Showbiz411

“American Idol” returned last night with a lot of fanfare. The pretaped two hour episode showed the audition process in New York. Considering all the hype that’s been created, you’d think this was the Thrilla in Manila– Mariah Carey v. Nicki Minaj, 15 rounds, or that an armed camp of security guards would be separating the famed songbird from the hip hop star. Alas, in two hours there was barely a squawk between the two women. Everyone was on their best behavior.

The judges– Mariah, Minaj, Randy Jackson, and Keith Urban– were kind and sympathetic to the many naked souls who appeared before them. All in all they approved 41 different people, many of whom seemed pretty talented singers. Mariah and Nicki were separated in the seating by Urban. But they acted like old girlfriends. There was barely a spark. A friend of mine who watching in Miami kept emailing me during the show to say it was all “boring.” Well, I thought the singers were interesting.

If you remember what happened, the gang moved auditions from New York to Philadelphia. That’s when the “trouble” started. Guards were called in, there were threats and a lot of headlines. Suddenly this peaceful group was having a civil war. We will see all that tonight. Clearly, someone (hmmm, could it have been someone at Fox?) obviously said some kind of attention making friction was needed. Really, last night Nikki Minaj was incredibly courteous. Tonight we’ll see how she was transformed into Idol-Zilla.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.