Johnny Keyser
American Idol’s Group Day is the one stretch of the show that is more reality show than competition, and it usually delivers the best ethics dramas of the season. Last year, for example, the Group Day chaos—all the Idol wannabes have to form combos and rehearse an a capella number in harmony, often fighting, crying or collapsing in the process—produced a moment of courage and character when Scotty McCreery, the eventual winning Idol, stepped up and took full responsibility for the rotten conduct of his group, which had tossed out another young man at the last minute to take McCreery in.
This year there were ethics heroes and dunces, but mostly dunces. A real gem was the awful stage mother of competitor Brielle Von Hugel, who was filmed in rehearsals complaining how weak a singer her daughter’s fellow group member Kyle Crews was. After Crews crashed and burned in the performance, and was the only member of the group cut, Mrs. Von Hugel was shown insincerely telling him what a “good voice” he had. Kudos to Idol’s director for immediately re-running her backstage slamming of the kid’s voice in the previous episode.
For some reason singers are fainting this season, and one of them was a young woman named Imani, who collapsed twice prior to her group’s performance. The group was pretty awful, in part because of the disruption of having a “I’m OK—no, I’m not” member who was bouncing up and down off the floor like a yo-yo. Sure enough, she collapsed a third time during her solo. Her group rushed to her side along with show staff, but Johnny Keyser, the one member of the group who was performing well, wasn’t going to miss his solo because a team member was in distress , and kept on singing like it was part of the act.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a “the show must go on” fanatic, but there are limits, and this is one of them. It is callous to keep performing when someone onstage with you may be seriously ill or injured, and it’s dumb, because nobody is watching or listening to you. My guess is that this is signature significance, and Keyser is a selfish jerk.
Then, when the judges (Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Johnson) had to choose which member, if any, of this train wreck of a group would survive to sing another day, I and everyone else was certain that they would do the kind, popular, absolutely unfair and irresponsible thing and let Imani stay on, because she looked pathetic and was ill. Never mind that she hadn’t sung well and probably doomed her group mates by her uncertain status. But the judges showed integrity, and dinged her, which was absolutely the ethical thing to do. Getting sick shouldn’t be an asset in a singing competition. Keyser, the jerk, was the only one of the group that survived.
Then a whole group of jerks performed.”MIT” (for “most international team”), was dominated by a Scotty McQueery imitator named Richie Law who bullied his team mates in rehearsals, and they, in turn, told the Idol camera how much they hated him. After the whole group was passed through to the next stage, sullen Asian-American contestant Hee Jun Han was moved to apologize to Richie for saying awful (but well-deserved) things about him on camera. But Han refused to shake Law’s proffered hand, and the apology was only motivated by victory: if he or the group had been dinged, would Han have apologized then? I doubt it greatly; Hee Jun appears to be the classic fair weather friend.
Finally, we saw what unbearable narcissism looks like, as Reed Grimm had to come up with a new song to do with the band in 30 minutes, and as the Idol staff worked diligently to get him ready, kept wanting to discuss his feelings and his angst as the seconds ticked down, finally insisting on calling his mother for last minute affirmation. Predictably, he was fantastic. From here on, American Idol is about talent rather than character, and for Reed, Keyser and others, it’s a good thing.
Ethics Alarms 
I know someone online who is currently one of the participants of a reality show competition, and he’s frustrated that they’ve edited him to look like a douche. I’ve been using Final Cut Pro, professional-level editing software, for about five years now. I know how you can frankenstein anything you want out of this sort of footage when the producers have no use for things like the truth.
I sorta wanted to tell him, “What did you expect? This happens to EVERYONE. It’s doesn’t matter what you do or say. Once you sign on, your personhood is in the hand of meretricious scoundrels who will sculpt you into whatever they think will make them more popular.”
Like that video of the students not knowing who was president. I didn’t watch it, but if the person asking the questions was NOT on screen, I wouldn’t believe it for a second. You can ask someone, “how old are you?” and they say, “Twenty.” and change the question to “How many stripes are on the flag?”
I guess my point is I wouldn’t trust any conclusions about the real people from the footage shown. That doesn’t mean lessons can’t be learned from it, in the same way an acorn can grow in shit.
I just hope we will someday get to a point where enough people will know better and this entire enterprise sinks back into the dark swamp it arose from. But then again, people still click on spam email links…
Most reality shows are also loosely scripted. The guy that kept singing last night kept singing…that wasn’t editing. You’re right, but I’d say Idol is a minor offender.
Jack you and I have done enough theater that we both seen many performers who when the attention is away from them or they are not getting the praise they desire they all of a sudden have a cold. a sore throat, a bad back or any other thing that will bring attention back to them. Maybe this is what Imani was doing and Keyser knew it. If I was on stage or in rehearsal with someone I knew was just trying to draw attention to themselves then I would kleep on going also.
I thought some of the sick contestants were playing that game a bit, but they also seemed legitimately sick.
I dont watch it. I find the whole thing to be the Gong Show but with out the talent and the dignity.
I have never watched American Idol. I enjoy fresh and aspiring talent tremendously. But I don’t even know enough about the program to conclude that there might be a better way of determining the (annual?) ultimate champion. Variety shows like Ed Sullivan’s were fun to watch. I just feel I would be voyeuristic and an enabler of even more exploitation of others than what I already suspect is inherent in the lives of stardom-seekers and others in those persons’ paths, if I sought to satisfy my curiosity by following details about aspiring talents’ “roads-to-the-top” stories. I’d rather just enjoy performances (or not) first, then (maybe) learn more about the performers’ characters, backgrounds etc. much later.
I despise this phase of the show. It’s clear that a group that works well together can be a “win-win” for all. I agree with most of what you say, but I have to say, that’s an interesting take you had on Johnny Keyser’s reaction. I use the word “reaction” and not “choice” for a reason: I didn’t see it that way at all. In fact, he struck me as a genuinely kind and likeable fellow caught in a very difficult, compromising and confusing set of circumstances. You nailed it when you describe the group member’s “yo-yo”-like behavior. I was impressed with the way the other group members gracefully adapted to her last-minute disappearance from (and later, very last-minute reappearance in) the group – particularly Johnny. In this situation, with the clock ticking down, with so much at stake, with the way one’s body (and voice) reacts under stress as a performer, I am amazed at the physical, emotional and psychological resilience any of these singers has under these circumstances. To judge them for the psychological, Darwinian choices they have to make in a SPLIT second is rather unfair. (Note – I deferentiate this from those who make calculated, selfish and most often, mean-spirited choices given the luxury of time.) As you said, Jack, it is ingrained in performers that “the show must go on.” Additionally, this is a competition. In the moment the group mate went down Johnny stopped and helped her. It was only after several people rushed to her side and she was coherent that he continued to sing again. And it is clear that when he did, there was a degree of uncertainty for him as to whether he should or not – “Should I continue? We’re supposed to, aren’t we? We’re on stage. What happens if we don’t? Maybe if I keep singing, the others will join in and we can finish the song . . . ” These are all thoughts that happen in a nanosecond unconsciously in a performer’s mind. Doubtful that Johnny’s thought process went something like, “I’ll keep singing damnit, I’m going to win this thing if it kills me. Who cares if she’s lying on the floor passed out. I don’t care if the others don’t sing. I don’t care if I look like a selfish asshole. I’M going to continue to sing so they can hear just how good I am.” Now doesn’t that just seem ridiculous? Perhaps it’s been too long since you’ve been on the stage with stakes that high. The stage is a very dangerous place. I think you’ve been too harsh on this one.
Brava. You convinced me. Johnny deserves the benefit of the doubt. I didn’t see that he had actually stopped and gone to her….it looked to me like he just kept on singing, and the accounts I read indicated that too, though I watched it.
Group day is absurdly random and unfair, and I wonder how many great performers have been lost because of it. One thing it does: it really favors theater-types.
We’ll see how Johnny’s character emerges if he lasts that long. But I’ll take the note: I was too hard on him.
You like me. You really, really like me. You warm my heart, Jack Marshall. You are one of the most fair and balanced individuals I know. Bygones.
I was just about to ask Jack why he said “BravA” instead of “BravO” to what I agree is your very fair consideration of the situation – and then I read your rendition of (what I remember of) Sally Field, and connected the dots (and laughed – thank you).
And now, I am remembering the actress Quinn Cummings – and how much I laughed during the movie, The Goodbye Girl. “R-rated Shirley Temple,” I kept saying of Quinn after that.
Quinn is a very lovely, very intelligent, hilariously funny young woman whom it has been my pleasure to know and admire, usually from afar, for many years.She’s heard “Brava!” a lot.