Idol Search Party” were in the process of discussing Idol’s decision to have the contestants for Season 15 sing songs in Spanish, I was looking forward to reading the comments. Unfortunately, there was barely a peep out there regarding this new rule change from Fox. Why? Could it be because a large portion of their viewership only watches Fox to get the latest news and scores? No, I think the audience that really cares about the show was more concerned about voting for their favorite contestant, getting their favorite contestant advanced in the competition, and then sitting back and watching the drama unfold on each week’s show. I thought I could find some good discussion at the other popular country music based sites, but I couldn’t. I did find some great comments from “Idol Star” Season 8’s Kris Allen at one of his own blogs. Kris actually made one of my favorite posts ever, “I Don’t Get It!”, on his blog. I wanted to bring that conversation to Idol Star’s main blog, and wanted to see what others would say. So I fired it off on the blog and waited patiently. I guess I was too impatient, because very few responses showed up. I decided to visit Facebook and see what was up there. I was not surprised to see that there was some conversation about this issue at Idol Star’s Fan Group. Again, very few responses. Let’s take a peek at some of the comments I was able to find… “I just can’t get past the fact that the guy in charge of deciding who moves on hasn’t had a successful single in years” “I have a hard time understanding how this new rule, based on the fact that many of the top 20 Idol contestants are Hispanic and the top 10 have recorded songs in Spanish in the past, is going to help with the ratings. You know what they say about the best things. Well, in this case, it would appear to be the worst things.” I think if the fans on Facebook have a problem with a rule like this, the sponsors and the advertisers should start to rethink what their next moves will be regarding the next season of Idol. Fox has been smart to take a different approach this year with American Idol. If we keep seeing more “Idol Stars” being announced, who were we to expect that there wouldn’t be anyone different this time? So far, I’m not disappointed. The new season is just getting started, but I will continue to post my thoughts about what I’m seeing in the new Idol format. Welcome back for another installment of Idol Star Magazine… I hope you enjoyed my last article that was posted before this new season began. So far, the shows have been great, but that is not all that is new. On November 10th, Idol posted some important information about their voting procedures this season, and again, they sent us another great press release to let us know about what has been happening with the voting so far. It is time to vote for the week of November 24th. This is a really important week. This week is the beginning of this season’s competition and you will have a better understanding of who is going to make it to next week’s show. Remember that two people will be sent home during the first competition. Also, if you choose to vote on your computer, you should be aware that on Sunday, November 23rd, an email will be sent to each member of IdolStar voting panel notifying them that they are part of the panel and providing them with a link to vote for the first competition. This means that the text message that you have been receiving each week will no longer come from the IdolStar voting panel. You will not receive any more emails from Idol Star or any other IdolStar employees after the first week. On November 21st, American Idol posted a preview of what to expect during the Season 15 Finale. It is time for final performances and it is time to celebrate. The final performance show on May 19th will have three parts. First, the remaining contestants from this season and five new artists will perform songs that many of them are known for. The artists will sing songs that helped the artists to become successful in the first place. There are five new artists – Chris Medina, Chris Sligh, Trenyce, Rikki Rockett and Michael Johns. Chris Medina’s dad, Mike Medina, will perform a song by his son on the show. Chris Sligh’s grandmother, Georgia Sligh, is a jazz and gospel singer. Rikki Rockett played bass with Aerosmith and has a country music side that should add another flair to the show. Michael Johns is a former child actor who had a top 40 hit song with the group Men At Work. Each artist is getting to choose their own songs. That way, we will see the remaining contestants perform the songs that have helped them get to where they are. They also can decide to perform a song that wasn’t included in their top 40 hits but that they believe to be worthy of a final performance. There will also be a moment of reflection and a recap of this season’s events. The show will also include performances by Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and John Legend and a special performance by Idol alumni Reba McEntire and Clay Aiken. That event alone should draw a few tears from Idol fans. Also, we are going to have the opportunity to say goodbye to Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, who have received enough votes to be in the Top 5 during this season’s final voting. I think if Kris made the top 5 during one of the earlier votes, I would have said, “If you don’t vote for him, he will be eliminated.” He didn’t. Another bit of information that was released on the voting procedures were the names of the people that wrote the rules for voting. Well, now we know what they look like. On August 7th, Idol sent out the Voting Guidelines to the voting panels and it included the contact information for the people who wrote them. This will make it easier for you to ask questions about voting or problems that you might have. Also, I mentioned on Tuesday that the voting rules were not being sent to the IdolStar voting panel, so I thought I’d explain why that was. After all, I am an officer of the IdolStar voting panel, so I should know… During the season’s premiere, Fox released information about how fans should vote and sent a press release to IdolStar.com that gave them permission to use that information and talk about how fans should vote. But, when Fox sent the rules to the voting panel and IdolStar’s press release was about the rules, we were not able to use that information. I’m sure that there will be some disagreements about this rule, but I’ve been doing this since the first season and I’m only now allowed to reveal this information. Now, it’s time for me to ask a question. It seems that many of you are also noticing the lack of change to American Idol. Well, that is not necessarily a bad thing. What if Idol wanted to bring in some of the old viewers and get more of the older generation back into their viewing habits? Remember when American Idol was a show for the music lover? We would try and decide who we were going to vote for using our own criteria instead of letting the judges dictate who we were going to vote for. We knew what was good, what was bad and what was ok. We knew we weren’t going to support someone just because we knew the judges were supporting them, we knew to stay true to ourselves. I think we are missing something about Idol because many viewers are not sure why they should vote and many just don’t like the choices that have been made so far. It has been too long since we have seen a major artist on Idol in what I think is a great voice. Are any of you as excited about it as I am? I think many people were hoping that one of the contestants who sang during the voting preview would be the one, and they might have been if only one contestant would have done well during the final voting. I wonder if they will consider bringing back some of the contestants who were eliminated in earlier years to perform or have one of the first season contestants perform. I want to say that I don’t think they will do something like that, but I’m not so sure. Anyway, I’m going to take a break and stop by my home in the IdolStar forums to see what is new there. Thank you for reading, and let’s all enjoy this season of Idol. I’m sure we will have a lot of good conversation about the show, the judges, and the contestants. I like the new strategy, but it’s a total shame that in the age of instant voting and polls we can’t figure out how to improve the process. I would have voted several times and given my heart to Kris. But you go ahead and decide for all of us that this is not a contest we want to take part in any longer. But do give the others the benefit of the doubt and vote for your favorites every chance you get