Thursday, May 25, 2006

'Idol' Taylors itself Another Winner! Plus a Schedule Shake-up at NBC

As I said yesterday, I would have been happy whether Katharine or Taylor won American Idol. They were both talented and deserving of the title, but I knew it was going to be Taylor. The most interesting question is how will Taylor craft his album, and will it sell well with all the teeny-boppers who lobbied tirelessly for his win? As I have said before, my only hope is that he doesn't compromise his soul sound for a pseudo version of himself in order to fit the Idol mold as last year's runner up seems to have done with his southern rock sound. Of course, there's always my favorite Idol Carrie Underwood and her extremely successful country career, so maybe things will work out for Taylor. I also think that Kat has a very bright future ahead of her. I know this question comes up every year, but does this final results show have to be 2-hours?? Seriously, it's 20 minutes of fluff, 37 minutes of commercials and 3 minutes of announcing the winner, watching his/her reaction and then listening to said winner warble out the adult contemporary AI song of the season. Sure, there were a few highlights of the extended coverage, but overall, I could have done without (and did the second hour as I watched Lost and then fast forwarded through most of the second half after). Some of the group numbers were cute in a totally cheesy way and the contestants singing with their idols was alright, but the first hour (the only one that I watched completely) dragged! Some highlights (or in some cases, lowlights):

-WTH was up with Clay Aiken??? It was like he was trying to rock the Chris Gaines look that Garth Brooks failed so miserably with several years ago. Was he trying to look like a fictional singer? I don't get it. And why do I always get a cocky-Barry Manilow vibe from him? His little twin was so overwhelmed with singing with him that he couldn't even speak and Seacrest had to bring him a chair! I think I'm missing something because I don't get the Clay Aiken obsession.

-Carrie Underwood once again rocked the house. I'm sure she was relieved that she didn't have to sing "Jesus Take the Wheel" again.

-Katharine was once again rockin' the boob dresses. She must have an endless supply. She looked great, but I was worried for her all night that one of those dresses was going to stop holding her in.

-Meatloaf cut his hair.

-Chris Daughtry sounded awesome with the band Live. Loved that song too!

-HATED the Golden Idols or whatever those Seacrest awards were called.

-LOVED the judge video clips set to music in the beginning of the show. Having Paula's set to Whitney Houston's "So Emotional" was sheer brilliance! Loved Simon's too!

-"Puck & Pickler" was pretty funny. Wolfgang Puck seemed to pick the least Kellie-like entrees on the menu just to see how she'd react.

Overall, I'm not a HUGE Idol fan, but I do enjoy it in a sort of mindless drivel kind of way. It was nice to see the former contestants back on the show again. I had forgotten about some of them. What did you think about the finale? Were you happy with the outcome? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with the first half of its American Idol finale, followed by ABC's Lost clip show and NBC's Dateline. At 9, Fox stayed in front and improved its numbers with the rest of the Idol finale, followed by the first hour of the Lost finale and CBS' Criminal Minds (r). The last hour of the night went to ABC's Lost, followed by CBS' CSI: NY (r) and NBC's Law & Order (r). For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it. Since last night was the conclusion of sweeps (and the 2005-2006 TV season), About Last Night is going on hiatus until the fall. Look for it to return when your favorite shows do this September! You can always check Zap2it for up-to-date overnight ratings all summer long.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. -Fox kicks off another season of So You Think You Can Dance with a 2-hour premiere.

To see what else you can catch on television tonight with customized listings for your area (via Zap2it), visit the TV Listings area of PassTheRemote.net.

QUICK CUTS

*NBC is rearranging its newly announced fall schedule. Medium will not return until "later in the season" along with Scrubs (So. Mad. Right. Now!!). The new Aaron Sorkin dramedy will move to Monday nights in Medium's old slot instead of its announced Thursday night slot against CSI and Grey's Anatomy. Crossing Jordan will return in the fall instead of later in the season and will air Friday nights before Las Vegas. Here's a breakdown of the network's newest schedule:

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. "Deal or No Deal"
9-10 p.m. "HEROES"
10-11 p.m. "STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP" (new day and time)

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. "FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS"
9-10 p.m. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (new day and time)
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

WEDNESDAY
8-8:30 p.m. "20 GOOD YEARS" (new time)
8:30-9 p.m. "30 ROCK" (new time)
9-10 p.m. "The Biggest Loser" (new time);
10-11 p.m. "KIDNAPPED" (new day and time)

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. "My Name Is Earl"
8:30-9 p.m. "The Office"
9-10 p.m. "Deal or No Deal" (new day and time)
10-11 p.m. "ER"/("THE BLACK DONNELLYS" in January 2007)

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. "Crossing Jordan" (new day and time)
9-10 p.m. "Las Vegas"
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order" (new day)

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. "Dateline Saturday"
9-11 p.m. Drama Series Encores

SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. "FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA"
8-11 p.m. "SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL"


*And finally, NBC is adding to its iTunes collection. The network is now offering news stories, documentaries and original programs produced specifically for the popular music download service. The content is the standard $1.99 a download.

To get more of today's biggest TV news and headlines, visit the TV News section at PassTheRemote.Net.


That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the Alias Finale Blowout! Plus, all the latest television news!

To get more television coverage, including the network's new fall schedules and a complete archive of the best of Pass the Remote with a photo gallery featuring pictures from the set of Veronica Mars, click on over to PassTheRemote.net.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed seeing all the previous contestants. I loved Kellie Pickler's new do! I had heard she got it cut but hadn't seen it. Yes, it really does need to be shortened to 1 hour! Good summation of how the time is spent. I would only change the time used to announce the winner to about 30 seconds! There certainly was alot of cheese last night! Anyway, congrats to Taylor. I loved him in the audition phase, but never dreamed back then he could go all the way!