This just in from yesterday’s New York Times: Those thoroughly abysmal group numbers that American Idol‘s season 8 contestants lamely bravely soldier through every results night? They’re lip-synched. Er, pre-recorded.
Of course, astute (and deliciously good-looking) EW.com readers have been pointing out that fact on our message boards for weeks. And as I asked in my March 12 TV Watch recap about the elimination of Jorge Nuñez: "If he hadn’t been the lowest vote-getter, could the producers have eliminated him just for his total lack of lip-synching skills?" (Remember how Jorge’s lips seemed to be moving to an entirely different song during that bunk Michael Jackson medley?)
Anyhow, for the last several weeks, I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to get a comment from Fox on the decision to pre-record the group numbers. Yesterday, the Times beat me to it, getting confirmation from Manfred Westphal, a spokesman for FremantleMedia North America: "Due to extensive choreography and to balance their voices with open mikes against a screaming audience, the Idols do sing along to their own prerecorded vocal track during the group performances only."
Okay, you say "sing along to their own prerecorded vocal track," I say lip-synch. And "screaming audience"? Screaming in pain, maybe. I mean, even if you get past the fact that the group numbers are almost universally loathed among Idol fans, and come up with some viable reason not to cut them altogether, it still doesn’t make sense to go the pre-recorded route. Half the fun of results nights from seasons past was keeping your eyes focused on the contestants who clearly had no affinity for atroshe choreography (Jason Castro, Brooke White), and your ears attuned to the contestants whose off-pitch caterwauling killed any attempt at successful harmonizing (hi, Haley Scarnato!). Now, we’ve been robbed of even that questionable pleasure!
Anyone else flummoxed by this Idol turn of events? And if you ran the show, what would you do: Kill the group numbers altogether? Force the contestants to sing live, with no backing track? Or continue the lip-synching shenanigans?
More on ‘American Idol’
‘American Idol’ Recap: The Mo(town), the Merrier
‘American Idol’: On the scene for Top 10 performance night
‘American Idol’: The Poetry of Paula Abdul
‘Idol’ Cheat Sheet: The season so far…
‘American Idol’ Power List: Who’s your favorite from the top 10?
‘American Idol’: Our Advice for the Top 13
EW’s ‘Idol’ Headquarters
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What is the point of having a variety show focusing on singing if no one is singing?
It’s lip synched probably because they cannot harmonize together. The vocals are put throuh a computer and tweaked so that eventually they sound like “The Silver Platters (The Brady Bunch Kids)”. I think that it’s wrong for the producers to do that because in a group, it is easier for a vocal coach to fix an individuals vocal issues.
I don’t understand how this is a big deal, and yet, when Jennifer Hudson sang to a “prerecorded” track, EVERYBODY was happy to cut her some slack. I know I’m being hard on J.Hud but the double standard still bothers me.
You would think that lip synching would mean they would sound better. Why then do they still sound so utterly atrocious?? Scary to imagine how bad thay would sound if they were singing live…
i think the group numbers should be cut out all together and now that this is out there i don’t see how they couldn’t. they are embarrassingly bad and they look as uncomfortable doing it as it is uncomfortable for me to watch it. having the blind guy moving around in that performance this season really pointed that out to me even more. poor guy.
Ok, in my opinion they should just cut the damned things out all together. Nobody -NOBODY- enjoys them. However, if it must continue, why not let them lip synch? It’s probably the closest thing they get to having a break all week long. Seriously, it’s a miracle that the final isn’t who can sing with a raw throat the best.
On Canadian Idol last year, I actually loved the group performances on result show night because the contestants got to play their own instruments. They broke them down into smaller groups of 3 or 4 and the music and the harmonies were pretty cool.
They’re probably lip-synched because Idol’s too cheap to get everyone in-ear monitors (which you likely would need in that case, to be on pitch with all-over-the-place choreo, the band many feet away from you and the audience noise). That being said, I do enjoy the group-sings, in a drinking-game sort of way.
How about duets instead? Could you imagine a dueling piano battle between Matt and Scott? I think several minute long duets/trios would be much more tolerable than those awful medleys.
I do enjoy the group performance, and I think they have been very creative with “choreography” for Scott. I also enjoy the Ford commercials.
Oh, come on. These kids do NOT have the vocal chops to perform a choreographed group number live every week. Most of them can’t even solo without going way off pitch, and you expect them to HARMONIZE? Of course they’re lip synching! The group numbers would suck SO much worse if they weren’t.
Oh, please — this is a singing competition, so it makes absolutely no sense to lip-sync the group numbers. They aren’t being asked to put on a full-length Cher concert in a huge football stadium. There is no need for the group numbers in the first place, but after 8 seasons of shoving them down our throats it seems unlikely those are going away anytime soon *cough*timefiller*cough*. So if they’re going to do the stupid group numbers, they should at least sing them live. This show just gets more ridiculous and bland and lame every season!
I would cut the group performances all together. They are horrible, but if they must continue they should at least be live.
Everyone thinks it’s ridiculous. At least last year you could really see them singing. David Archuleta coming in late on Reelin’ In the Years is 1000 times better than what we’re getting this year.
I love the group numbers this year purely because of Scott. I hope he stays around another few weeks so that they have to keep working the dancing around him!