American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe had his weekly show-related conference call with reporters today, and in it he touched on the controversy surrounding Carly Hennessy/Smithson, a former major-label signee who was the subject of a Wall Street Journal profile about the record industry’s excesses a few years back. And not only did he lie about whether or not Idol fessed up to her big-budget past (he claims it did; it didn’t), he got kind of irritable over even being questioned about the whole thing! Since I don’t get invited on these conference calls, I’ll hand it over to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Rodney Ho:
Nigel also incorrectly insisted that “Idol” had revealed Carly Smithson’s past with MCA Records. He was wrong. But he got rather testy when a reporter challenged him on it. The show did reveal her past visa problems so he might have simply forgotten. He said he wasn’t hiding people’s pasts at all, though “Idol” has conveniently left out record contract deals. Did they mention Joanne’s win on Monique’s Fat Chance or David Archuleta’s “Star Search” win? I can’t recall myself.*
He also downplayed the potential backlash Carly is getting on the blogs for her failed time at MCA, saying that most people who vote don’t read the blogs and boards. And since “Idol” isn’t saying anything on air about it, indeed, it probably won’t matter. He did get quite testy over this line of questioning. Credit the wonderful Star Ledger writer Alan Sepinwall. I emailed Sepinwall and he merely wanted to know (before he got cut off) if they were going to mention their past recording contracts sometime in the future.
“Most people who vote don’t read the blogs and boards!” Looks like the Idol producers are going the “treating the viewing public like they’re idiots” route, which is a shame. (Also: If that was the case, why didn’t the Idol powers that be make more of an effort to sign Sanjaya Malakar last year? After all, he did have a fanbase who called in for him week after week, and if they weren’t reading blogs and boards, they may have actually liked him…)
2/15: Nigel Lythgoe says 60s theme next wk, defends Carly Smithson [American Idol Buzz]
*Those shows weren’t mentioned during the program, either; neither was Syesha Mercado’s appearance on the short-lived ABC reality show The One, although that was canceled after two episodes, so maybe it doesn’t really count. The only other reality-show appearances that I recall being mentioned were people who had been on Idol before and that poor auditioner who was on American Juniors way back when and who wasn’t as bad as the show’s producers desperately wanted her to seem.
Wonderful. We should have always known it was a sham. It’s obvious that the producers are okay with Idol becoming nothing more than a dumping ground for former major label acts in an attempt to give them a second life.
What a joke.
Speaking of shams, saw this in the latest Lefsetz mailbag:
From: Michael Moniz
Subject: Grammy Comment(My Grammy Moment)
One more thing I can’t believe no one caught on to, which further make the Grammys a fucking joke, was the “My Grammy Moment”. The way the contest was structured, you would think it’s meant for non-established performing musicians to get a chance in the pseudo spotlight. The winner last night? Ann Marie Calhoun. Now you may ask who the hell she is. She’s currently in fucking Ringo Starr’s touring/promo band for his new album! Alarm bells went off in my head when I saw her as one of the final three. I had just seen her a couple weeks before as part of Ringo’s band on the Craig Ferguson Late Late Show. Add to that, her performing on a Dave Matthews record, and touring with Jethro Tull and Steve Vai!! (check out her site and Wikipedia entry). Pretty much a scam to the actual amateur musicians from around the country who submitted to this contest thinking they actually had a real shot.
Kelly Clarkson was on the Reality Show “Pop Idol” and was working with multi-grammy-award-winning super producer David Foster before ever auditioning for American Idol Season 1.
The winners are always pre-chosen. They have to be. Simon, Simon and Nigel are not humble enough to leave it to the “public” to decide who will be managed by their very own 19 Management.
American Idol is a months long publicity stunt to promote their pre-selected artist of the year.
Oops, I mean “Popstars”. The 2001 reality show competition on the WB.
Rosanna Tavarez and Nicole Scherzinger were two of the contestants who won a spot in the group “Eden’s Crush”. David Foster was a judge on Popstars and when Kelly appeared on the show it was said that she’d be a better solo artist than a member of a group. Foster began working with Kelly Clarkson one-on-one before she auditioned for American Idol in 2002.
[www.timewarner.com],20812,668501,00.html
@Tamany: I didn’t know that about Kelly, very interesting.
FWIW, I’d like to nominate the cover of “Ultimate High” for Idolator’s “Worst Album Cover Of 2008″ contest. I know it wasn’t “released” in 2008, but “Carly Smithson” was, and I think that’s good enough.
I still want to hear that album, because she was a Gregg Alexander/Danielle Brisebois product.
First, Kelly auditioned for Pop Idol, she never made the show nor did she ever get any exposure. Second she wasn’t working with David Foster, she was working with Gerry Goffin as a demo singer. Which is someone who records songs for writers to be submitted to OTHER singers. Kelly was offered two recording contracts prior to Idol, both of which she turned down due to them wanting to change her.
Carly released a CD called Ultimate High in 2001. it contains the song “Just Missed the Train” which strangely enough was covered by one Kelly Clarkson on HER debut Thankful which she released in 2003 AFTER winning Idol. Let’s add in the fact that Randy Jackson, yes, the Judge on Idol, worked for MCA records during the time Carly was signed as an artist.