American Idol 16 auditions … now featuring BB-8 of Star Wars

Just in case seeing Star Wars character BB-8 at the American Idol 16 auditions was something you needed today, here you go!

In the new video below (via People Magazine), you can see the super-popular droid character, (who seemed to be designed solely with cuteness in mind) heading out to try his luck at the latest season of American Idol in front of Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan. Apparently, you don’t need to actually sing to get a golden ticket to Hollywood if you’re an adorable droid who makes funny noises!

This entire video is cheesy as heck but the intention here is nonetheless clear: ABC wants to build as much brand synergy as they can for the upcoming season, and relying on popular/existing properties is a way to do that. ABC is owned by Disney, and Disney now owns LucasFilm. As a result of that, we’re not in the least bit surprised by this. We figured that at some point down the road someone’s also going to try and get Black Widow or Iron Man in there to see if they can belt out a tune. (Remember, Disney also owns Marvel.)

Do we think that this bit of cross-promotion could’ve been done better? Absolutely given that one problem here is pretty glaring throughout the whole “audition” — it’s clear that BB-8 is not actually in the room. Yes, we understand that this was probably logistically impossible and expensive to do something like that, but why not take some other characters you could have physically there? Having a Star Wars character in front of the judges would give them someone to play off of rather than just speak towards an empty spot in the room. This just feels forced because it’s clear that they’re not speaking to anyone.

If we’re grading this bit of cross-promotion, we’ll give ABC a solid B on the attempt and then a D on the execution.

American Idol 16 premieres on ABC in March; meanwhile, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi premieres in December.

To see another bit of American Idol cross-promotion, this time with an NFL presence instead of Star Wars, be sure to check out the link here.

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