DC ExtraTime: AYTO Meets An American Idol

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

This extended Valentine's & President's holiday weekend we're now in will, this Sunday, see the premiere of the eighteenth overall season of the show that is the epitome of when up & coming singers from across this broad country of ours take the stage, perform in front of the bright lights and who can go from being no-names to big names in the span of a few months. As the granddaddy of modern-day musical talent showcases, American Idol enjoyed a glorious run of being the most-watched show on American television for nearly a decade, and like many other programs it has not only been revived after it went off the air a few years ago, it's also a reality genre that was brought to us by the folks across the pond.

(Josh Vertucci/ABC)

The Idol franchise originated in 2001 in the United Kingdom when TV producer Nigel Lythgoe saw a TV musical talent show while on holiday (British slang for "vacation") in Australia and was inspired by that show's idea of a judge panel watching singers audition in front of them. He & music exec Simon Fuller (the man behind the Spice Girls) took that idea, added voting by phone (and later, by mobile texting) by viewers, humanizing the performers in telling their backstories, and everything going on in real life to create Pop Idol. He hired a little-known but always blunt record producer & talent scout named Simon Cowell as a judge, and the program became successful first in the UK before evolving into the more successful The X Factor, and the originating show turned its attention to outside Britain (where a local version has been adopted in nearly 50 countries), including becoming big in the United States.

After a lukewarm reception in its initial pitches to the American networks, the FOX network would ultimately and reluctantly sign onto the Idol idea in the summer of 2002. It stayed true to the original British format, but tweaked the series into airing multiple nights to show as many auditions from cities across America in the season's first phase, then ensure everyone coast-to-coast could vote for their favorite performances before the results are revealed the next night -- now standard practice for reality competition shows. The combination of incredible performances and talent, the judges and the interactivity of the voting process, saw Idol become a phenomenon in its rookie year, and saw Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson and many others become household names as did its original judges in Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon, and its host in a radio DJ by the name of Ryan Seacrest.

American Idol returns for its third season on ABC this weekend... and it's in that spirit that we'd like to tell you one small story involving an MTV Reality alum who got to meet one of its biggest alumni. A note: this does not include the two notable Idol alums who are heading towards the end of their winters in the Ex On The Beach: Peak of Love chalet of Adore Delano (aka Daniel Noriega) from the '07 & '08 seasons, or fellow alum Ryan Gallagher... but the co-subject is part of an exclusive club that only her and sixteen others are a part of.