It is for sure now: American Idol is fake

Another American Idol mess-up shows that contestants' sour notes are sometimes cleaned up. I give up on the big lie that is Idol.


So, at the beginning of the American Idol top 24 episodes this year, my husband declared to me that American is totally rigged and that the judges/producers purposely put failed or already discovered artists into the 24 to stack the deck at getting a better chance at a hit-selling winner. He had done a bunch of reading online, and he told me the stories about how Carly crashed a record label with her $2 million flop when she was 19 and how David A. has been beating the pants off of Star Search for years. I told him to calm down, and we'd see what happen.

Well, what just happen is the season finale, which took any doubt out of the equation that this show is not what it appears to be. I'm not out of my mind. I fully expected the producers to use their song choosing powers last week to try to help seal whatever deal they want, but I have never expected that what is being sung on the stage is not actually what we hear at home. But this is what happen at the finale. It is very clear during the recap clips at the end that David A.'s last high note in Imagine was totally off (horrid, horrible, wanted to plug my ears, off.) We went back to listen again, and the note in the performance was on key and never went to the high note heard in the recap. What is going on here, idol?

The same thing seemed to be the case with at least one David C. note. And, ironically enough, this was the only night of the season that the judges did not comment on the performers "pitchiness" in spots. But I heard it myself; David A. hit a full-on sour note. It is clear that an autotuning devise was used during the performances and then the wrong clips where pulled for the recaps OR someone was in charge of cutting out the bad note for the replays of this not-so-live show, but they forgot to fix the recaps too.


Now, I have the worst ear for music, so the fact that I could hear this problem is crazy. I also noticed that David A.'s songs were muffled as if a remix was dubbed after taping to focus on the crowd and not the singing. I am Mormon and from Utah like David A., so I back him and hope he wins. But I don't think anyone would really want to win this way. What is American Idol trying to pull? How can we trust anything when these mix ups keep happening that show what is really going on?

As much as I enjoy the show, I think I might have to be done forever because this kind of obvious dishonesty is just unfair. Right, everyone knows that we are all suckers when it comes to all kinds of media and the fact that we watch this show in the first place (and buy the iTunes the next day.) It reminds me of the movie Simone where a man created a pop super star who was actually just a hologram that he projected from his computer.

In general, I don't want to be part of something that makes people even less aware of how media industries and messages actually work. I originally supported idol because I felt like it gave consumers the power to choose the people they want to see in pop culture. I liked being able to choose sleeves and kindness, but now it just feels like a lie.... 'cause it is.

*** We just re-watched everything AGAIN. And as we watched and compared the notes, movements, facial expressions and all (because we are that lame) it is clear that they ending recaps are not even the same clips as the actual live performances. It must be from the dress rehearsal. Now, I hate this show because it's just dumb. Don't they pay people a lot of money to keep things straight? And what are the odds that both would sing so poorly in rehearsal and not make any mistakes in the live show?