‘Idol’ minds should ponder tweaks for next year

Make people care
"Idol" was very good this season about adding drama to the auditions.

Viewers found out LaKisha Jones was a single mother and Phil Stacey was a Navy sailor who missed his daughter's birth to try out for the show. Viewers cared, and cheered when they advanced.

And then ... nothing. Although every results show had so much filler that Ryan Seacrest felt compelled to make jokes about it each week, the producers never showed footage that made people feel a connection with the contestants. Instead, Ryan asked random passersby who they preferred, or wasted time making the same jokes with Simon that he's done for six years.

This time, it really was a singing competition. But that's not the best way of going about things, because a competition to decide between 12 singers no one cares about is not very compelling. Each of the finalists had their own group of hardcore fans, but the show's producers and editors didn't make it easy.

Slide show   ‘Idol’ crowns a champ “American Idol” Jordin Sparks and some of the singers she bested along the way in season six.

No one got the sense that failing to vote for Haley Scarnato would doom her to a life of working retail, or that Brandon Rogers would have to apply at the local hardware store. How badly did the contestants want to win? What had they already sacrificed in pursuit of their dream? All too often, the only answer the viewers had was "I don't know."

Raise the stakes
As the show has gotten bigger, the prize at stake seems smaller. Or at least, it's perceived that way.

The winner gets a million-dollar record deal, but the loser generally does equally well. Eight of the 12 finalists from last season already have albums in stores or on the way.

Moreover, it's "Idol's" bad luck that the two breakthrough artists of the past 12 months have been Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson, neither of whom made it even as far as the season finale. It leads to the sense that winning doesn't really matter, that just making it into the final half-dozen or so finalists is enough to secure a successful career. The result is less of an imperative to vote, because the difference between first, second, and fourth is seen as negligible.

"Idol" needs to do something to assure the viewers that they're not just picking a winner — they're anointing a superstar. Maybe that means a longer deal for more money. Maybe it means a solo tour in big venues, or TV appearances, or whatever. Maybe it just means putting the "Idol" hype machine on overdrive to secure the winner's career.

Either way, the winner has to become a superstar, or what's the point?

It's great that everyone on the show always seems to get along, and creating a backstabbing atmosphere like on"Survivor" wouldn't make the show any better. But it would be great to get the sense that the contestants really, really wanted to win and that second place was a poor consolation.

The winner always seems to cry tears of joy onstage. It wouldn’t kill “Idol” to have a season where the runner-up shed a few tears of sorrow or frustration.

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