Southern Success on American Idol  1/24/06

During a recent conference call with the press, American Idol Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe was asked his opinion as to why Southerners do so well on American Idol. An interesting question as after all, Alabama is home to Season 2 winner Ruben Studdard and Season 4 runner-up Bo Bice. Clay Aiken, who lost to Studdard by a hair and has had an extremely successful career since Idol, is from North Carolina. Season 3 Idol Fantasia is from Tennessee; Tamyra Gray and Fantasia's runner-up Diana DiGarmo hail from Georgia. Texan Kelly Clarkson, the first Idol, and Oklahoma's Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood aren't exactly Yankees.

So what is it with these Southerners, anyway? Lythgoe believes that it may have something to do with divine intervention. Well, indirectly. Lythgoe feels that the kids who have grown up singing in church have spent a long time honing their craft, and are perhaps more comfortable performing in front of an audience. Fantasia, Ruben and others specifically mentioned singing in their church choirs and the influence it had on them. We saw clips of Fantasia singing with her congregation back home.

Lythgoe went on to say that although the American Idol judges and producers expect to find a concentration of talent in places such as New York and LA, it really hasn't happened that way so far. Instead, he says, when auditions are held in these locales, "we get a lot of fakers." When asked by a reporter from the Birmingham News about rumors that another Alabaman is doing very well so far in season 5, Lythgoe said he would not confirm the reports, saying he did not want to be a spoiler.