American Idol Is Back, Let's Talk About It

Last night American Idol returned to the Fox schedule, a one-time stalwart of pop music television bruised and bloodied by flashier competitors, ever-fragmenting audiences, and a 12th season that could be described as a mild disaster. The only vestiges of the singing show's first season are the breathily peppy theme song (composed by Cathy Dennis of the '90s banger "Touch Me (All Night Long)" and the ever-smiling Ryan Seacrest, this country's most overemployed man; otherwise, the furniture has been moved around mightily, from a new panel of judges to a de-emphasizing of audition-borne jokery to a green-lit room serving as hopefuls' final space to psych themselves up before submitting themselves to America's whims.

But let's back up for a second. How did Idol arrive at a point where it was so eager to make itself over, so eager to ditch guaranteed "viral" sensations like the guy who sang "Pants On The Ground"? It ended the 2012-2013 season in the six and seven slots on the year-end Nielsen ratings—not exactly CW midseason replacement numbers, but nowhere near the audience-dominating numbers it enjoyed a few years earlier. (The ratings on the finale were down a whopping 40% from the prior year, a sign that people tuned out as the competition winnowed itself down.) The Idol audience has been aging for years now, and it's been doing so a clip faster than that of the show; last year, the median age of viewers was 51.2.

Numbers, however, don't tell the only story. Last year's competition was notable for two reasons: The massaging of the results, and the nitpicking among the judges. The first—from seasons 7 to eleven, Idol only had male winners. They were also uniformly white, and they all toted guitars. (Idol watchers refer to these contestants as "WGWGs"—white guys with guitars.) Season 9 winner Lee DeWyze claimed his victory after a finale performance where he sang the opening verse of "With A Little Help From My Friends" out of tune, thus answering its question with a breathy "vote for you anyway, darling"; season eleven winner Phillip Phillips cruised to victory while seemingly thumbing his nose at the show's entire convention, and became the competition's first winner to have a pair of major radio hits since Jordin Sparks won season 6 and celebrated by dueting with Chris Brown. Idol's powers that be wanted a girl to win, and they wanted it bad. Stops were pulled out; male contestants with potential were seemingly hidden from view, so as to avoid becoming crush objects who would receive hordes of votes from twitterpated women of all ages. The eventual winner of last season was Candice Glover, a South Carolinian with incredible pipes and a knack for changing up songs in such a way that her slaying them was the only inevitable result (check out her torchy take on the Cure's "Love Song," which should at the very least put 311 to shame).

Glover hasn't been able to take her victory lap yet, though; her album, which was supposed to come out six weeks after the May 2013 finale, is now scheduled for release next month. Part of that might be due to the way the story of last season developed—namely, that it became more about the judges and their infighting instead of being focused on the contestants. In what at the time was seen as a coup (and a way to counter the younger, more radio-friendly panel presented to American viewing audiences by singing-show upstarts The Voice and The X Factor), Idol signed on three new judges, all of whom had a current presence on radio, to join Last Original Judge Standing Randy Jackson: Affable Nashville-via-Australia rocker Keith Urban; tongue-twisting Nicki Minaj; and longtime Idol, er, idol Mariah Carey. They gave the show a new kind of buzz, one that the addled antics of Paula Abdul or even the tight t-shirts of Idol grand poobah emeritus Simon Cowell couldn't even dream to incite.

But they also gave the show headaches—or at least Minaj and Carey did. Their critiques of the contestants were often on point, but their snipes at each other brought to mind the "catfight" routine on Seinfeld. Last season's Idol was supposed to focus on elevating a new female pop star, but too often the dominant story became a hall-of-mirrors Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, with Minaj and Carey jostling for diva supremacy while the contestants stood onstage grimly smiling. A lack of charisma among the contestants has often been cited as part of the reason for last year's failures, and while that's true in part—particularly among the male finalists, who were varying types of cannon fodder—the overpowering, already-existent star quality possessed and amplified by Minaj and Carey, combined with their Twitter-fueled fanbases and a celebrity press ever eager to watch two prominent females rip each other to shreds for shits and giggles, meant that the kids never had a chance.

So Idol is now in its 13th season, bruised but not bloodied, down but not as low in the ratings as Cowell's X Factor, and changes are being made. Some of them seem like a concession to the fact that the show isn't as beholden to celebrity flash as its competitors; Urban is still on the judging panel, and he's joined by returning Idol judge Jennifer Lopez and new-to-the-table Harry Connick Jr. But this doesn't necessarily mean the show is taking itself to the old pop star home—audition songs seemed fresher this year than previous, with a performance of Luke James's "I Want You" being one highlight, and a lot of aspiring rocker chicks taking on a Grace Potter song that sounds like an outtake from Aerosmith's Pump. Others seem like acknowledgements that the show does have a very specific audience, and it might as well embrace that fact; this year, hopefuls were allowed to bring in instruments for their auditions, and a slew of WGWGs crossed the transom and made it through to Hollywood Week. (The most exciting change for this writer will come later in the season, when the results shows—a grueling hour of Fox cross-promotion and native advertising—will last only 30 minutes.)

For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, the Idol setup is as follows: A series of audition episodes chronicle the judges' trek around the country in search for new talent. Those singers who are deemed worthy of further scrutiny are sent to Hollywood Week, where the talent pool is further winnowed down. Then, the live shows start, and with those come voting by the public—which is where the audience's preferences make themselves plain. Idol's voting audience, as mentioned earlier, loves dudes who have guitars—and gives them bonus points if they have particularly pinchable cheeks, a la Phillips, season-10 winner Scotty "Now Known As Scott Because He's In College" McCreery, and season-eight victor Kris Allen. The public's whims are often maddening, particularly when talented singers of a certain mold (R&B, mostly) get booted to the curb too early. Over the coming season there will be a lot of teeth-gnashing from this outpost.

But for now, let's go over some of the highlights from last night's episode, which showcased the auditions in Boston and in Austin. 46 singers who tried out in those two cities are moving on to Hollywood, and there were quite a few standouts. (There were also a lot of dudes who took on Ed Sheeran songs, which I guess isn't too surprising but ugh, Ed Sheeran.) A few of the highlights:

Marialle Sellers. This 17-year-old auditioned in Detroit, but the reasons the producers picked her to open the 13th season were obvious—she had a Look (shaved sides, pouty lips, shoes that J. Lo deemed worthy of commentary), she had a guitar, and she had pipes that gave her version of Bruno Mars's "Grenade" an extra kick. She's kind of the ideal star for Idol, although whether or not voters will love her enough to not start murmuring about her getting "arrogant" is up in the air.

Troy Durden. He introduced himself in a way that made people think he might be a joke, with references to twerking (ugh) and fawning praise over Lopez. But his version of "Over The Rainbow" was beautiful; his voice has a nice grain and his stank reminded me of Jacob Lusk, my favorite Idol contestant from the past few years.

Lindsey Perricone. Worthy of mention because she told the judges that she started watching the show at the age of five.

Jillian Jensen. I live in Boston, and Jillian—or "Jill"—is getting quite a bit of buzz up here, although last night she only got enough screen time to let me know that she was wearing a really terrible dress to the audition. Because Idol airs these episodes as it's winnowing down the cast to a manageable number for its live shows, though—there are levels to Idol fandom, people—the word is out that she's going to be on TV a lot more once the auditions are over.

Austin Percario. A 17-year-old kid from Jersey who is super psyched that his stage mom will be out of the picture by the time he goes to Hollywood, because he'll be a legal adult. I smell a musical version of Irreconcilable Differences in the works! Or maybe a gender-flipped Gypsy?

Kaitlyn Jackson. This 15-year-old auditioned with a very literal song about her grandfather having a heart attack while she performed at a county fair, and her success made me hope that whoever is schooling her on-set gives her a lesson in metaphor.

Keith Londoner. A Pennsylvanian whose income is derived from "odd jobs," this singer's dude-and-guitar cover of "Roar" would probably be huge on YouTube. Harry was not impressed (I loved how generally unimpressed Harry was!) but he made it through, and is currently the frontrunner in this season's WGWG division.

Viviana Villalon. The phrase "Maroon 5 on ukulele" should send chills through my spine, but this Texan pulled it off, thanks to a nice roundness possessed by her voice.

Malcolm Allen. A tattoo of a piano on his arm helped him calm his nerves—he "played" it while running through Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" almost effortlessly.

Munfarid Zaidi. The evening's final hopeful was a self-professed Harry Connick Jr. fan, which thrilled Connick (Munfarid's arrival was preceded by a montage of young kids not knowing who the singer was, which, given that he's been on Idol a ton over the past few years, also reveals their TV-viewing patterns). He sang Adele and got into the song nicely, showing off his falsetto and proving himself worthy of being picked up and cradled by Connick while singing "No One" by Alicia Keys.

Savion Wright. My favorite of all the auditioners last night, this guy really doesn't need to progress on Idol to be a star—he has a distinctive look, a fantastic voice, and R&B songwriting chops (he performed a song he wrote) that make him worthy of at least a look from, say, Phonte or Miguel.

Also, shout out to Shannon Wilsonfor auditioning with Luke James's "I Want You," which is one of the best singles of the last year and also really, really hard to sing, thanks to the way it leaps up to the top of the treble clef on its chorus.

Last night had lots of WGWGs, a healthy smattering of younger singers who will be overpraised for packing mimeographs of emotion into their songs despite their ages, and a few curveballs whose extra-Idol careers I actually want to follow. As the show rolls on, patterns will develop further. Two judge-related behaviors seem to be common: People are way overpraising Jennifer Lopez (I counted at least three montages given over to contestants talking about how she was just one of the most important people in history, like Rushmore-worthy), while Harry Connick Jr. is proving to be an absolute delight, poking fun at his fellow judges being easy marks for showy runs (and explaining the pentatonic scale) and trading IQ scores with hopefuls while also being realistic about the actual amount of talent the singers have.

Most importantly, though, the focus on the contestants who were either really good or just a hair shy of being ready for going further in the competitions was welcome. I've long had distaste for those auditions that were played just for comedy, people coming in just so they could be knocked down by the panel. They don't really do anything to advance the show's narrative, and they add flab to episodes that already had tons to spare. Last night, there was really only one "funny" audition—i.e. out-and-out bad; I liked the falsetto that the music-industry-scorning James Earl possessed—and it was by a guy who just loved Jennifer Lopez so much that he had to, had to meet her. Here's hoping takes some of the air out of J. Lo's bedazzled balloon and forces her to be a judge, because she's actually pretty good at it when she isn't fending off compliments.

Maura Johnston will be providing in-depth American Idol coverage weekly at Noisey. She's on Twitter - @maura