Whoopi Goldberg recently shared some strong words about American Idol... or at least about the first iteration of the show before it made its way to ABC. When chatting with co-hosts on ABC's The View, Goldberg shared her opinion that the tipping point for the decline of society came with the arrival of American Idol. The show premiered on FOX in June 2002.
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Goldberg reasoned that the show gave people permission to judge others.
"We as a society love to watch stuff to judge folks," she said. She then addressed a producer, asking, "I've always thought that the beginning of the downfall of society was with — what's the name of that show?"
"ABC's American Idol?" the producer answered, seemingly cautioning Goldberg from speaking negatively about the show, as it now shares a network with The View.
Goldberg continued, saying, "It was not always on ABC. When it began, it was on another network."
"Once we gave people the ability to judge other people, I think we ran amok with it, and it's gone out of control," she adds. "They invited the public to decide who that person was. Once we did that, it began us in a cycle."
The same producer who spoke to Goldberg at the beginning of the segment seemingly gave her a signal to wrap up the Idol conversation, which she rebuffed. The producer then attempted to redirect the message, saying, "The thing is that, you've talked about this, that it's gotten better. And you like it now, remember?"
Goldberg then softened her views a bit, saying the judgmental nature of the show has improved since it was rebooted on ABC with new judges.
"When I was watching it, ABC didn't have it," she said. "They have it now, it's a different show. It's a very different show. The judges are different. It changed. ABC knows that I feel like this. I've told them. It has nothing to do with them."
The first 15 seasons of American Idol on FOX were famous for not only producing music mega-stars like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, but a large part of the show's entertainment at the time occurred during the auditions. The show aired successful auditions as well as unsuccessful ones, and the original judges, particularly Simon Cowell, were often hard on contestants.
The show ended on FOX in 2016 after the 15th season. It was then rebooted on ABC in March 2018 with new judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie.
