It’s baaaaack! American Idol returns for it’s 12th season, beginning with a 2 night premiere Wednesday, January 16 and Thursday, January 17.
From the trainwreck auditions, to the whittling down of the finalists, to the live performances & voting, Idol promises to make or break dreams of many as they compete for America’s vote.
Ryan Seacrest returns as host, with Randy Jackson being the only original remaining judge. Season 12 will bring us three new personalities joining Randy behind the judges table. Keith Urban, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj have signed on to lend their ears and experience to the singing hopefuls. We’ve already read of the feud between Nicki and Mariah during auditions, so it will be interesting to see how it play out, both in the edits and then when they all go live.
Besides the switch up in judges, another change this season is that audience voting won’t begin until the Top 10.
The first six shows will consist of the auditions held across the country. Hollywood week will being in February. Then it will on to Las Vegas for the group and semi-final rounds, until we get to the Top 10 finalists and live shows from Los Angeles, leading up to the finale in May.
I’ve seen the spoiler lists of who made the Top 40 (20 guys/20 gals), but I wont divulge that. Besides it’s a bit pointless since the names will be meaningless with no face or voice to go along with it. I’ll save that list til later.
In the meantime, FOX has released the initial broadcast schedule and what we can expect to see.
| Wednesday, January 16 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Season 12 Premiere – New York auditions |
| Thursday, January 17 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Season 12 Premiere – Chicago auditions |
| Wednesday, January 23 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Auditions |
| Thursday, January 24 @ 8PM-9PM ET | Auditions |
| Wednesday, January 30 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Auditions |
| Thursday, January 31 @ 8PM-9PM ET | Auditions |
| Wednesday, February 6 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Hollywood Week |
| Thursday, February 7 @ 8PM-9PM ET | Hollywood Week |
| Wednesday, February 13 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Hollywood Week |
| Thursday, February 14 @ 8PM-9PM ET | Top 40 Revealed |
| Wednesday, February 20 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Las Vegas Rounds – 10 males perform |
| Thursday, February 21 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Las Vegas Rounds – 10 females perform |
| Wednesday, February 27 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Las Vegas Rounds – 10 males perform |
| Thursday, February 28 @ 8PM-10PM ET | Top 20 Revealed – 10 females perform |
| Tuesday, March 5 @ 8PM-10PM ET Live | Semifinalists – Top 10 males perform |
| Wednesday, March 6 @ 8PM-10PM ET Live | Semifinalists – 10 females perform |
| Thursday, March 7 @ 8PM-10PM ET Live | Top 10 Revealed |
| Wednesday, March 13 @ 8PM-10PM ET Live | Top 10 Finalists perform |
| Thursday, March 14 @ 8PM-9PM ET Live | Results show, One finalist eliminated |
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— TVFishBowl (@TVFishBowl) April 9, 2013
I love the new panel of judges and even though there is some cattiness involved, they are really uniting on their answers as far as the contestants go. It’s not as boring as the last few season openers have been but only time will tell. My DISH co-worker pointed out that Mariah really is acting like a diva and sure she is, but really? Tone it down just a little. I can’t wait to see what will happen once we are through the auditions and on to the other parts of the competition. I’ve already got my DISH Hopper set to record what might be the best season in a few years and thanks to the PrimeTime Anytime feature I don’t even have to set a timer. It lets me record my favorite TV shows from ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC seven days a week and that way I know I’ll never miss any of the good stuff.