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American Idol

Date: May 14 2007

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Have you ever lost a competition and felt really sad about it? Before you cry next time you come in second, think about the reality TV show American Idol. Singers compete in front of cruel judges for fame. But Amanda has noticed something about American Idol. So far, the second-place winners have been the most successful after the competition ends.

Listen to her tell Marni about her discovery.

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Amanda

Marni

Amanda: Don’t you find it interesting and so very cool that the second-place winner of American Idol for the last four or five seasons is the one that ends up blowing up and has a huge fan base? And the winner? Nobody knows. You can’t even remember or name who the winner was.

Marni: That’s true, because there was that guy, the Clay Aiken guy, and there was the other guy who…he actually won, right?

Amanda: He actually won. Ruben.

Marni: Ruben!

Amanda: Sold maybe one album. Maybe. To his mother. That’s it.

Marni: Oh, that is interesting.

Amanda: It’s weird. It’s as if…if you win you’re jinxed. So you don’t want to win. You want to take second place, and then you’re huge. Katherine McPhee? Just released her CD. Second place.

Marni: She was the last cycle?

Amanda: Yes. Taylor Hicks won. Who cares about him? He’s in some car commercial and that’s about it,

Marni: Okay! Yeah. Well, there was the first season where Kelly Clarkson won, and she was big, right…

Amanda: And that’s the exception to the entire six years.

Marni: Six years, huh?

Amanda: I was thinking about trying out in Seattle next year. Do you wanna come with?

Marni: Absolutely not. I think it would be so humiliating and those people are so mean.

Amanda: You are such a fair-weather friend.

Marni: I am.

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Discussion

Amanda says that the second-place winner of American Idol is always the most successful. She says that no one can even remember the first-place winner’s name. Indeed, Marni can only recall the name of a second-place winner. Amanda reminds Amanda of a man named Ruben who won the contest. She jokes that he only sold one album and that it was to his mother.

It’s almost as though the person who comes in first is cursed…except for Kelly Clarkson. She was the winner of the first season and she continues to be successful.

Amanda might try out for American Idol next year, but Marni thinks that the judges are too mean.

Has a competition that you didn’t win ever worked out well for you? Have you ever watched American Idol? Who’s your favorite singer from the show?

Comments

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Josh K

Guatemala

cool show

susanliu71

China

i am not familiar with the American Idol, but just think about it carefully,it seems make sense

i am wondering what are the real reasons behind the phenomenon

susanliu71

China

i am not quite familiar with American Idol,but just think about it carefully, it seems make sense.

i am wondering what are the real reasons behind the phenomenon

is it another way that audiences show their sympathy to the second-place winners?or maybe they're also like me full of curiosity and wanna know the reasons caused second-place idols to fail to win the NO.1 place?

maya80

Lebanon

hi all

sweetie_stela

Philippines

its great!!!

harty

Philippines

i think it is a nice tv program, wherein young people dare to join and face challenges. For me, it doesn't matter if you win or not as long as you give your best shot to prove yourself that you can do something! hahaha…

eternal_84

Turkey

american idol is a competition and a show,there are young singers are competing for being the first winner besides there is a court to judge their performance and give them points and tv wievers can support them with the sms.there is an award for the winner.despie being a competition,ıt is a show ı think..

Mexico

German version !!!

I'm afraid they want to conquer the world !!!

I'm just joking the only thing they really want is to make a lot of money.

I think that if You wanna be good at playing and composing music You have to work a lot in it, but if You only want to be famous without giving an important musical contribution then You can find this kind of tv shows.

salsarim

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

It seems great, thank you.

salsarim

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

I don't know about this program but it looks like funny so maybe I will watch then.Thank you for comments.

summertime

Germany

I liked wat´ching the german version.

DAR

Taiwan

I think they emphasize original idea.But watch different nation is funny too.

Mexico

You are absolutely right. In Japan U can find comedy material as well.

By the way in Latin America there is the latin version of American Idol too. Just another copy show to make money called Latin American Idol.

DAR

Taiwan

AND COMIC.

Mexico

Really? Why do U think that?I think that in Japan there are very creative, intelligent and original people. There U have the work of very talented artists. For example: X Japan, Kitano Takeshi, Kurosawa Akira, and a lot more.