< American Idol

American Idol/YMMV


The following are Subjective Tropes to American Idol.

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: In Season 11, when Season 6 early favorite Baylie Brown returned after being eliminated in Hollywood. And even more when it was leaked that she made the top 24.
  • Awesome Music: Why does this need to be mentioned again?
  • Bile Fascination: Part of the show's charm is listening to how bad the rejects sing. This was exploited in later seasons (see Seasonal Rot).
  • Creator's Pet: The judges of Season 10, especially Randy, who has earned the hate of many for various reasons.
    • Danny Gokey in Season 8. Example: the judges gave him an A+ for effort... for Dream On.
    • Lee DeWyze in Season 9. The judges love him but he was constantly bashed by critics and had the lowest opening numbers for any winner.
    • Lauren Alaina in Season 10.
    • Joshua Ledet of Season 11. Most viewers agree that he is talented, but the judges give him a Standing Ovation almost every time he sings and act like he's the second coming. Some think that this may have led to him leaving in third place.
      • Steven recently called him one of the best 2 contestants of all time. Fans disagree.
        • And that isn't even going into Jennifer Lopez saying he was one of the best artists she had heard in the last 50 years, period.
  • Designated Monkey: Haley Reinhart in Season 10, who endured a weekly onslaught of negative comments from the judges while everyone else was told how great they were. She also became a Woobie to those that felt the judges were being unfair.
  • Ear Worm
  • Elimination Houdini: The aforementioned Sanjaya Malakar, among others. Vote For The Worst plays a huge part in this.
    • Tim Urban's powers of elimination avoidance in Season 9 exceeded Sanjaya's, earning him the Fan Nickname "Teflon Tim".
      • And those were exceeded again with Season 4's Anthony Federov and Scott Savol. Both of them were in the Bottom 3 more-often than Sanjaya AND Tim.
    • Season 11's Hollie Cavanagh was in the bottom group five times, and on four of those occasions, the result came down to her and the eventual lowest vote-getter: first with Heejun Han, then Colton Dixon, and then Elise Testone, and then Skylar Laine. But, she was no match for Phillip Phillips.
      • In a rather pleasant subversion though, Hollie wasn't a terrible singer.
  • Ethnic Scrappy: Before he was eliminated, Heejun Han was devolving into this. There have been others such as Tatiana Del Toro, and Jacob Lusk (who acted like a Sassy Black Woman).
    • Also on the list is Season 10's Karen Rodriguez. She was one for singing parts of her of songs in Spanish; fans did not take well to that.
  • Fan Community Nicknames: Generated by the forums on the official site, ranging from the simplistic (Archies, shortened from Arch Angels) to the creative (Word Nerds, after David Cook identified himself as a crossword puzzle fanatic with this exact phrase in an early interview) to the just plain weird (Season 7's Ramiele Malubay's fans called themselves the Pikachu Posse -- seriously). For the record, Cook was very accommodating of the Word Nerds, dropping random words (including "plethora") into interviews on the requisite TV talk show circuit after he won as a Shout-Out to his fans (they suggested words for him to work into the interviews, and he obliged). Of course, they first realized that he read what they were writing when one of the Word Nerds mentioned something they thought he'd look good in and he wore it on the show shortly afterwards.
    • SOUL PATROL!
  • Fanon Discontinuity: American Juniors, created and aired in between American Idol as a children's version with Gladys Knight and Deborah Gibson, along with a guest every week, as the judges. It was a complete flop, and quickly dismissed from all the traumatized fans who witnessed it.
    • To be fair, it did introduce the world to Lucy Hale.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: Jermaine Jones was nicknamed the Gentle Giant. However, when he was disqualified for having a criminal record, this name became somewhat ironic...
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Filipinos love Jessica Sanchez.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: After he was reinstated as the thirteenth male participant in the top 25, Ryan gave him code number 36 instead of 13 because Thirteen Is Unlucky. Oops.
    • Also in Season 11, Elise Testone sang Queen's "I Want It All"; she was eliminated the next night.
    • The very next week Skylar Laine sang Creedence Clearwater Revival 's "Fortunate Son," known for its chorus of "It ain't me", and was also eliminated, meaning that the winner wasn't her.
  • Hate Dumb / Misplaced Nationalism: The American version of Idol has gotten hate from Britons because "They are Americans, and not Britons...so that means they have no talent!!!"
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Season 10 runner up Lauren Alaina's song "Georgia Peaches" uses the line "from Alan Jackson to Aldean." Lauren was later announced as Jason Aldean's opening act.
    • She also later opened for Jackson.
  • I Knew It! / Transparent Closet: Season 8's flamboyant runner-up Adam Lambert. While the show was still running, he never outright admitted that he was gay, but he didn't deny it either. At times, he seemed to be daring interviewers to ask about his sexuality, knowing that they couldn't bring themselves to do it. It was... quite amusing, at times. When he finally came out in an interview with Rolling Stone after the show ended, he said that he didn't think people should be surprised that he was gay, and that his parents knew about his sexuality since his early teen years.
    • The multiple online pictures of him kissing men didn't help, either.
    • Season 2's runner-up Clay Aiken, who finally came out after adopting a child, saying that he didn't want to raise a child with a lie. Nobody was surprised, mainly because the guy was in Spamalot.
  • Iron Woobie: Both Season 10's Haley Reinhart and Season 11's Hollie Cavanagh had to endure numerous trips to the bottom 3 and bashing from the judges and actually got STRONGER because of it.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Many watch only the audition phase to see the candidates fail.
    • Additionally, more than a few people watch the show just to see their favorite judge.
  • Memetic Mutation: The aforementioned "Pants on the Ground". Simon even lampshades it by saying "I have the worst feeling that that song's going to become a hit..." after the guy is done. Became so much of a meme that Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings started singing it in the locker room after beating the Cowboys. Also, Country Music singer Eric Church references it in "Homeboy".
  • Replacement Scrappy: For many, Ellen Degeneres for Paula in Season 9, and then again with Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler for everyone not named Randy in season 10. Seeing as how J-Lo's contract renewal is still up in the air, it's quite possible that Season 12 might just have a Replacement Scrappy for a Replacement Scrappy!
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The whole show in regards to Season 10. After the disaster of Season 9, the show brought out true talent like Lauren Alaina, Haley Reinhart, James Durbin, and Pia Toscano. Scotty McCreery also made good success in the country scene as well.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: The unconvincing UST between Simon and Paula, complete with badly-done skits on this subject (see the Season 2 finale).
  • Ruined FOREVER: A lot of people's proclamation now that Simon's jumped ship.
  • The Scrappy: Kara DioGuardi just can't get a break. While there was some reasonable criticism of her judging skills, some haters took it waaay too far, and started acting as though Kara was some kind of wicked Femme Fatale who was cravenly plotting to sabotage all the female contestants (Siobahn in particular) "out of jealousy", and that she desperately wanted to hook up with Casey James and that she attempted to "seduce" him by being kind to him during the judging. Needless to say, these fan theories were definitely unreasonable and are quite laughable.
    • Some thought Paula became this amongst the judges. Whacked-out more often than she was sober, desperate to have everybody like her, and obviously attracted to the (much) younger male contestants, she was less like a judge and more like a bad comedy skit sitting between Randy and Simon.
    • Phillip Phillips of Season 11 is considered one by many for having a much weaker voice (with very little range) than pretty much every other member of top 13 and only winning due to being Mr. Fanservice. He is also the fifth white guy (with a guitar!) in a row to win the title.
      • However, once it was revealed that he had undergone eight kidney stone-related surgeries during his run on the show, even some of his most hardcore haters became a little more forgiving.
    • In Season 11, it was announced in-season that Tommy Hilfiger was going to show up to give the contestants makeovers (read: for the sake of Product Placement as part of a sponsorship deal) and "help" them pick out clothes every week, and the next episode he and a lackey appeared in segments criticizing the contestants' clothing and re-dressing them in different (i.e. Tommy Hilfiger brand) clothes, and within the first episode was already starting to annoy fans.......
        • Take That, Scrappy!!:.....and then it was Phillip Phillips's turn to receive the Hilfiger treatment...and he resisted it. Hilfiger started going on about how Phillip's simple working-class clothes were too plain and about how he needed a makeover. Phillip politely replied that he's a simple guy and that he likes the way he dresses just fine, thank you very much. Needless to say, Mr. Hilfiger and his lackey were not pleased. Then he went on to perform his song wearing his regular clothes--and even seemed to be translating a bit of anger towards Hilfiger as energy for the song--and it ended up being a HUGE Crowning Moment of Awesome. Randy applauded him for sticking to his guns, and the audience applause went on for several minutes. The next week, the Hilfiger segments were quietly dropped without comment. Thus Phillip Phillips achieved something long thought impossible on Idol...he defeated a part of the Product Placement.
  • Seasonal Rot: Once the producers decided to highlight the Dreadful Musicians during the audition round and push the contestants that actually make it through off-screen (unless they have an interesting story), everything went downhill. Part of it was because bad singers started to realize that, by pretending to be outraged when they're told just how bad they are, they'll get on television. Made painfully obvious in Season 7, when one of them almost forgot to feign outrage, going from taking it well to perhaps the worst rant ever.
    • Then again, that's also about when they split the guys and girls up for the Top 24, reuniting them for the Top 12. Rarely has that worked well, as Season 4 (the first season with this split) should've made obvious -- after initially getting eliminated as the seventh-place male, Nikko Smith got into the Top 12 when Mario Vasquez left the show because he already had a record contract for personal reasons... and proceeded to outlast three of the top six females before again leaving before any of the other males. One week later, it was down to five males and two females. Not that this mattered in the end, as Carrie Underwood won out -- rightfully so.
      • The "sudden disqualification due to a prior contract" struck again in Season 9, when the Hollywood Week episodes showed a contestant named Chris Golightly making the Top 24...and then when the Top 24 were turned over to America to vote on, Chris had been replaced by Tim Urban.
      • Then in Season 7, they allowed the contestants to use instruments. This had two unfortunate side effects: Jason Castro staying on much longer than his vocal talent should've allowed because he was good at accompanying himself on the acoustic guitar, and Chikezie playing harmonica because it seemed as if everyone was using an instrument and he felt left out. Okay, his harmonica solo was kinda cool, but...
    • On the other hand, one possible reason for Seasonal Rot was that they got it right the first time. A bit too well, actually; by finding a legitimate talent in the form of Kelly Clarkson, they had a winner that wasn't going to be indebted to them for very long, and soon started battling against the terms of her contract and going off into her own direction. Hence, the gravitation toward failed artists looking for a second chance (almost everyone from Season 7), and the emergence of sites like VFTW.
    • It's heavily agreed upon that Season 9 is the worst season ever.
    • The wins of five straight WGWGs, short for White Guys With Guitars (though some people count out Scotty McCreery since he only played the guitar a few times. He's also not 100% percent, being Puerto Rican on his grandmother's side.) in the last five seasons.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: Both Brett Asa "Ace" Young and his wife Diana DeGarmo were former American Idol finalists, but from different seasons. They only met years later when both were in Hair on Broadway.
  • Shocking Elimination: Every season has at least one that angers the fanbase:
    • Season 1 had Tamyra Gray, finishing in 4th place, who gave a well-received performance the night before. To this day, almost 10 years later, many people still find Nikki McKibbin undeserving of her spot in the Top 3 over Tamyra.
    • Season 2 didn't really have a shocking elimination per see, but Ruben Studdard's victory over Clay Aiken at the finale is still quite controversial, as executive producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed a few years later that Clay led the votes from Wild Card week onward.
    • Season 3 had two: Jennifer Hudson's infamous 7th place finish, which led to that week's mentor Elton John calling the show racist (due to J-Hud, La Toya London, and Fantasia Barrino, who were all African-American, being the bottom 3) since he thought America made a huge mistake. Speaking of La Toya, she found herself eliminated three weeks later in 4th place, over the widely-hated Jasmine Trias, who lasted one more week.
      • Elton's cry of racism was contradicted somewhat, since Fantasia ended up winning.
      • It can be explained due to Vote Splitting. All three of those ladies had, at the time, very similar styles and appeal, and thus, caught the interest of the same part of the public.
    • Season 4 had Constantine Maroulis, finishing in 6th place, who only two weeks before had delivered a show-stopping rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. He may not have been the most...liked by the fanbase, but it was hard to deny that he was at least more talented than a few of the singers who finished ahead of him.
    • In quite possibly the most well-known example, Season 5 had Chris Daughtry's 4th place elimination. Even Daughtry himself was stunned. But, he has most likely gotten over it, considering he has been more successful than the entire top 3 combined.
    • Season 6 had nearly gone through the season with no egregious shockers, but then Melinda Doolittle inexplicably finished in 3rd place, despite being arguably better than Jordin Sparks and FAR better than Blake Lewis the previous night.
      • Sanjaya Malakar is arguably an inversion, in that most believe he should have gone home a lot earlier than his 7th place finish.
    • Season 7 had two as well, and it was twice in three weeks, no less. First, Michael Johns was unexpectedly eliminated in 8th place despite being a consistent performer. Then, two weeks later, Carly Smithson got the boot. She had not been as consistent as Michael, having been in the bottom 3 a couple of times (including the night Michael was eliminated), but she was still one of the early favorites. One can't help but wonder if the fact that Michael was Australian and Carly was Irish had anything to do with their elimination from AMERICAN Idol...
      • Some have theorized that their eliminations were the inspiration for the judges to introduce the "Judge's Save" in the following season, where they could save one contestant from elimination if they felt that he/she deserved another chance. It could only be used once, and couldn't be used after the Top 5.
    • Season 8 had a minor one with Allison Iraheta's 4th place finish, as Danny Gokey had delivered quite possibly one of the worst performances in the history of the show the night before; many viewers believe that his fanbase that he had built early on kept him alive. However, there was somewhat of a repeat of the Season 2 finale, when early favorite Adam Lambert was beaten by Kris Allen, who hadn't received much publicity over the season. Two theories for Kris's victory emerge most frequently; one was that he received the homophobic vote who didn't want the flamboyant Adam to win, and another persistent theory was that Kris's performance of Kanye West's Heartless from the week before was so strong, it carried over into the finale vote! Talk about peaking at the right time...
    • While in Season 8, the Judge's Save was used on Matt Giraud arguably for no reason other than the judges wanted to use it before it went to waste, Season 9 used it very justifiably when talented audience favorite Michael "Big Mike" Lynche ended up with the lowest number of votes at the Top 9. The judges easily chose to save him, and he went on to finish a much more deserving 4th place. This season did get an ACTUAL shocker though when Siobhan Magnus finished in 6th place, despite a number of factors seemingly working in her favor: she had performed last, which usually guarantees safety regardless of how good or bad the performance was; she had just received support from Vote For The Worst (Your Mileage May Vary on if this makes a difference though); and she had been struggling somewhat in the previous weeks but had arguably improved the week of her elimination. To many, the finale was controversial as well, as many believed runner-up Crystal Bowersox was far more talented than winner Lee De Wyze, especially on the final performance show.
    • Season 10 probably set a record for shocking eliminations. First was Casey Abrams earning the lowest number of votes at the Top 11, but he was cut off by the judges barely thirty seconds into his performance where he was attempting to convince them to save him, where he was told that they didn't need to hear him sing to decide to use the save on him. Casey is unique though, as he managed to get the lowest number of votes again only 5 weeks later in 6th place despite getting better every week and being far from the weakest the night before. In other words, Casey got screwed in the votes twice. Two weeks after Casey's first elimination came one of the most controversial results since Daughtry: Pia Toscano's 9th place finish, despite being hailed as an early frontrunner. It had come down to her and Stefano Langone, and his reaction to her elimination was priceless; he clearly thought he was going home. Many proclaimed the show to be rigged and sexist, because with her elimination, FIVE female singers in a row had gone home! Sexist, maybe, but when you think about it, it proves that the votes are 100% accurate, as no one in their right mind would rig it for five female singers in a row to go home. This was somewhat evened out however, as the next 5 eliminations were all men, and the last of which was another shocker: James Durbin, one of the most consistently strong performers of the season, delivering no less than five incredible performances, getting the Daughtry treatment and ending up in 4th place. The problematic part here was that the order the contestants performed the night before wasn't direct to their voting line: the first singer gets IDOLS-01, the second IDOLS-02, and so on. Everyone had two performances that night and while it went normally in the first round, it was skewed in the next round, with James having IDOLS-01 despite performing last. Some who weren't paying attention may have accidentally voted IDOLS-04 for him, which was actually for Lauren Alaina... who was in the Bottom 2 the previous week, and was considered by a good chunk of the audience to have been the weakest on the Top 4 performance show.
      • At the season finale, the contestants poked fun at this themselves: James and Casey argued with each other over whose elimination was more shocking, when Pia walked over to them, holding a scepter and wearing a tiara and a sash that read "Most Shocking". The guys instantly stopped arguing, realizing they couldn't compete with her (or, technically, she couldn't compete with them...).
    • Almost happened in Season 11 with Jessica Sanchez, who nearly got eliminated in seventh place, but was saved by the judges. Considering that she ultimately got second place...good call by the judges.
      • A week later, however, the first Shocking Elimination of the season happened with fan favorite Colton Dixon, who had also never been in the bottom three before, getting the boot in seventh place, like Jennifer Hudson in Season 3.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: Simon took a lot of flack for being caustic and brutally honest in his assessments of the hopefuls, but...well, it needs to be said: some of them are just terrible, and need to be told that.
    • With Simon gone, Randy has now been saddled with this. In Season 10 (and to a slightly lesser extent in Season 11), Steven and Jennifer have often seemed afraid of criticizing the contestants too harshly, with Steven telling virtually everyone "Your voice is beautiful!" and J-Lo openly weeping at every elimination, which leaves Randy to play the bad cop role and give the contestants some constructive criticism. Predictably, every time Randy begins giving some constructive criticism, the people in the audience start booing Randy and shouting "We love you, [Insert Name of Contestant Here]!!!" Randy then has to explain--apparently to no avail--that he's just trying to be honest and give some helpful feedback to the contestants.
      • However, Randy is still guilty of some of the ridiculously positive feedback that Steven and J-Lo are known for. Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine has served as an in-house mentor to the contestants from Season 10 on, and on the results shows, he gives his feedback, which is always more "harsh"--in other words, honest--than anything the official judges have to say. Needless to say, he's become the show's resident Jerkass...for telling the truth.
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