With The ‘American Idol’ Reboot, What’s Old Is New Again
Eric Liebowitz/ABC Reading Time: 2 minutes
The reviews of the reboot of American Idol, (Which premieres March 11th at 8pm), are coming in and they are generally positive. One thing is pretty clear, this is very much a nicer, friendlier, Disney version of the original American Idol. The question is: has the reboot thrown out the good with the bad.
One thing that we know for a fact is that this is a nicer version of the original. One of the most popular parts of the old Idol was the bad auditions. Who can forget the terrible singers being mocked by Simon Cowell and laughed at by Randy Jackson. But this Idol jettisoned all of that. In 2018 laughing at untalented mentally unstable people is seen as exploitive. Also, the show is in general a lot nicer. It’s not surprising seeing as it is now owned by Disney. The company that brought us Mickey Mouse can’t have the kind of meanness of the original.
But that makes me wonder if by removing some of the bite of the original if this version is going to be extremely bland. This is a problem. Clearly, this show is meant to compete with The Voice, which of course can never be accused of being edgy. In general I think that it is a good thing that they got rid of the bad auditions as seeing some of those old ones makes me feel uncomfortable. However, if the judges are just going to be super nice to the singers, that’s no good either. It’s going to be boring if that’s the case. I guess we’ll see on the 11th.
