This year seems to collectively be the most talented year on AI. There's been equally good individual performers before of course, but the talent aggregate seems higher than ever, and it's divided across both sexes too.

Is there any link between this and Cowell's departure?

Did his input previously prevent such a line-up when deciding the finalists?

Did his critique on live TV put such people off, worrying they would automatically be humiliated by some rude remark and have any chance of a career ruined by his dismissal that they were "indulgent" and "OTT" if they strayed away from his idea of radio-friendly pop?

Or is it simply the case that the producers have upped their game, and found a stronger group of contestants in readiness for the likely triviality of X Factor USA?

That's because Simon likes "controversy" and "diversity", I hope he leaves the UK X Factor, as the X Factor is an embarrassment compared to American Idol. :0

We know that the judges dont see every single auditionee, that would simply be impossible. The producers have a whole bunch of assistant producers screening the applicants for both good and bad to put through to the judges. I suspect that this year with the need to up their game, they screened those aplicants more carefully to find the really good ones, and maybe tried less hard to find the bad and those with the 'right' back story.

I suspect that in the past they did not really care if they missed a few 'good' talents so long as they got the pre-scripted mix they were looking for, but maybe this year they gave more folk a fair hearing and were prepared to be more flexible with the scripted mix required.

This is not something that one would imagine Cowell wanting to do. Too much like hard work to play it straight.

Equally? Every previous year has had at least one and often more than one contestant better than any this year. The only ones this year who vocally come close to some who have gone before are Jacob and to a lesser extent Pia, and in terms of charisma or quirkiness, Scotty and Paul.

Season 7 had an inordinate amount of talent in the final 12 and it was very well dispersed between male and female.

In last year's talent famine, Simon was the only judge who wanted to put the best singer and the only one with any star quality through to the live shows but was outvoted on this.

Simon's critiques were the ones most contestants took most seriously.

Being branded "indulgent" by Simon one week did for Adam Lambert's career, didn't it? Not to mention David Cook being branded "boring" by him in the pre-last 12 shows that year.

The producers looked through the book of previously rejected auditionees this year and invited many of them back because the first time auditionees were just as weak as last year - 80% of the last 13 is made up of previous rejects.

About as much of a link as all the uprisings in Tunisia Egypt and Libya being because Simon left.

Simon left. The world went on turning on its axis and things happened all over the world. And they might all have happened even if Simon had stayed.

Yep, I would agree, I think it's about who they picked rather than a difference in the talent of the people who auditioned. In most cases this season they definitely seem to have gone for singing ability over diversity or backstory.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing in terms of making it an entertaining programme, I'm not really sure yet to be honest. The girls in particular all seem very samey to me at the moment. Hopefully that will change as the season progresses.

I think it was only really last year where the talent of the finalists was below standard, and even then, that was because of the stupid American public not voting for anyone remotely talented in the early rounds. (Oh Katelyn Epperly )

Seasons 7 + 8 were amongst the best of all the seasons for me. I think idol seems to get some unfair criticism for being in decline, when if anything, it just had a slump year, which it has from time to time. (Series 6 for example)

American Idol was never Simon's show and just like Randy, Paula, Kara, Ellen, and now Steven and Jennifer, he was nothing more than a paid employee.


The early exit of Katelyn Epperly in the live shows and Shelby Dressel not even being put through to the live shows (which if I remember correctly, Simon made a point of telling her wasn't a unanimous decision and he had wanted to put her through).

I agree with you about seasons 7 and 8 compared to seasons 6 and particularly 9.



I think they've actually concentrated more on personality and performance this year as opposed to just singing, good singers as some of them are, as the lack of ability to do much else than stand there and sing the right notes most of the time was the biggest flaw in the past two winners.

I agree the girls seem to merge into one at the moment and I'm not sure that a couple of the guys that stand out do so for the right reasons.


Perhaps