is very ritualistic in nature. They go through the same rounds every year and every season. Only changing it up in a major way, once when they replaced Simon and Paula with Jennifer and Steven. Though even with that change in it’s judges, in the American Idol ritual, fans were not happy at first.
It seems as though every year on American Idol, while the people are different, it’s like deja vu. You watch for the first several episodes, the good the bad and the ugly. You see people come in with actual talent, blowing the judges away. Then there are those with this diluted vision they are great and we take pleasure in their naivety and chuckle at their misfortune. We then move on to hollywood week where we see who makes it and who cracks under pressure. After different trials such as group round, they narrow it down again. From there it’s live and on the main stage and the number gets cut in half yet again. It’s solely up to America after that with one person leaving each week until the final two. It’s been the same scenario for 11 seasons.
With taking a step back and looking at some reasons why American Idol chooses to not shake things up every season I can see perfectly well why they wouldn’t. People deal with change on a daily basis. If they are a fan of the show and it just started, say last week, they know what to expect. There is a process to find the next American Idol and if they were to skip airing the tryouts for example, fans would not feel as they have for 11 seasons; they would no longer feel as much a part of that process. Our comfort in our rituals can be a blessing and a curse.
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