It's easy to mock or complain about a lot of things "American Idol" does, and even about the length and some of the creative choices of the "Idol" Gives Back show itself in years past, but I refuse to do anything but applaud the charitable approach itself, and I would encourage you to donate some money if you can. As for the elimination part of the show, I have the results spoilers coming up after the jump...
Unlike season 6, when the show wimped out at the last minute from sending anyone home, or season 7, when they separated the results show from "Idol" Gives Back, here we actually got an elimination on the same night as the telethon, and it was the feel-good ending I was hoping for, with Tim Urban's dimples finally failing him.
What was vaguely interesting was that Casey James wound up in the bottom group with him, leaving Crystal, Lee and Siobhan as the only contestants to not yet wind up at risk on an elimination show. We've gone pretty deep into seasons with one contestant never being at risk (Taylor and Carrie both won their seasons that way, for instance), and I'm sure we've gone far with it never happening with two, but can any amateur "Idol"-ologist tell me what's the farthest we've gone with three never being at risk? Is this unusual, or am I just desperate to find something to pay attention to this season besides Crystal's super-competence?
What did everybody else think? Relieved TUrban went home, or annoyed you'll miss the spectacle of Simon trying to find nice things to say so as not to rile the kid's fanbase? And how did this year's telethon compare to the previous two?
Sorry to disappoint, Alan. Last year, through Top 7, Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and Danny Gokey had all avoided the bottom three.
ReplyDeleteI'm just so happy Urban is gone, that's all I care about at the moment. Every time he got bad jugdments, he'd smile like a Cheshire cat.
ReplyDeleteIt's not been a good year overall, but that helped.
OK, if they know ahead of time that the show is going to run long, then just schedule it long. A two-hour show should not run 22 minutes over (unless you're the Oscars).
ReplyDeleteAfter the debacle of last night, which caused DVRs to cut off the last 5 minutes of Glee because Idol ran over, I added 15 minutes to tonight's show but that STILL wasn't enough.
And I didn't find out who got voted off until I came here.
WV: ballasix, which I think is one of the bands at Coachella.
If Idol really wants to give back to America, they'll hire a producer who knows how to bring a show in on time. And dump Ryan. But at least Tim is finally gone.
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ReplyDelete^Lol, fail.
ReplyDeleteWord verification: Topicahs. How Ali G pronounces Topics.
Ryan Seacrest is not the problem; he's pretty brilliant at what he does. It's the four judges thing.
ReplyDeleteTim Urban was dreadful, I won't miss that guy.
ReplyDeleteThe show was kind of meh, but I didn't expect more. Except for the BEP, who sucked, nobody was terrible and I really enjoyed both Elton and the Mary J. Blige "super group", so the music was pretty enjoyable. There weren't a lot of laughs, but Wanda and Lopez made me giggle at least once or twice. The second Brand/Hill bit actually made me laugh out loud with the two separate Tom Cruises and Slash's confusion over them hanging up his phone.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jennifer Garner's video piece made me cry.
I started second guessing myself when it got down to the bottom and I realized that I wanted Aaron Kelly gone more than Turban, but then remembered my fear of him winning the entire competition, so I got over that pretty quickly. Bye Tim. You'll be adorable on Ellen's show and the tour and post-show/finale press lines and then I will probably forget about you. Unless you pull a Pickler and become famous and respected after everybody pointed and laughed at your throughout the entire competition. I think I'd be kind of happy about that even though I still most likely wouldn't listen to your music.
I'd honestly rather have had Aaron go home last night. At least Tim was consistantly listening to the judges. Given that Aaron chose that particular song, I don't believe he's listened to one word they've said. Not. One. Word.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I never understood why people got so angry at Tim for smiling during judging. It's like people are mad he wasn't pouting defensively like so many others do when judging doesn't go their way. But I saw Tim's smile as a mask of professionalism while he took in the judges' constructive criticism. That's something not enough contestants do -- they're too busy trying to defend themselves that they ignore the real lessons there to be learned.
@amysusanne: I'm glad you mentioned Pickler -- that's a good comparison, actually, and things turned out just fine for her. As for Tim, I think the Disney Channel would be stupid not to sign him up ASAP.
@Jenn, Kris was in the bottom 3 the week that he sang "The Way You Look Tonight" (Top 5 week) and Adam was in the bottom 2 that night, as well.
ReplyDeleteI was bored out of my mind last night. Running over 23 minutes is inexcusable.
@Adam
ReplyDeleteYeah, Seacrest has been brilliant these season---spoiling the results shows on his Twitter, drunkenly (or whatever the drug) swaying around during performances last week, making the same gay jokes to Simon every week (month, year, decade), badgering performers in those never-ending results show interviews---what a genius.
Aaron annoys me much more than Tim ever did. Tim's Vote for the Worst groupies are now going to vote for Siobhan so this should make life interesting.
ReplyDeleteDavey, I agree with you about Tim smiling verses pouting or justifying. When asking about why he always smiled even with criticized, he said something along the lines of " Just being here is a wonderful experience. And I don't want to ruin it by being upset when/if I don't do well. I'm doing my best and that's all I can do." Good for him. But yes, it was beyond time for him to move on.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I am not a big fan of Chrystal. I think something is lacking in her vocals. This is my first AI year. If not for Lee, I would have stopped watching before this.