SWAN SONG: “Idol” judges (clockwise from top left) Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban, Randy Jackson and Mariah Carey make their final appearance of the season. (Reuters)
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‘American Idol” gave fans one final look last night at the show that dominated a decade.
It now seems certain that, after 12 seasons, the show will undergo a major overhaul this summer — including new judges, new rules and a new approach to finding undiscovered talent.
Candice Glover, a 23-year-old South Carolina woman who tried out for Idol three times before making the finals this year, wept as she won of this year’s edition. Her victory capped a long night of big-name performers, including judge Mariah Carey and Aretha Franklin, probably the two singers most copied by Idol hopefuls since the show began. Glover was the first woman to win Idol since Jordin Sparks six years ago.
After failing twice before, Glover’s mother did not want her to try out again, but the she insisted on giving it one more chance.
During the season, producers never replayed the moment three years ago when Simon Cowell, in his last year as an Idol judge, told Glover she had a nice voice, but doubted she would ever be anything more than “a lounge singer.”
With tears rolling down her cheek last night and her voice reduced to a croak, Glover sang a new song called “He Think I’m Beautiful” in the show’s closing moments.
Most of the season was marked by the ice-cold relationship between the show’s two newest judges, Nicki Minaj and Carey, which overshadowed a remarkable crop of young performers.
Glover, a traditional torch singer, dominated the competition.
Going into last night’s final vote, she was at least a slight favorite to beat country singer Kree Harrison.
But just under the surface of last night’s big stage show was the realization that fans were likely watching the last episode of Idol as they have known it since the summer of 2002, when the show debuted.
Ratings this season were the lowest in the show’s history and one top executive at Fox said the week that “everything is on the table” in terms of changes next season.
Minaj has already told Fox she won’t be back, according to one report. Randy Jackson, the last original judge , has already said he’s done.
Among the innovations under discussion are trimming the show back to one night a week, a return to the three-judge panel and an overhaul of the popular voting system that put Idol on the map as one of the first TV shows where viewers really had a say in the outcome.
There is even talk of putting the show on ice and brining it back after a few years in order to freshen it up.