When "American Idol" made it's seventh season premiere back in January, something very important and major was left out of the show: Taylor Hicks. Our gray-haired Modern Whomp soul singer had been removed from the opening credits of the show. As the computer generated guy in the opening credits rode up the elevator and walked down the catwalk, he passed by Kelly Clarkson, Reuben Studdard, Fantasia, and Carrie Underwood before stopping in front of Jordin Sparks.
But between Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks, there was a long break with no image shown. Of course, this is where Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks was should have been. But he was no longer there. A second opening credits montage that was used for the Top 24, 20, and 16 performance shows also left Taylor out of them. In fact, in this version it looked like they added a second Fantasia image in place of where our gray-haired dude was suppose to be.
Talk about being slapped in the face. Many Soul Patrollers had already stopped watching the show shortly after Season 6 began when Simon Cowell made it clear that he thought America had gotten it wrong by giving Taylor the crown. His gum-in-the-face comment, followed by a few other rude remarks, caused a lot of Taylor fans to quit the show. And most of them have yet to return.
I opted to continue watching AI. At the time, I just chalked Simon's rudeness to Simon-being-Simon. After all, it wasn't the first time that he had taken a dig at a previous winner. And I was sure it wouldn't be the last time. For that matter, he's been known to take pot shots at runner-ups as well. (Though, Simon, dude, could you lay off the Clay Aiken jokes already? They've never been funny.)
When I first realized that Taylor's image had been removed from this season's opening credits, I felt like "American Idol" had slapped me in the face. It was like they were completely disavowing that our man had won Season 5. In fact, it ticked me off so much I blogged about it back on February 7 ("American Idol" - Taylor Hicks = Not Right).
If it hadn't been for my co-hosting duties on the Internet radio program "Idol Radio Show: AI Edition", I would have stopped watching "American Idol". I was that mad. In fact, I went on several rants about it on the air for the first few weeks of the season.
I also wanted answers from "American Idol", but none were forthcoming. While I found a couple of other blogs that talked about Taylor's removal, I could not find one story from any newspaper, news site, or entertainment program. It was as if everyone was afraid to ask about it.
In my previous blog entry and on my Internet radio show, I said that I felt the omission had to do with the fact that Taylor and his record label, J Records, had parted ways. But if that was true, why was Reuben Studdard's image still in the opening credits? He had also parted ways with J Records. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want Reuben removed from the credits. He deserved to be up there as a previous Idol winner. It's just that none of this made sense.
Okay, so I'm rehashing things I've already said before. Why am I doing that?
Because Taylor is back in the opening credits where he belongs.
Along with debuting a new stage last night, "American Idol" also debuted a new version of their opening credits. And with this new version, they have returned Taylor to his rightful place among the other Idol winners. I'm not sure this makes up for everything the show has done to the Soul Patrol over the last year, but it's a start.
I don't know if we will ever be told the reason behind Taylor's removal and return to the show's opening credits. Maybe one day someone will ask Producer Nigel Lythgoe about it. But at this point, I really don't care. Taylor Hicks is back where he belongs, and that's all that really matters.
Tags: Taylor Hicks, American Idol, Birmingham, Alabama
# posted by Alan @ 1:48 AM
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