American Idol has become one of the biggest shows in Television history, launching people from obscurity to international fame in just a few short months. It could easily be argued that many of these people may never have been able to pursue their dreams if it hadn’t been for the show. Stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Kris Allen and Jennifer Hudson may have never seen their dreams become reality. The biggest star of the show, however, has to be Simon Cowell.
The music mogul, who was previously best known for launching Westlife’s career, was first seen as the nasty judge on the British version of the show, “Pop Idol.” When Fox decided to bring the show to America, they knew that Cowell was a key factor in the show’s success. When Idol launched on American television, Cowell become a house hold name, the judge people loved to hate.
This week, Cowell officially announced that he would be leaving American Idol after his ninth season with the show. He will be launching his own talent show, X Factor, in America. The show has already proved popular in Britain, with Leona Lewis being its biggest success story to date.
The big question on everybody’s mind is what will happen to the show now that its star is leaving. The show has yet to see what effect the bubbly Paula Abdul’s loss will have, never mind its leading man. Although Paula was a big loss to the show, her replacement, Ellen Degenerous, is someone many people are looking forward to seeing. But with Simon Cowell gone, can the cash cow hold its already diminished audience?
I tend to think that if the X Factor import is a success, American Idol may be brought to a close. Fox, realising that the two shows can’t compete, has cleverly pushed their dates as far apart as possible. But how many talent shows does America need, or more correctly how many does it want? Only time will tell.
If you haven’t heard already, the spectacularly embarrassing news from M-Net (South Africa’s leading Premium Channel) is that they have had to award the South African Idol crown to both finalists.
Carmen and David are the first South African Troy and Gabriella. Last night, in a jam packed theatre, the final six sang for the last time as contestants. After a couple of songs from the final six and a seemingly large amount of dancers, the bottom two finalists were dropped from the show. Danni was the first to go, followed by Lyle.
The final four were definitely the strongest and proved it with their final individual songs. Daniel, although talented, doesn’t look comfortable on stage and battles to hold his accent when singing. Tshepi has a strong voice but it seems too deep for the Gabriella role. Carmen has the full package with a clear voice that plays out beautifully. Although Daniel looked more like Troy David definitely has the stage presence and a stronger voice. Unfortunately he did hit a few bad notes, especially on his wining song with Carmen.
