On The Air

I know I spend a lot of time talking about the bad stuff that’s on TV. Charla and Mirna, Sanjaya, Donald Trump. And it’s not very often that I bring up the good stuff, of which there is a lot. And one of the best, right now, is Blake Lewis.

Blake is probably the best thing that has ever happened on or to American Idol. Just like Sanjaya was kind of a living embodiment of everything that is wretched and cynical about the show, Blake is kind of like the shining light, the hope, the optimism. Blake is what American Idol should be, but isn’t. Twelve people who are really gifted musicians and performers getting together to shape the future of pop music. Instead of being all about glory notes and spotlights, and crying teenage girls, Blake is all about invention. When Blake’s really at his best, like he was last night, he goes beyond “make it your own” and actually makes you forget the original version. It’s not just a karaoke version, or a cabaret performance, it’s a true cover, something that is in seriously short supply on this show.

Now, the big question on my mind is how Blake slipped past the process to make it this far. Because just like the producers were very much pissed off about Sanjaya becoming popular, there has to be a part of them that hates what Blake is doing and the cracks he’s exposing every time he gets up on stage. I mean, last night everybody was talking about what a “risk” he was taking, and how he was “rolling the dice”. But the thing is, what Blake did last night is something we should be seeing every week on this show, new frontiers being broken left and right. And for them to make such a big deal out of what he did reveals the truth: American Idol is a karaoke bar, and they’re not really looking for somebody to try anything new or break any barriers. The judges let him off easy last night, which was actually kind of a surprise. I was expecting their reaction to be closer to the reception he got when he reimagined “Keep Me Hanging On.”

So how do you solve a problem like Blake? I think that next year, when they’re sitting down to pick out the Final 24 for American Idol 7, they’re first of all going to give serious thought to the Sanjaya Issue, and maybe not cast so many people that openly suck. But they might also look at the Blake Issue, and not bring anyone on board who’s too exotic, too original, who strays too far away from the karaoke zone where they want everybody to be. And that’s America’s loss, because now that we’ve seen Blake we’ve seen what this show can really be, and to settle for anything less from now on just isn’t going to sit right.