‘American Idol’ Ends With One Final Argument Over the Winner
“American Idol” ended its run the way you’d expect a pop superstar to: playing its greatest hits.
As
it has for 15 seasons, Fox’s singing competition crowned a winner
Thursday night — Trent Harmon — but the two-hour-plus series finale was
above all a celebration of bigger, better times for the show, which
dominated television for years in the aughts.
Over
a decade and a half, “Idol” has been, as true stars are,
self-lionizing, affecting and silly. Its farewell show was all of the
above, kicking off with an army of current and former contestants
singing Barry Manilow’s “One Voice,” dressed in white as if to commence
high Mass at the Church of Idol.
Past
“Idol” finales brought in an array of pop superstars to kneel before
the show’s promotional might. This last, sentimental night, the talent
was mostly homegrown. The show ran through an alphabet of former winners
and also-rans — Clay Aiken, Bo Bice, David Cook, Melinda Doolittle —
singing a program heavy on the show’s trademark jukebox oldies, a layer
of nostalgia on nostalgia.
Each
of the current judges performed, too. But the night’s wildest applause
was for the panel’s original insult comic, Simon Cowell, who strode
onstage wearing a shirt unbuttoned to mid-torso, and on his face — my
God, was that genuine emotion?
“Idol”
took pride in its bona fides as a music-industry hitmaker, even if most
of its biggest stars were forged in the first half of its run. Its
first winner, Kelly Clarkson — on the verge of having a baby —
prerecorded a farewell medley; the country superstar and fourth season
winner, Carrie Underwood, sang the pre-results grand finale. The show
also featured the stars “Idol,” or America, slighted, like the Oscar
winner Jennifer Hudson, who finished seventh in Season 3.
But
“Idol” was also a kind of oddball variety show. The zany audition
rounds were represented by William Hung (“She Bangs”) and Larry Platt (“Pants on the Ground”).
Sanjaya Malakar, whose run in Season 6 was a kind of performance art,
was in the audience. Brian Dunkleman, the co-host with Ryan Seacrest for
the first season, returned to joke about being the show’s Pete Best.
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The
finale even managed a tribute to the in-show Ford commercial videos,
which may have been the truest salute to the series’ success. Whatever
the show’s musical legacy, it paid off like a slot machine for Fox, and
there was something almost sweet in the network taking one last tug on
the handle.
Am
I forgetting something? Right: the results. Back when “Idol” was a
watercooler sensation, the finales would belabor the suspense over the
final reveal. This finale, as for so much of the season, the present
took a back seat to the past. (Arguably the season’s most memorable
moment came not from a contestant but Ms. Clarkson, crying through an
emotional performance of “Piece by Piece.”)
This
season’s final two were themselves a kind of callback to the vocal
powerhouses of the early “Idol” years: the throaty, bluesy Mr. Harmon
and the regal, powerful La’Porsha Renae, who duetted on “It Takes Two,”
just as Ms. Clarkson and Justin Guarini did in 2002.
But
Mr. Harmon’s win continued a more recent pattern: counting him, eight
of the last nine “Idol” winners have been white men, usually wielding
guitars. (Five of them played a David Bowie tribute in the finale, an
assembly line of six-strings.) Mr. Harmon is gifted and vocally agile,
but Ms. Renae was the one with the stage presence of a star.
Of
course, I can say that, and you can say I’m wrong, as America did. That
argument, finally, was the best thing about “American Idol.”
My colleague A.O. Scott wrote, in his book “Better Living Through Criticism,”
that criticism is an act everyone engages in, even if we don’t know it.
“Idol” was our greatest national example of that in the first part of
this century.
“American
Idol” was a national election about art, in which fans debated not only
who was best but also what “best” means, what “deserving” means. Is it
about vocals or presentation? Likability or star quality? The most
talented or the most improved?
Reality
competition shows and the pop industry share the tautological belief
that success justifies itself: A winner is someone who wins. Sometimes
the “Idol” decision has been ratified by the music market, sometimes
not. But our argument over it, which is partly an argument over what is
worth valuing, is the show’s lasting contribution.
But
maybe not its last contribution. As the confetti snowed down and the
lights faded for the last time, Mr. Seacrest bid the viewers, “Good
night, America — for now.” Maybe “American Idol” really is retiring the
way you’d expect a pop superstar to: already thinking about its comeback
tour.
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