Last night's episode of American Idol was like a tale of two halves. The first group of guys was just a'right (to quote judge Randy Jackson), but the second group was great! Unlike poor Stevie from the ladies group, I didn't feel like any of them were terrible (I think that Stevie would have been much better on another song, but sadly, we probably won't get a chance to find out). As usual, many of the guys have that teeny-bopper/Paula likeability factor that I think will keep some of them in the competition longer than they may deserve. By the way, you've got to love Paula's reaction to some of the male contestants! She cracks me up! Simon, despite his abruptness, tends to have a lot of valid points. I don't always agree with him, but I do surprise myself at the times I do. And then there's Randy, who is my favorite of the judges because he balances the other two out nicely. I find myself agreeing with him a lot, and I felt that he was pretty dead on with my tastes last night. Anyway, here's a look at last night's highlights and lesser-lights (since I didn't feel that anyone was deserving of a lowlight honor).BEST PERFORMANCES: Ace Young (pictured above) singing George Michael's "Father Figure" (as the judges pointed out, this guy is the total package - great voice, works the crowd, and good looking), Elliot Yamen singing Stevie Wonder's "If You Really Love Me" (he really rocked this song, and that was difficult to do considering the inevitable comparison to Wonder), Gedeon McKinney singing the Isley Brothers' "Shout" (he was full of energy and he has a smooth voice) and Chris Daughtry singing Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" (this song was a perfect fit for him and he really shone singing it).
THE "BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME" PERFORMANCES: Bobby Bennett singing Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" (more than likely this was just the wrong song choice), David Radcliff singing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (this performance just seemed like a mess to me) and Patrick Hall singing Melissa Etheridge's "Come to my Window" (he has the wrong voice for that song, so it just didn't work).
Everyone else fell somewhere in between for me. I know I'm in the minority, but I wasn't loving Taylor Hicks' performance of Elton John's "Levon." Maybe it's just that I'm a huge Elton fan and no one is going to sing it as well as he does, but I thought Hicks' performance was just OK. I also thought that Kevin Corvais would do a better job than he did, so I was a little disappointed in his performance. It was good, just not great. Hopefully, he'll get a chance to stay in the competition and improve because I think he has great potential (Plus, aren't you dying to see what happens when they "Hollywoodize" him? Look at what they did to Clay Aiken!). Overall, I think that Ace and Elliot are the two to beat, but we'll see how things progress. As far as who will go tonight, that's a tough call since nobody really sounded too terrible, but I'm going to pick Patrick Hall (performance was forgettable and nobody really knows him yet) and possibly David Radcliff (he just wasn't as strong as the other competitors on his song and I don't see him getting enough votes, but you never know with this show). We'll find out for sure tonight on Fox with the live results show.
About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by NBC's Olympics coverage and an hour of Still Standing on CBS. At 9, Fox's Idol stayed in front, followed by NBC's Olympics coverage and CBS' Criminal Minds (r). The final hour of the night went to NBC's Olympics coverage, followed by CBS' CSI: NY (r) and the second hour of ABC's Lost (r). For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.
~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Talk about a jam-packed evening! NBC's Olympics coverage continues with the gold-medal final of the Ladies Figure Skating event, Freestyle Skiing (Men's Aerials Gold Medal Final) and Snowboarding (Women's Parallel Giant Slalom Gold Medal Final). Over on Fox, we find out which four contestants will no longer compete on American Idol. ABC has a two-hour episode of Dancing with the Stars as the final three teams (Stacy Keibler, Drew Lachey and Jerry Rice) face off in their final showdown. Each team will dance two dances including the freestyle. As if singing, dancing and skating weren't enough, there's also surviving tonight on CBS. A banished castaway thrives on Exile Island on tonight's Survivor.
QUICK CUTS
*News Corp. is launching a new network of its own this fall. The mini-network will supply programming for the 10 News Corp. owned stations that will be left without an affiliate once UPN closes this fall. Initially, the new network, dubbed "My Network TV," will air two soap opera series that will air 6 nights a week (Monday through Saturday) for 13 weeks in a similar style to the Spanish-language channels' popular telenovelas. My Network TV will air in the 10 cities where the UPN affiliates are currently owned by News Corp.'s Fox Television Group including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago. The channel is scheduled to launch September 5th, the same month as the new CW network.
*Fans of Bravo's Project Runway now have another way of getting the reality competition's episodes - via iTunes. The entire season-to-date episodes of the series will be available for download beginning February 28th. Today, though, you'll be able to download tonight's reunion episode before it airs on Bravo this evening. Joining Project Runway on iTunes next Tuesday is fellow Bravo show Inside the Actor's Studio, which will feature all episodes from this season and the most memorable ones from last season. All downloads are the iTunes standard $1.99 an episode.
*And finally, it's Nielsen Thursday (Nielsens were delayed due to the 3-day weekend)! Coverage of the Olympics fueled NBC to a first place finish last week in total viewers and the 18-49 year olds group. The Olympics grabbed the 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th spots of the top ten. American Idol finished 1st and 2nd, while Grey's Anatomy (3rd), Desperate Housewives (4th), Dancing with the Stars (8th) and House (10th) rounded out the top 10. To see the list of the top 20 shows, visit USA Today.
That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on the four Idol castoffs and the gold-medal final of women's figure skating (go Sasha!) Plus, all the latest television news. And don't forget to send me your Veronica Mars questions (via comment link or email them to veronicaquestions@yahoo.com) for the bloggers press day. You only have 4 days left! Also, if you have questions for the folks at America's Next Top Model, send them my way as well.
SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season
Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details
2 comments:
About the guys on AI last night. First of all, Gedeon reminds me of Wallace on VM. I thought Taylor Hick's choice of Levon was a good pick for his voice and really enjoyed it. Although I do agree with Jifbug about his movements. I still love the guy though. The blond dude from NC who did that Leonard Skynard song was really good in my opinion. Icould see him doing a Joe Cocker song. All that being said, Ace and Elliot and Chris were awesome!
If you think tonight is jam packed, I'm not even going to be home until at least 10:00 tonite. I can only tape two things, so I'm hoping the American skaters don't skate until I get home.
Glad to see that Jifbug has joined us!
Let me 1st just say, that I think Ace is ridiculously HOT! I mean, that boy...YUM! And he can sing. OMG.
My favorite performance is a toss-up between Ace and Taylor Hicks. I feel Taylor absolutely radiates when he is on stage. His performance was awesome. The song might not have been the best choice, but it was still amazing.
I, too, really liked Elliott, although with there being such a tight competition for the men, I don't know if he'll make it through.
I have also fallen in love with Chris Daughtry. I think his story is amazing, he's so cute, and he can really sing. He may not have the most unique voice (very Scott Stapp, Rob Thomas, etc), but it is the style right now and I love it!
I was figuring it up last night and for the women, it's really easy for me to choose a Top 6. It's different for the men, however. My top choices are Ace, Taylor, Elliott, and Chris. But I think Will Makar, Gedeon, Sway, and Bucky are also good (speaking of being "Hollywoodized"...BUCKY is the one I would love to see!
PS Did anyone else notice how bad some of the guys' teeth are? Yuck.
Post a Comment