‘Idol’ seeks new champion, forgets Sparks

This year’s seven-city "American Idol" tryout tour is in full swing by now, with San Diego and Dallas already out of the way and Omaha, Atlanta, Charleston, Miami and Philadelphia to come by the end of August. If the past is any indication, tens of thousands of wannabes, gonnabes and don’t-get-your-hopes-up-bes will assemble wherever pied piper Ryan Seacrest and his magical hair surface. Except for those for whom acting like an idiot to earn three seconds on television is a laudable goal in itself, they all want the same thing: to win “Idol” and become a priority for 19 Entertainment, the management company behind the show.

There’s one more person who might ask for the same: Jordin Sparks. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because she not only competed on the last season of “Idol,” she actually won. (Feel free to visit the show’s official Web site for confirmation.) Not that Sparks has a lot of time to feel like she’s already in the process of being replaced. She’s probably too busy with the “Idol” concert tour (this week: the Midwest!) and what are presumably wheels in motion for her debut album.

Still, it’s been just under three months since Sparks’ coronation, and her crown hadn’t even had enough time to warm up to her body temperature before Seacrest announced that auditions would be starting up again soon. The message, had Ms. Sparks been coherent enough at the time to notice it, should have been clear: even before the show had managed to do a single thing with the current Idol, it was already thinking about finding the next one.

The same thing happens every year. Each season ends the same way: with confetti, tears, a lousy song and an open invitation to replace the person supposedly being celebrated right then and there. For a show that lives for giving the winner his or her grand, dramatic moment (to the point where it makes them sing quite explicitly about it), “Idol” sure doesn’t seem all that interested in letting it go by without derailing it.

Sparks failing to fly?

Slide show ‘Idol’ auditions "American Idol" auditioners are desperate to be crowned the next winner, even while the previous year's champ still struggles to be noticed. more photos

But even though the auditions have always trod closely on the heels of the winner’s victory lap, it seems particularly worrisome this year. It’s still too early to tell, naturally, but “Idol” doesn’t seem to be boosting Sparks the way it has with previous winners. For one thing, there has been a curious dearth of actual product to come from the show. Last year, the compilation CD featuring the top twelve contestants was released the same week as the season finale, which was actually a few weeks late compared to previous seasons’ albums. Even the still-figuring-it-out first season saw an album on the shelves within weeks of Kelly Clarkson saving us from the tyranny of the words “American Idol Justin Guarini.”

This year, however, there was no CD. Instead, “Idol” sold downloads of studio versions of the contestants’ songs for the first time (perhaps following the lead of “Rock Star,” which offered the live performances on its website from day one). iTunes eventually listed a Season 6  Greatest Hits “compilation” with a sequenced track listing, but with every song from this past season still available, it amounted to little more than a suggestion. (And a lousy one at that… Who in their right mind would pick “As Long As He Needs Me” as either representative of Melinda Doolittle’s “Idol” arc or the high point of her time on the show?)

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