Will AI’s new season be as popular as the first?

American Idol (AI) has constantly been the top-rated talent search in the US for the last four seasons. Now that season five has begun, fans expect that the show will offer something greater than the last. AI has the responsibility of giving viewers a quality show. After all, it has been a well-loved reality search around the world.

Since its premiere last Jan. 18 via ABC 5, we can’t help but wonder what’s been happening to the show this season and why producers seem to be enjoying mocking the untalented contestants who dream of stardom. We understand the entertainment value of the bad auditions but we need to see more of talented singers and not the worst auditions practically dominating the four cities we’ve seen so far.

Take for example the audition that left many viewers marveling "what the heck was that all about," Crystal "Sun Tan" Parizanski’s audition in Chicago. Reality TV Magazine reported that Parizanski showed up twice wearing two different shirts during the AI premiere. Crystal initially appeared in a pink shirt singing And I’m Telling You. Simon Cowell made fun of her tan and the judges elected not to send her to Hollywood. Crystal then reappeared at the end of the show in a gray shirt singing Lady Marmalade.

The second time around, Cowell said "that was the worst we’ve had in Chicago" after her audition.

The magazine called up Crystal and she said, "I auditioned with the And I Am Telling You in front of them. The Lady Marmalade was a song required by the producer for us to learn within an hour, to perform in front of Nigel, the producer, not Randy, Simon and Paula, as they made it seem. Also the auditions did not consist of ‘one day’ of auditioning. There were three auditions previous to the audition leading to Randy, Simon, and Paula."

"Also they told me that to ‘look better in Simon’s eyes,’ I should put more makeup on and they came into the lady’s bathroom to film it. I told them I was scared and felt nauseous, and just to make a mockery of me and my mother they told us to strut down the street while filming. They edited out most of the audition which you can notice by my song being ‘cut’ in half! I came back when they followed me out the doors all the way to the street corner, and I asked them, ‘Was the whole bathroom skit to, make a mockery of me?’ Apparently, it was. But they failed to air that on their show," she stressed.

There are also rumors that David Hoover’s advancement to Hollywood might not have been that crazy after all. Remember he’s the guy from the Chicago audition who didn’t have shoes on and kept on jumping and jumping like crazy. Hoover is a pretty good singer with several original songs on his website. When his true singing skills shine through in Hollywood after what we saw in his earlier audition, will make a good story. Scripted? Think about it.

And how about Rhonetta Johnson who bad-mouthed Paula Abdul? What were the producers thinking airing all those nasty things the girl said about Paula? There was nothing positive achieved in showing this. What purpose did it serve?

In an interview with Nigel Lythgoe, one caller asks Lythgoe why the average singers don’t get through but the bad ones do. Nigel answers, "I will not bore people with the hundreds of thousands of people we have to see. I’m there to make a good show. We don’t have the time to show you hundreds of thousands of people. I want the very best and the very worst and that gives us a good cross section of the areas that we go to." So there, it just boils down to ratings.

In an article in The New York Times, Bill Carter reports that "Simon Fuller, executive producer of the program, hoped Idol would be strong this year. But he and the others in the production are willing to be pragmatic. In a fifth go-round, no previous reality TV show and very few programs of any kind in TV history had significant ratings increase."

Also according to the article, "on the morning of Jan. 18, Fuller called for the overnight ratings of the Idol premiere as soon as he could. What he heard startled him. AI, already top-rated, was up an astonishing 15 percent among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that Fox sought to reach the most. It was up almost 10 percent among all viewers at 35.5 million, the second largest audience ever for an entertainment show on Fox."

Filipinos have something to look forward to in American Idol season five as two Pinoys made it to the first round of auditions. Jose "Sway" Penala auditioned in San Francisco and got a unanimous "yes" from the judges including hard-to-please Simon who even said Jose is soulful. Paula thought he had an excellent voice. Another Fil-Am contestant is Janye Rio Santayana, who sang Sweet Love also from the San Francisco audition.

American Idol season five airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 10 p.m. on ABC.