Wednesday, March 26, 2008

American Idol: Top 10 results

Uber-brief "American Idol" spoilers coming right up...

Razza frazza sonuva... Chikezie's gone, and a week before he could have rocked the hell out of Country Night. I feared this was coming when he went back to the boring balladeering (and after Kristy Lee figured out a way to jump the queue), and he had no chance of winning, but this is still a bummer.

I was working on my taxes and fast-forwarded through almost the entire show -- though I somehow stopped at the exact moment when Carly denied the pregnancy rumors -- so I have no comment on anything else (the rest of the bottom three, for those who didn't watch, were Jason and Syesha). Fire away on anything I missed.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm out for this season. Chikezie made it worth watching more than anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Seconded. Other than the odd David Cook turn, there's nothing but Zzzzzzzzzzzzs on that stage. Got my Tuesdays back, yay.

Unless Kristy Lee comes out in a stars-n-stripes bikini waving sparklers. On stilts.

David Chaka-leta can go ahead and win, now. America, you bore me.

Bobman said...

I won't say I'm shocked, but I'm disgusted. Chikeze was way too fun to be gone now. Ramiele was horrid, went FIRST, and still didn't even crack the bottom 3. The voting system is a joke. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

The right contestants usually are still in at the end but I wish they would go home in the correct order. Chikezie should have had at least 2 or 3 weeks more to keep the show fun. Boooo.

Thanks for the memories Chikezie. Well, just one memory really. I hope we see you again.

Mrglass said...

"Thanks for the memories Chikezie. Well, just one memory really."

That's more than I can say about Syesha or Ramiele, I don't remember any performance from them... This is the most boring season of American Idol by far.

Nicole said...

I guess it was going to happen sooner or later, but I thought that Ramiele was going to go. She'll probably go next week because Kristy will likely do fairly well for Country Week.

David Cook is the only interesting one left for me, and that's mostly to see when he runs out of covers to do.

Undercover Black Man said...

Pinoy power!

Anonymous said...

Can someone explain exactly what Ryan said right at the beginning of the show when he was walking past the contestants? Just as he got to the end of the line -- which happened to be where the two African-American contestants (and also, it turned out, the two lowest-voted contestants this week) were standing -- he said something like, "How did you do? Who is headed home? Oh, Lo'!" Which made no sense at all. Did he catch himself before he said something else? I replayed it a few times, and I still can't figure it out.

Anonymous said...

Damn! I knew I shouldn't have saved my witty Chikezie line. I was waiting for the perfect moment.

Chikezie? More like Ka-cheezie.. amirite?

Wasted. Just wasted.

Dan Jameson said...

bigted - don't assume just because they are in the bottom 3 that they are the 3 lowest vote getters. I commented on this last week, and I still believe that Idol has NEVER claimed that the bottom 3 are actually the 3 lowest vote getters. I think they occasionally throw someone in there to shake things up or wake that person up. Last week it was Carly, this week it was Jason. NO WAY Ramiele got more votes than Jason or even Syesha.

- jude said...

Alan -
You missed some excessive pandering to Apple. I was also TiVo'ing through, but the segment was another insipid promotion of the partnership between iTunes and "American Idol."

You missed Ramiele gushing, in her best valley girl: "I downloaded David Cook, Michael Johns and Jason Castro, just because I like LIKE some songs that they've done."

David Cook came on and said he uses iTunes as a reference source, all while trying to say the word "iTunes" as much as possible.

Kristy Lee waved the banner more by saying she downloads songs she's supposed to perform on her iPod - complete with several shots of Syesha and others listening to their iPods or using their MacBooks.

And the segment mercifully ended after Carly shrieked after seeing her single available for download in the iTunes store - on an iPhone.

"Omigod, that's so weird!"

FWIW, I also thought Ramiele should have gone home.

Anonymous said...

Aren't they all doing covers?

Anonymous said...

Ramiele survived?

How was she not even in the B3?

K J Gillenwater said...

dan, more than once Ryan Seacrest has called them the 'bottom 3.' I don't think you would call them that unless they were truly the 3 who had gotten the least amount of votes. Also, typically Ryan will turn to the judges when the final 2 or 3 are standing up there and say, "Do you think American got it right, judges?" Also indicating these three are the ones with the lowest number of votes.

When a halfway decent contestant lands in the bottom 3, I usually assume that most of America thought they were safe and didn't need the votes.

Chikezie couldn't have won, so he would've been booted eventually. As long as the best 2 or 3 singers are still in play, I'm happy (for me that would be David C., Carly S. and David A. - even though David A. is not one of my faves).

Bobman said...

Chikezie couldn't have won, so he would've been booted eventually. As long as the best 2 or 3 singers are still in play, I'm happy

It's just a TV show that's supposed to be entertaining, so even though technically you're right - the end result is what matters for the contestants - I'd rather the truly entertaining performers be around as long as possible for the entertainment factor.

Anonymous said...

This week showed just how much more important it is to be savvy than good. Look at the songs the people who came off well sang: We are the Champions, Billie Jean, Total Eclipse of the Heart, even God Bless the USA (you can debate its quality (Simon loves it, though), but it was an undoubtedly shrewd choice). You could almost have predicted the finishing order just by looking at their song choices.

If Carly could somehow sing like she does without looking like she's getting a painful tattoo at the time, she'd be a no-brainer.

Archuleta is anything but inevitable. The weekly vetting process that is Idol has been/will expose him. Early, he was a cute kid who could sing well--you could sort of graft whatever personality you wanted onto him. But now it's coming out that he's actually just a gigantic nerd with awful taste.

The CineManiac said...

I'm sad Chikezie's gone, but I still thank there are some good people up there. But I'm glad "Rocker Chick" left before Chikezie, because she was the worst singer I've ever heard in my life.

kaybeevee said...

Did you miss the comment from Carly that she was wearing "spanks" to suck in the gut, and it was hard for her to sing? Very interesting. But she still looks like she's really trying hard to get the notes out. Sorry to see Chikezie go, but he picked a really bad song. David A. just doesn't seem mature enough to handle being the American Idol, although he's the most believable one to be singing the sappy song they have to sing when they win. I like David Cook and yes, Jason Castro. Guess I grew up in the "singer/songwriter" era!

Dan Jameson said...

Kristin - I agree with your points, they do refer to them every week as "the bottom 3" - but that is MY point. They never actually say here are the lowest vote getters, or ask the judges "did they deserve to get the least votes" - it's always a beat-around-the-bush scenario. I think Idol picks the bottom 3, aside from the one with the lowest votes.

Maybe I should just get on americanidol.com next Wednesday and try to get my question answered on what has become the most annoying and pointless part of this show - ha!

Bobman said...

dan,

I suppose you have a point, but I think you're trying a little too hard. Fox is certainly manipulative with Idol, so certainly what you're proposing is POSSIBLE, but I think it's improbable.

Anonymous said...

The "bottom three" are the three with the least votes that week. Simple as that. It's not always easily figured out, because the mediocre often fall in there unexpectedly. In my opinion, Ramiele got a pass because she was sick---her fans felt bad for her and voted to keep her, so she didn't make the bottom three.

Dan Jameson said...

Believing that reality TV isn't fixed or manipulative is admitting you are extremely naive.

I'm not trying to start an argument here. I would just LOVE to see some evidence. In 7 seasons now I've NEVER heard anyone refer to the bottom 3 as the 3 lowest vote getters. Ever.

Alan Sepinwall said...

In 7 seasons now I've NEVER heard anyone refer to the bottom 3 as the 3 lowest vote getters. Ever.

Then I'm guessing you've never watched the Top 7 results show. Every year, at least since season 3, Seacrest goes out of his way to divide the 7 contestants into three groups: the three highest vote getters (identified as such), the three lowest vote-getters (ibid), and the poor sucker asked to figure out which is which.

I certainly believe that the Idol producers do certain things to help out their favorites, but there's too much potential damage that could be done to the franchise if people found out they were messing with the results -- and that includes putting high vote-getters into the bottom three. You don't risk killing the golden goose for the sake of artificially inflating Carly or Jason's vote totals the following weeks.

Anonymous said...

The Top 7 show identifies the lowest three, and three who are "safe," but not necessarily highest.

Last year at Top 7 time, Melinda Doolittle was the show's darling. On that show, she was the designated "poor sucker," and probably was not in 4th place. But if they used the top 3, she would have been in it, and it would have been easy to figure out which group was which.

In any case, I don't know what else "America voted, these are the bottom 3" could mean other than the 3 lowest vote totals.

Alan Sepinwall said...

The Top 7 show identifies the lowest three, and three who are "safe," but not necessarily highest.

Well, I know that the first time they did it, to poor George Huff in season 3, they explicitly identified the groups as top and bottom, which is why George made a beeline for the three divas.

(Later suckers like Bo and Melinda have gotten smarter about it and know not to walk to either group.)