Let's Get Rid Of Auditions

[Primetimer]

Stephanie Cangro is not a crackpot: she just never wants to see an audition montage again.

 

[rereader2]

EXCELLENT IDEA. Let's do this immediately. We have the power! (Just refuse to watch the auditions.)

[FineWashables]

ITA.  Great idea.  The thing where American Idol keeps all those misguided hopefuls sitting around for hours just to be made fun of is not entertaining, it's cruel.  The hopefuls on The Voice are treated with more dignity but still, if you can't cut it, why should I listen to you sing? 

 

Here's a segment I'd like to see added: instead of showing us how the contestants are jackassing around together to visit Disney World or whatever, give us an interview with each one to find out what specific challenge they're facing with this week's performance and what strategy they're using -- and I don't mean the usual insightful "if I don't win this week then I'll lose."  I don't know about the process of becoming a better singer and I'd be interested if they told us things like, I've never been comfortable with my lower register and I've had to practice 10 hours a day to adjust my breathing so I can hit those notes (or whatever it is that singers have to do to be successful out of their comfort zones -- see, I don't know, and I'd like to find out.  We get a few ideas from seeing them with the vocal coaches but it's always more about how awed they are to be singing for someone famous than it is what they learned from the experience.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

I NEVER EVER watched the auditions until they brought in better judges and along with better judges seem to come better contestants for the most part so I started watching.  In the past I only tuned in when it got down to the final 12 and then I got to know those contestants.  Even though I have been watching the auditions in the last couple of years I would not miss it as I FF most of it anyway!    

[marketdoctor]

"Get rid of the audition rounds" is one of those ideas whose time has come. It peaked with William Hung, and was played as well as it ever will with Nicole Tieri (Scooter Girl) in 2004, and since then it's just been hipster (e.g. something that mistakenly thinks it's cool.)

If we're voting, I'm also very up for the "how they become better singers" change, because there are probably a lot of people in the audience who think they sound like a specific singer, and anything that helps people sing better is good for all of us.

[TheGreenKnight]

I'd love if they got rid of the auditions. The only entertainment they ever gave me was watching Simon tear into the awful people. I rarely watched back then, and I haven't watched any of them since he left. I don't care for the Hollywood drama rounds either. I always wait until the voting rounds begin.

[Badger]

If you only watch the voting rounds, you don't get the full experience of the show.  Like sometimes someone will be incredible in their original audition but ends up imploding in Hollywood.  Or vice versa.  Or sometimes you'll find someone you think could make it all the way and it's fun to see how their journey goes.

[Qoass]

I watch every last second of the auditions not because they're such quality TV but because I hate winter and will plant myself on the couch for any reason in January.  Plus, there are some really enjoyable interactions between Harry and Keith during these shows.

 

The "here's how I'm preparing to sing" segments suggested do sound an awful lot like what you'd see on The Voice.  However, if a contestant confesses that he's finding a high note challenging, there will be thousands (millions?) of viewers just waiting to shriek, "Hah!  He missed it!  He sucks!".  It would be like telling a producer on The Amazing Race that you don't know how to swim.