If you are among the last contestants to survive American Idol, one of two things will happen to you after the show wraps: You will make the morning show press rounds, announce a record deal with a major label, put out an album, win the Grammy for Best New Artist, and go on to a lifetime of fame and money; or you will make the morning show press rounds, announce a record deal with a major label, put out an album, watch sales stall at 200, and get dropped from your label. Guess which category Blake Lewis – who lost to Jordin Sparks – falls into? CONTINUED »
American Idol is: A) The most popular show on television; B) The means by which Fox became the No. 1 rated network on television; C) The launching pad for a select few musical talents who have gone on to win Grammys; D) All of the above.
You know the answer to this question. And while, despite all this, Simon Cowell will never be eligible for an Emmy, as the Times reports, the paper of record still does not treat the talent competition with much pedigree. CONTINUED »
Fox insists it didn’t intentionally run American Idol a smidge long to cut off Ryan Seacrest revealing the winner’s name to DVR viewers. “The winner, by 12 million votes, of ‘American Idol’ 2008 is David —,” was how things might’ve appeared on your end after sitting through what was essentially a two-hour ad for The Love Guru. [NYT]
Forget the crowning moment last night on American Idol — the real magic happened a little after 9 p.m. when the producers decided it would be a great idea to bring back Renaldo Lapuz, the guy from the first round of auditions who made up a song for Simon about being brothers forever. Actually, the lyrics go, “I am your brother, your best friend forever.” Deep.
Yes, last night’s American Idol finale chose David Cook as the winner, violating everything Simon Cowell said the night before about David Archuleta’s “knockout.” And yes, 12 million more people voted for Cook than Archuelta. And yes, an early Nielsen estimate pegs total viewers at 26.5 million, the shows best numbers since March, and which could beat last year’s audience of 25.3 million. But hands down, the most interesting thing about last night’s finale – and it certainly wasn’t performances by Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood, or any of the Top 12 contestants, or even Mike Myers’ The Love Guru tie-ins – was this Guitar Hero ad featuring Cook doing a riff on Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Yes, they made Archuleta do one too, but that was seriously awkward. CONTINUED »
On tonight’s American Idol finale, rumor has it producers would love to see David Cook win the contest, because he’s much more manageable. [Scoop] David Archuleta, meanwhile, has that horrific Joe Simpson-esque stage dad that 19 Entertainment would have to contend with. So they couldn’t have been happy when judge Simon Cowell essentially handed the win to Archuleta and counted Cook out.
Below, an interview with Archuleta after he started tearing up on stage. CONTINUED »
Tonight’s American Idol finale, where David Archuleta will, we’re imagining, ultimately be named the season’s winner, will also feature secret special guest star George Michael, who will perform. [E!] Earlier this week,
producer Nigel Lythgoe refused to say who would be the closer’s big ticket item, but insisted he was the “biggest star in the world.” Uh huh. While Michael might be just fine for the audiences of Eli Stone, where he music graces each episode (or at least each episode title), on Idol, he will join esteemed names including Andrew Lloyd Webber as those who Idol’s audience has absolutely zero idea who they are.
Hang the F on. While American Idol’s ratings may be dropping off this season, the numbers the show pulls in are still leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, except for maybe Dancing With the Stars and CSI. The Tuesday-Wednesday shows still pull in some 21-plus million viewers (down from last year’s average 30m) and, in the target demographic of 18-49-year-olds, Nielsen says Idol snags 13-14 million people. So why should anybody be surprised the show was renewed for next year? The producers’ current contract with Fox allows for the show to be broadcast through at least 2011; expect it to be.
CASTRO, OUT The boy with the dreads, Jason Castro, who didn’t even want to be on American Idol anymore, got tossed last night, leaving just David Archuleta, Syesha Mercado and David Cook to battle it out to win during what can be expected to be the lowest-rated finale show ever. [Photo: Fox]At American Idol, everyone looks out for each other. Or at least producers look out for their star talent, which is why last night it was written into Ryan Seacrest’s limited script that he must come to Paula Abdul’s defense, and quiet those rumors that blossomed after Tuesday night’s “Was that one performance or two?” disaster.
Wait — what rumors? As if you have to ask.
Despite the clipping service’s buggy (and browser-crashing) player, RedLasso is always on the ball. Which is why, after TiVo-speeding our way through last night’s American Idol and catching Paula Abdul mistake a single performance by Jason Castro for, um, two performances, we knew we could check our inbox within moments and the clip would be there. Indeed, it was. CONTINUED »
Was Carly Smithson voted off American Idol because she sang “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the Andrew Lloyd Webber headliner that’s offensive to some Christians, who undoubtedly make up a huge portion of the losers who dial 866 numbers? MAYBE! Not even her Irish roots could save her. (The terrible Kristy Lee Cook stayed on another week after singing “God Bless the U.S.A.”) Nevermind that the first inkling the same voting bloc gets about David Archuleta’s sessuality will also have him canned, unless the OMG HE’S SOOOOO CUTE factor weighs heavier.
The biggest upset on last night’s American Idol wasn’t that Aussie hottie Michael Johns was sent home, but that TiVo, which claimed to be able to predict who would go home, got it wrong. By analyzing which performances are replayed or skipped over by a sample of 20,000 subscribers, the DVR service has accurately predicted the ejections for the last four consecutive weeks. This week, they fingered Syesha would go home. Obviously, they got it wrong; she was only in the bottom three.
Tonight’s the big night: American Idol will try to raise over $100 million for charity by pimping out Brad Pitt and punishing the world with a Teri Hatcher performance. Whitney will be there to guide you through the process tonight on Mollygood, because she is the only person who is excited about this fiasco.
The secret to staying on ‘American Idol’ is not talent, or looks … but keeping your mouth shut, smiling and saying nothing! [L-E]
Who says cynicism on the web doesn’t pay? Actually … nobody. Not sure that argument has ever been made. But if someone does broach the subject, point them toward Vote For The Worst, the website that encourages viewers of American Idol (and other reality shows where the public gets to vote) to choose a terrible, un-deserving contestant and, through the magic of toll-free numbers and text messaging, skew the results and push ‘em toward the finish line.
That site made $40,000 last year; not bad, but not exactly buyout material. Most of the advertising arrives via Google’s no nonsense AdSense program, which means contextually-based ads are placed on the site automatically.
Like this one, for the new album from Blake Lewis, the American Idol Season 6 contestant that Vote For The Worst tried to have crowned the winner.
Is America ready for a gay Idol? No, really, that’s the easily-answered question CNN asked last night!
Silly cable network, America isn’t even ready for a gay news anchor.
CNN got curious when two fellas recently voted off were tied to gay stuff: A video of Danny Noriega rapping about being gay appeared on YouTube, and photos from David Hernandez’s gay stripping era spread faster across the Internet than, well, photos of Clay Aiken’s gay webcamming.
Or maybe: They were just terrible performers.
Last night it took two hours for Ryan Seacrest to get through all of the twelve contestants remaining on American Idol. Hopefully it’ll take even less time to debunk the rumors that he’s sleeping with Sunset Tan reality “star” Holly Huddleston.
The In Touch that’s hitting newsstands today will report the Idol and E! News host is dating the E! channel personality, notwithstanding the fact that back in March 2007, In Touch’s website was pleased to run a poll titled “Is Ryan Seacrest gay?” (In that week’s issue, they also had “ex-girlfriend” Shanna Wall proclaim his straightness.)
Ryan also had Perez Hilton on his radio show yesterday, where the celeb blogger asked Ryan straight out if he was gay; Ryan denied it, claiming he had been with a woman for 12 hours straight recently.
How the over-employed Seacrest finds 12 hours in his day to do any single thing remains a mystery. Exposing the “I’m straight” ploy Ryan pulled last time with Teri Hatcher and the help of BFF Ken Baker (now on staff at E!) and Us Weekly, however, does not.
Look how well American Idol producers got their contestants on message! Who’s got a copy of the talking points memo Nigel Lithgow & Co. distributed to cast members instructing them on how to respond to David Hernandez’s gay stripping days? “We live in a bubble,” they say. How quaint. And kudos to ET’s Kevin Frazier for following up with “worthwhile questions”; working for the tabloid machine must be soul crushing. [ET]
The Associated Press continues to revel in gay Idol fever.
Today, the news agency asks whether or not the public can handle having an openly homo American Idol contestant. Former participant and current queer Jim Verranos insists the show’s moving closer toward a closet-free environment, “It feels like we’re closer now than ever to having an openly gay contestant on the show…I feel like there are some definite possibilities for this to happen this year.”
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