Auditions: Kentucky good; Puerto Rico, not so much
Warwick reports that the standout cities this year were Phoenix, Ariz. and Louisville, Ken. — in fact, they shot some of the Louisville auditions at Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. The biggest disappointment, says Warwick, was probably Puerto Rico. The show went to the U.S. territory hoping to bring more ''Latin flavor'' to Idol, which Warwick admits has often been missing from the show. But, he says, ''We got a couple of good kids, but that was all. It was an awful long way to go for not a lot of result.'' And as always, there will be a sizable helping of trainwreck auditions.
No Top 24 this season. Prepare for the Top 36!
In an effort to, as Warwick says, ''shake things up,'' the semifinalist stage will expand from 24 to 36 contestants, and each semifinalist will get just one chance to perform before they either get axed or voted into the top 12. ''I’ve got different groups of kids every week now,'' says Warwick. ''We are going to let go of more kids each week.'' Much like the first two seasons of Idol, there will also be a wildcard stage where the judges select semi-finalists for the top 12. And you can forget '80s night; Warwick's plan is to have the top 36 sing from a catalog drawn from the top ten songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since the chart began in the 1950s all the way to the present.
We may finally see some mentors under 30
Warwick is definitely aware that the mentors from previous years have been a bit long in the tooth. ''It's [still] a wish list at the moment,'' he says, ''[but] I'm trying to get [mentors] a little younger. I only like mentors who've had a string of hits, who have been there for a long time and actually have something of value to pass on. Saying that, there are some kids — and I call them kids, they're not kids, they're 24, 25 — that I'm going after [to be mentors].''
Motown is never, ever going away
Warwick is mum on upcoming theme nights, except for one: ''This is the 50th anniversary of Motown. Motown was so prevalent for so much of our [audience] demographic that it would be a crime not to do it. There’s enough stuff there to keep on going forever.''
