TVSquad

Apparently, American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe was pretty upset about my disdain at the lack of screen time his show has given to finalists Jason, Jason, Garrett and Luke so far because he's come out with an explanation of why some finalists don't get any screen time prior to the voting portion of the show.

His explanations include editorial "story" concerns and licensing issues with the songs contestants choose to sing. I have only two things to say to that: First, you can feel free to talk to me Nigel. You don't have to go through Reality TV Magazine. Call me, baby. We can work this out. Second, your explanation is complete crap and I don't buy it for an instant.

Let me go ahead and debunk these excuses one at a time. Josiah Leming took up tons of screen time with his sad story about how he was living in his car - because he left his home to do that apparently - and ultimately not making the Top 24. Of that editorial decision Lythgoe said, "Great story. It's always the same decision, editorial decisions based on stories. ... There's a certain amount of airtime. We've got to cover four days of taping in two hours, and it's one of the most interesting stories, and we all felt that Josiah was a major story."

Yes, I agree that Josiah's story was compelling, but so compelling that you couldn't spare ten seconds to show me Luke Menard's audition? On the "Top 24 Revealed" episode, you flashback all the time to show prior performances of contestants, mostly showing us clips we've already seen. You couldn't squeeze in a snippet of Garrett Haley singing something from his first round of auditions, maybe something he did in Hollywood week? Him warming up in a bathroom? I know you had cameras following them around everywhere!

I refuse to believe that the power of "story" is so strong that a few seconds couldn't be found here or there in the thirteen hours you've broadcast to make sure I can at least see the briefest of moments with each of the Top 24 finalists. You could always trim some of the inane chatter between the judges between contestants. Or how about that re-airing of footage we already saw on a prior episode? Skip some of that and show me Jason Yeager singing ... anything at all. I know, let's cut down the amount of time spent doing terrible Three's Company parodies outside the audition venues? Or in Hollywood, just shorten the amount of time you show me singers I've never seen before getting eliminated and crying for your cameras.

Need more American Idol? Get an inside look at Season 7's contestants and think back to these scathing (and hilarious) Simon Cowell quotes. Also: Who do you love? Rank the contestants!

Lythgoe further went on to explain that there was a licensing issue with Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Apparently, they received clearance from Cee-Lo, one half of the duo, to use the song which is why contestants were allowed to sing it in front of the judges. Then Danger Mouse, the other half, came back saying he didn't want the song used on the show. Lythgoe said, "We're destroyed and distraught about certainly Jason. He sang a song in his audition, and then he sang the same song, and brilliantly, at Hollywood week. And then he decided to do one of his own songs, so that's what we were left with to show." But then, unless I'm mistaken, they didn't show that either.

I'm going to tell you a little story now. Do you remember back in Dallas, they had that faux-rocker from Edwardsville, IL, Kyle Reinnick, who rocked the "guy liner" and sang Kelly Clarkson's "Never Again" in front of Paula, Simon and Randy? Well, he was riding his fifteen minutes of fame here in St. Louis so made an appearance on one of the local talk radio shows. Everyone knows that reality television is a bit more manufactured than they'd like us to believe, but Reinnick's revelation stood out with me.

Apparently, according to Reinnick, he sang Clarkson's "Never Again" at an earlier stage of the audition rounds and sang a different song when he was in front of Paula, Simon and Randy. In fact, in front of them he sang an actual rock song by an actual rock artist (apologies that I've forgotten what he said that song was; my excuse is that I was driving down the highway when I heard this). So the responses we got from the judges and their reactions during his audition were completely manufactured as they never saw him sing Clarkson's song.

This tells me that Idol has no problem cutting and pasting together a manufactured audition, right? Okay then. Say you have Danger Mouse come up to you and bitch that he doesn't want you using "Crazy" on your show. Oh no! What do you do? Why not call up Jason Castro and tell him you want him to come sing a different song and you'll film it as if he was really singing it in front of the judges. Then you can splice in the reaction of the judges to "Crazy" and BAM! we got to see Castro. If it's good enough for Reinnick, who was terrible, then why isn't it for one of your Top 24?

I hear a lot of lame excuses but not enough to convince me that we couldn't have still been made to see five to ten seconds of these guys sing. And Lythgoe's bit about how nobody saw Kelly Clarkson prior to the performance episodes either doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. It just means you've been screwing this up from the beginning.