Ken Warwick

Ju'Noy Joyner opened up in today's AI Now chat about how he was labeled a "troublemaker" by Ken Warwick, producer of American Idol, because he asked "basic legal questions" about the Idol contract. Ju'Not was told by Ken, "Shut up, you're not going to ruin my show." Of course, the tween morons in the chat with names like MATTSTHIGHS were saying "OMG IDOL IS RIGGED??? I DON'T GET IT!!!!" so it didn't leave much time for Ju'Not to expand. But here are the highlights:

• Ju'Not mentioned that the Idols are given one collective lawyer by the Idol staff that is then supposed to negotiate with the Idol lawyer, which clearly is a conflict of interest and results in the Idol contestants being taken advantage of in the end.
• The semifinalists had a few hours to go over the details of 6 or 7 contracts that they didn't get to keep a copy of. They also were also not allowed to send the contract to an outside attorney during that time. If they didn't sign on the spot, they couldn't be on the show.
• Ju'Not says that the judges' comments are scripted and that AI is a reality show, not a talent competition.
• He calls his contract a "slavetract" (heh).
• Ju'Not also says the show wanted to talk about his personal business and background living in the hood for ratings, which he refused to do.
• He also says that after the show, Idols are supposed to talk to the PR department to clear any appearances and get permission for them. Ju'Not never got return calls, but then found out that other Idols were allowed to participate in appearances that he was not allowed to.

Check out the transcript here.

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Scott MacIntyre wrote a blog that he was set to do a dueling piano performance with Matt Giraud at the finale, but it was cut out of the show. Seriously? That might have actually been interesting. Scott has a fun sense of humor, and even though Matt Giraud never showed it during the show, the other contestants said he was pretty funny too. It probably would have actually been something worth watching. Scott blogged:

"We got to the Nokia Theatre on Wednesday morning (show day) and out of the blue about 9:30am found out the duet had been cut and the decision was final. Needless to say, I was shocked. American Idol had originally invited Billy Joel himself to perform with us, but he was unable to make it in the end; and because our duet was the only duet not involving another celebrity, it was the first thing to be cut when the show was condensed. Over the last few days I have tried to reason this out every way possible, and it makes no sense to me why one of the most compelling and unique performances of the show would be cut simply because the original artist wasn’t present. (Perhaps Tatiana and Bikini Girl were more important after all… :P) There will most likely not be another set of competent pianists on the show anytime soon, and this would have been an opportunity to make American Idol history."

Well wait a minute, Scott. Tatiana is much more important than 99% of the contestants. This is a fact. But I don't think anyone would have cared if Gokey didn't get to sing. No one likes him. Ken Warwick also promised Scott that he will get to come back and perform on a results show next year to make up for it. Ken will likely break this promise because he is a soulless fuckboob.

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MJ's Big Blog has an interview up with Ken Warwick, one of the producers of Idol. In the interview, Ken says this new twist was tried out in the French version of Idol, Nouvelle Star, first. If that's the case, it may not be that the judges eliminate whoever they want from the bottom 3. The twist previously attempted during Nouvelle Star was that the judges get a veto power that they can use only one time during the season. So if the judges think that America got the vote completely wrong, only once during the season, they can save the person who was going to go home. This rule is much less obnoxious than the "sing for your life" scenario, but still, why give the judges (i.e. the producers telling the judges what to do) any power? They wouldn't know entertainment if it bit them in the ass. So what do you think? If the twist is a one-time judge veto, how would you feel about that?

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The typical compliment to a great singer in this day and age is, "You should go on American Idol!" We all have friends that can sing circles around Katharine McPhee and Chris Daughtry, and many of them may have tried out to be on the most popular show in the country. Most of these great singers don't make it anywhere near Simon, Paula, and Randy.

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