inandout

The stories of MacKenzie, La'Porsha weren't exactly deep dark secrets. They had been mentioned at some point this season. And when Dalton left his boy band, he told fans it was because of his bi-polar. I get what people are now saying about Dalton. I loved his audition. But he has been losing steam and now I'm sure who he is as an artist - and I don't think he knows either. "Dalton nizing" a song is really not a career path.

Scott Borchetta signed on to Idol with the intent of launching a pop star (he is struggling with Nick Fradiani as is). He has enough Country artists on his label. He defaulted to Tristan because he was worry about La'Porsha winning. Once the show is off the air, the Idol brand goes with it, and there's really no incentive for him to invest in alums from the show. He has other less costly, lower risk options for scouting talent, like Social Media.

If he didn't sign Jax, he's not going to sign Emily or Tristan. On BMGL, he already has The Voice alums, Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbury, Raelynn.

Probably not. The tour has been losing money the last few seasons. It was always intended to promote the show, but now the show will be ending.

OK, so going by the above, how is your argument of comparing Pope and Bradbury to Candice and Caleb fair? Neither had big singles to support their albums. They are on different labels, different management. And it's well known that neither were really marketed. Also, there's really no direct correlation between viewership and post show sales.

Hardly. In the on-line blogging of show, fans were ripping him apart; saying he actually gave the worse performance of the night. I do not know what Borchetta was thinking with this single. The song sounds nothing like Fradiani.

Yet, with all the promotion, Cassadee Pope's CD only sold 181K, Danielle Bradbury 136K. They would be consider flops if they were on Idol, especially for major label artists. Even Lee Dewyze's CD sold more than Bradbury. Kris Allen sold much better than Pope. Another example of Scott Borchetta over promising, under producing.

Borchetta only back Nick, because he didn't want Clark and threw him under the bus on national TV. Jax was really his favorite. Of course, then after the show, Borchetta betrayed her. I think Dalton is way more marketable as a Pop artist than Nick. Dalton is actually at a good age to win. Kelly, Fantasia won when they were 20. Phillip 21, Carrie 22. At 30, Nick is to old to launch as a Pop act. Most of those guys broke out in their early 20's. I don't know where Dalton ranks with Borchetta. If Radioactive wasn't a good song choice, where was his mentor, Borchetta? Too busy pimping his favorites?

If Dalton wins, the problem is going to be Scott Borchetta. He's never launched a successful Pop act. Taylor Swift doesn't count, since her initial success was really Country music. Borchetta has proven to be a snake. By the time Nick Fradiani's CD comes out, it would have been a year since he won. Wasted momentum. Dalton would have been better off with Jimmy Iovine and Interscope. Look at what they did with Phillip Phillips. Interscope is a much bigger and more successful label than BMLG.

Scott Borchetta pimping his favorite Tristan, while throwing La'Porsha under the bus. He did the same thing to Clark last year. That's how we ended up with Nick Who? IMO, the worse mistake Idol ever made was bringing this guy on as a mentor. Jimmy Iovine was a lot more effective.

Scotty McCreery has not had a bigger career than Kelly Clarkson. He was recently just dropped from his label.

My point was: debunk the myth that somehow Idol tanked - after Simon left - or that the talent wasn't as good. Attrition and Competition. At the time, Idol had already been on the air 9 seasons, which exceeds the lifespan of most shows. Starting in Season 10, it faced competition with The Voice and other TV singing shows. McCreery and Phillips are still considered way more successful than Simon Cowell era winners Hicks, Allen, Dewyze. If Kelly or Carrie had to launch their careers in the later seasons, I doubt their careers would have taken off the way they did.

Yet the ratings went up in Season 10 - after Simon left. Seasons 10 & 11 also produced 2 of the most successful winners in Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips. And both seasons had successful tours. And it was Season 11 that gave Idol the biggest selling song ever - Home.

I always interpreted that to mean that they were looking for a successful winner - guy or girl. To be fair, if Kelly had to compete as a contestant when the show has been cancelled, I doubt she would have been able to launch a big pop career. TV singing shows are on the decline.

Beautiful Life turned out to be a flop, despite the hard push by the label. They were trying to mirror the Phillip Phillips' mega success with Home. I agree, that the new single sounds nothing like Nick Fradiani. But the pressure is on. If the results are another disappointing Beautiful Life, I can see a "parting of the ways" with the label.

It's interesting that the Idol label head, Scott Borchetta, is now pimping MacKenzie Bourg, another WGWG. And they have yet to release Nick Fradiani's CD.

Johnny Cash.

The more successful alums, who can pull in the viewers, would never want to do something like this. There is no reason for them to. Unfortunately, the alums who would want to do this, do not have the bandwidth to draw in the viewers.

But Cook never lived up to that potential after the show. Part of it, he was never able to shake off the Idol stigma. He's now doing crowd funding. After Kelly and Carrie, Daughtry is the one of the most successful alums to come off the show.

The duets should have been about the contestants - not the alums. It was the job of the mentor to bring out the best in the contestants. So if an alum did indeed "blow their" duet partner away, they in effect, really weren't doing their jobs as mentors.

Style is not going to be a deal breaker for Avalon - or any of the contestants. She actually has a very good voice and has stage presence. The question then turns to personality. I don't think she's unlikeable - but how strong is her likeability factor compared to the others?

Ah, the infamous Idol pageant.bot. Jessica Sanchez was the poster child for that, lol. The big ballads, the flowing evening gowns. Standing there with a frozen smile; nodding with a scripted response. I definitely see a few girls from this season falling into that.

The selection of the mentors probably had more to do with who was available. Noticeably absent were Carrie Underwood, Phillip Phillips, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson, Kat McPhee. I don't think either Caleb or Nick has had any real success to be in the mentor role. And if it couldn't get any worse for Scotty - having to mentor on the same day when it was announced he had been dropped by his label.

The day this segment filmed, it was announced that Scotty had been dropped from his label. This should have been about the contestants - not showcasing the songs of the alums.

The obvious problem with the duets - they did not show case the contestants. Most of the song choices were mis matches. And a lot of the voices just didn't mesh well.