Welcome Back-Changes and Idol v The Voice

Welcome back. Happy New Year. But more importantly we are on the precipice of Season 14 of American Idol. That's right 14 years of singing, judging, star-making performances, major fails and a ton of contestants that you probably can't remember their names. Despite or because of all that we are back for our 6th season of blogging this little show. Tomorrow January 7th, 2015 is premiere night but we thought we should catch you up on some of the changes that Idol went through this past off season and also we wanted to give those who do or don't watch The Voice a chance to see a comparison between the two. At this point both Idol and The Voice aren't the juggernauts they once were, and honestly if Idol's numbers don't rebound this year this could be its last, but as a viewer of almost every edition of the Voice and every single season of Idol I wanted to show you why you should stick by Idol and continue to watch or at least come back to I'dol Be The Judge for all your recaps and maybe don't watch so much of The Voice and get burned out with all these reality shows. So let's get to it:

Season 14 Changes:

      1. RANDY JACKSON IS GONE!!!!! After 12 years of being a mediocre judge and 1 season of being a misdirected, inefficient mentor, Randy Jackson is gone. Could he come back as something at one point? Maybe, but hopefully not in any responsible role. New mentor this season is Scott Brochetta. He is most well-known for discovering Taylor Swift. He is kind of a Nashville guy, we’ll see how he does with all sorts of voices and talent.

      2. ONE NIGHT ONLY! The results show is gone once Top 10 begins. Well, the results aren’t gone but the show is. The show will be condensed into 1 crazy night. They did this on Dancing with the Stars a few years back, it was a little wonky in the beginning but now they have it down. If they do it by the DWTS format it will be everyone performs, everyone gets phone numbers and tweets and all that in which it will go towards the following week, but then right at the end of the episode we learn the results from the previous week and despite how someone performs that night they could potentially be gone, if the Judge’s Save is not utilized. This will make for an exciting 2 hours of Idol rather  than a stretched out performance show and an even more stretched out results show the next night.

     3. Coca Cola is GONE! I don’t really care too much about it given I’ve never received free stuff from CocaCola since that time I said I liked Pepsi and CocaCola didn't take kindly to that...but we don’t talk about that. But seriously though, a sponsor for the first 13 seasons of Idol’s run has decided to part ways. Not a good sign for the aging show.

     4. WHAT’S NEXT?! This season hasn’t been deemed the show’s last. I am sure they are gonna wait and see how the ratings are for the first number of weeks on it’s normal regular schedule and then see how It settles into it’s new one night format before the FOX people figure out what to do with it’s former ratings juggernaut.  None of the judge’s or Ryan Seacrest are signed through next season. But despite all the speculation I will not guess that this is the final season until we are told. So we just carry on like any typical Season of American Idol and hope for some great talent, incredibly constructive criticism and support from the judges and the hope that Randy Jackson doesn’t poke his head on this show again.

 I don't want to be a home body but despite American Idol's vastly depressing ratings over the past couple seasons, and the Voice's ability to attract A-List Musicians, American Idol is a far superior show. I am going to rank and explain why for those that like me tried really hard to like The Voice and realize that you just can't OR you never watched the show but wanna know the hype. Some of these Idol examples are based on past seasons, things could’ve changed for this year.  

 The Voice

•  Before Live Round There Are: 5 Audition Rounds, 4 Battles, 3 Knockouts=Way Too Long/Too Many Rounds
• Too Many Judge’s Saves-(3) Each Judge Gets 2 Steals For Battles and 1 Steal For Knockouts
• No Real Negative Comments By Mentors, Especially After Live Rounds begin because the Judge’s don’t want to come off petty and make the other mentors go off on their contestants.
• Too Many Eliminations At A Time---Especially after live rounds begin. Took so long to get to that point and then they are gone quickly.
• The Twitter Save-West Coast Can’t Vote and People that Watch DVR next day can’t Vote.
• Don’t Get To Know The Artist
• Season is 13 Weeks

American Idol

•  1 Judge’s Save For Entire Season (Doesn’t Begin Until Top 10) 
•  7 Audition Rounds and  3 Semi Final Rounds
• Season is 19 Weeks
• Public Gets 24 Hours To Vote, No Twitter Save
• Get To Know the Contestants
•  Once Hit Live Rounds Only 1 Elimination At A Time(Exception: When A Judge’s Save Is Used, 2 Could Go Home Following Week)
•  Judge’s Are Actual Judge’s and Provide Both Positive, Negative and Critical Comments

That's It. Hope you enjoyed this little preview of I'dol Be The Judge. We will be back tomorrow night for the first night of American Idol Season 14. Until then, see ya! 

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