For those of you on delayed telecast.... if you don't want your drama spoiled ( as if you can resist the temptation to view the internet ), STOP RIGHT HERE AND READ NO FURTHER. Tonight's results show is a shocker.
I can think of several titles and sub-titles for this post.... among them ---- TI TS BEATS TALENT, THE REVENGE OF THE RETROS, SHOCKER FOR THE ROCKER... But this is would be the most appropriate to sum up what happened tonight --- THE KAT HAS NINE LIVES !
If you guys on delayed telecast still don't know from the above titles what happened, I guess you have not being paying attention.
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The show opened early on with the Car-mercial.
I've been getting e-mails from those living overseas telling me that the Car-mercial is not being shown in their country and instead they have their own commercials. Well, too bad. Most of them were quite clever and interesting.
Anyway, if you're interested, here is a description ( and NO I DON'T DRIVE A FORD ).
This week's Ford commercial was strange. Kat drives her FORD SUV to her garage, opens the garage door and see's the entire place a mess.
The 3 guys come in as working crew-men and proceeds to clean her garage up making it look all GREEN as in a rain-forest.
Then, camera pans back to the FORD SUV and we see Kat sitting with none other than KERMIT THE FROG. Who then says --- "Well, I guess it really isn't easy being green"
Anyway, On with the show.....
First up --- The Kids Tour Graceland
Yesterday, I begged and demanded that the audience be taken on a tour to Graceland with the Idols. Looks like someone heard my request.
We were treated to a little tour of Graceland that was actually pretty cool. Priscilla and Lisa Marie show up--and we get to see the Jungle Room. Yay. It was Elvis's favorite room. And Elvis is buried in the backyard.
Then, we have a tour of the Elvis trophy room where awards, trophies, grammies and other paraphernalia are prominently displayed (the man had over 120 Gold and Platinum records !! TOP THAT ). We get to see memorabilias of his Vegas concert and his famed White Jumpsuits.
Then on to a golf cart tour outside the mansion where Lisa Marie drives the Idols OUTSIDE the compound to meet the fans all waiting outside the walls....
ON TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY MEDLEY...
FUN STUFF. Elvis is always about having fun.
With 4 contestants left, everyone got a solo, and of course, the Elvis songs rocked.
The singing was mostly really good, with some stand-out solos, especially from Taylor. It was funny when they all gathered 'round Paula and sang "This time the girl is gonna stay." ( this was actually a BJ Thomas hit which Elvis made into an EVEN BIGGER HIT at his Vegas concert ).
And for those ROCK PURISTS out there who don't want to see angry ALT-ROCKERS compromise..... LOOKIE HERE ---- CHRIS DAUGHTRY GETS TO DO HIS SOLO BY SINGING ( get this ) ---- the schmaltzy -- LOVE ME TENDER.
Ask yourself this question --- IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE DAUGHTRY BECOME ? You better be prepared because if he signs on with 19E, these idiots might just cause him to sing stuff like that !
And the four of them dancing on the little judges platform wasn't exactly a Pointy Pose, but it was fun with a capital "F". It was a million times better than last weeks piece o' crap medley. How could it not be? Elvis can never be boring. That's why he's DA KING.
Folks, give us good songs and good music anyday and I can guarantee you a good show with talent like these 4 left.
Now now now, we've been lulled into a false sense of complacency, it is time to announce the departure !!!
But no, it was NOT YET TO BE.
Ryan Seacrest goes to the audience to chat with moive star Rebecca Romijn and her most recent fiance Jerry O'Connell ( remember, she was married to actor John Stamos of FULL HOUSE before ). She plugs some show she's on and then gets a free plug for her fil X-MEN 3 ( yep, she plays the shape changing mutant , MYSTIQUE in that movie ). I thought this was just a short exchange, but no.... she continues to prattle on about freaking out, and how she's so nervous for the idols, and WOW, she loves them all!. Shut up Rebecca! Someone's heart is about to be broken tonight, Why are you hogging the camera?
I think the whole thing was scripted to fill in the time....
Rebecca asks if she can make a request. She asks Taylor if he'll reprise his performance of "Jailhouse Rock".
Huh? Wha? Celebrities are asking contestants to perform sing-outs now? Is this a sing-out? Or is it a fake-out? Hmmm. Is this going to be a new way of saying goodbye to a contestant expected to be eliminated so that he gets more time to say thanks in the end ?
Questions, questions.....
Taylor doesn't look surprised or upset. Unlike his soul-patrollers, which tells me that the whole thing is scripted. BUT WHY TAYLOR ? WHY NOT CHRIS ? OR ELLOTT OR KAT ? WHY SPECIFICALLY HIM ?
Anyway, this is a no win answer. If Rebecca chooses any of the other 3 to sing, the questions would still remain. Somebody's gotta do it to fill the time, it might as well be someone who could make it half-fun.
So, Gray Charles runs into the audience and picks up a mike. Then he grabs his Dad and gets him to dance. Oops, wrong season ( that was when Jon Peter Lewis did it for his swan song ). Actually, he grabs Elliott's mom and gets her to dance. Hee. This performance is a lot looser than the night before. There's more audience participation, and it comes off very much like a singout...except...
It's not a singout. IT WAS A TOTAL FAKE-OUT.
After the singout, Ryan asks Taylor to stay on the stage, pulls Elliott beside him and then Chris and Kat together. OH OH !! THIS CAN'T BE GOOD.
We're now 23 minutes into the show. After the usual AFTER THE BREAK schtick they play on us every Wednesday....
we come back and there's only 5 minutes left.
Ryan teases us again with that semi-dramatic ----- who could be safe? who could be out? walking back and forth between the two groups.
He finally tells Taylor and Elliott to sit down, because they're safe.
Kat looks like she's about to break down. The four hug each other. Taylor and Elliott sit down. Ryan asks Simon who he thinks will leave.
I've never seen Simon this hesitant before.... finally after posing a few seconds with some thought, he says, based on last night's performance, Katharine. The audience boos.
But folks -- FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN ON TO THIS SHOW FOR 5 SEASONS, YOU SHOULD KNOW.
IT IS NOT AND NEVER BEEN ABOUT LAST NIGHT's PERFOMANCE. IT IS ABOUT FAN BASE AND GROWING AND MAINTAINING THEIR LOYALTY.
IF THEY LOVE YOU FOR DOING ONE GENRE AND YOU PERFORM ANOTHER ONE, THEY'D PROBABLY BE LESS ENTHUSED TO VOTE FOR YOU IF THIS CONTINUES WEEK AFTER WEEK.
Think of it as like the Tour D' France. You might lose a few laps, but OVERALL, if you keep the Yellow Jersey, you still win the ultimate race.
American Idol is a BICYCLE MARATHON, not a sprint.
So, who is going to be serenaded by Daniel Powter's HAVE A BAD DAY ( made famous by American Idol and now on top of the charts I migt add ).
Then Ryan says, "A lot of people predicted, both of you could be in our finale. A lot of people predicted that Chris, that you could be the next American Idol." Chris is smiling. But then Ryan quickly adds, "Chris, you are going home tonight." Chris's face suddenly falls. He is truly shocked. Katharine is utterly shocked. Paula has her head in her hands. Simon looks just pale and speechless, twidling his fingers under his chin in disbelief.
Katharine makes her way to the couch and a look of relief washes over her face. Ryan asks Chris if he's in shock, "uh, I'm a little bit in shock," he says. And he really is. After Chris's bad day montage, he gets a half-minute sing out ( which will guarantee that his fans are going to be pi ssed at Taylor for hogging the time ).
So, what was up with having Taylor, who was Top 2 sing "Jailhouse Rock" again? Was that merely a fake-out? What it did was put Taylor on the spot and deprive Chris of a full, well-deserved singout. THIS IS SOOOO UNFAIR. I felt bad for Chris. It just felt like the man has been SUCKER PUNCHED. HE DESERVED BETTER. This whole sing-out thing was POINTLESS and UN-NECESSARY. WHY DID YOU DO IT NIGEL ??
As I said before, the top 4 has given us our share of surprises in the past. This season is another one. Name them -- Tamyra, Latoya, and now Chris Daughtry.
But of course, at this stage of the competition, with the numbers whittled down to a few, everyone is vulnerable. Just ask Tarmara Gray S1 and LaToya London S3--both pimped and favored--both eliminated in 4th place.
So is Katharine McPhee this season's Scott Savol? Kat has had a sub-par performance last night, and she's managed to survive. THE KAT INDEED HAS NINE LIVES !
AS USUAL, DIALIDOL.COM WAS SPOT ON. Go to their website.
Heck, if you've been right for 5 straight weeks about the bottom 3 or 2, there is reason to trust your figures. And note --- they are similar to exit polls after an election. THEY DO GET A REMARKABLE SAMPLING OF THE VOTING PUBLIC.
It was the best top four ever, but somebody had to go home. Still, that somebody obviously wasn’t going to be Chris, right? Wrong. While many thought he was destined to be in the finale – and perhaps win it all – Chris was eliminated in fourth place. Considering that even Katharine and yes, SIMON was obviously shocked, what happened? Why did Chris lose?
Few people predicted that Chris would fall at this point. Could that certainty have affected the result? Or was it because he was a rocker? Or… Well, no point in randomly guessing when we can look back at What ‘American Idol 5’ Contestants Need to Know to get an idea of what went wrong for Chris.
The first rule, as always, is to have singing and performing talent. I don’t think there is any doubt, even among non-fans of Chris, that he has plenty of talent. But frankly, so do all the final four. Chris’ talent certainly got him to this point, but it takes more than that now.
Getting back to his recent performances, last night gave us a bit of a mixed bag. His first song, “Suspicious Minds,” got a “nice” from Randy, a “see you in the finals” from Paula, and a “that worked” from Simon. I personally thought it was a great song choice for his style.
As for the second performance, Randy and Paula were generally positive, but Simon felt it was mostly flat and just okay. I personally felt that it was not a good song to highlight his vocal talents. The song required a FUN persona and Chris's persona is NOT FUN, It is ANGRY and REBELIOUS and YOU WANT TO TAKE ME ON ? Kinda persona. You can't have this personality and sing that song.
So, poor song choice did Chris in. This week, I think Taylor cleverly picked two absolutely perfect songs. One allowed him to dance and show his personality, the other allowed him to just wow us with his voice. Chris, however, picked one good song and one that DID NOT FIT. I can’t say it was definitely bad because some people did like it. I didn’t. As I noted earlier, I think he should have picked something that allowed him to show more of his vocal talent.
Now here is where Chris got killed in this competition ---- In this contest, you must show that YOU CONSISTENTLY ARE ABLE TO SING IN DIFFERENT GENRES. This is NOT AUDITIONING FOR NASHVILE STAR ( where the only genre is country ), or being the lead singer of INXS ( where the main genre is rock ).
Chris was both praised and then criticized by Simon for sticking to the rocker sound. While I believe the ability to sing different themes is really a pointless excersise career-wise (after all, when is Chris ever going to be singing songs from the ‘50s on his CD?), the fact is that they do serve to show us the range of our performers.
In the beginning, Chris cleverly manipulated songs into his rock zone He did the Red Hot Chili Peppers' version of Stevie Wonder and discovered LIVE's rock version of Johnny Cash' WALK THE LINE ( still one of the greatest performances in American Idol in my book ).
Later, he did show that he could surprise people and perform non-rock tunes. It was perhaps at that point I really thought he had it in the bag. He actually DID GREAT with Louis Armstrong's WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD !! Amazing versatility.
But that was also the week when i began to realize that his fans were NOT as loyal to him as I thought. THEY JUST WANT HIM TO BE THE ROCKER THATHE IS AND THEY DO *NOT* ENJOY HIM BEING OTHERWISE. They promptly abandoned him to the bottom 3 in American Standards Night. NOT A GOOD SIGN.
Later on however, here is where vocal consistency began to emerge.
Last week, Chris took some flack because of some vocal weakness in his second song. I didn’t personally think it was a big deal, but we’ve already established that it’s not all about what I think – it’s about what the overall viewing audience thinks.
There was one factor beyond anyone's control. Looking at the top four, we had three guys and one young lady. It was almost inevitable that the three guys would bump up against at least some vote-splitting, while anybody who wanted a woman to win had only one selection.
It is true that Taylor, Elliott, and Chris have completely different styles. But it’s also true that I know of more than a few people who had been voting for Chris but have more recently been spending a lot of time dialing to keep Elliott around. That certainy affected Chris ( and WILL AFFECT TAYLOR -- more on this later).
The only issue here is that a large part of the package that is Chris is that he’s a rocker. Yes, he sang some other songs, but it was always clear where his true musical roots lie.
So the question is whether a rocker can win American Idol. Honestly, I don’t know that we’ll ever get another contender with as good a chance as Chris. Yes, Bo was a rocker, but he was a Southern rocker, thus targeting a somewhat different audience. For one thing, recent polls have shown that Southern households watch Idol more than others (a fact that may be borne out by looking at how many Southern contestants have made it to the end in five seasons). Chris’ brand of rock and roll went after a different audience, and that audience may simply be too narrow to win on Idol.
This is of course a lesson for Simon and the rest of the 19 Entertainment crew ----- LOOK AT Chris Daughtry's fan base. And then ask yourself this question ---- ARE THEY BIG ENOUGH ? IN FACT, I WOULD HAVE TO SAY, NOT ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN HIM.
Notice that as the show nears its end, more people tend to watch and vote ( that is the reason why voting numbers SPIKE the closer we are to the finals ).
HERE IS A RULE YOU CAN TAKE TO THE BANK : AS THE VOTING AUDIENCE INCREASES, THE POWER OF YOUR NARROW FAN BASE WILL TEND TO ERODE !!
I'm going to miss Chris. While sometimes predictable, his performances were mostly always solid. And contrary to conventional wisdom, I thought Chris connected very well to the emotional core of a song. But it really depends on what songs he is allowed to sing. Some people complain that he yess and screams, but DUH !! THAT IS WHAT YOU EXPECT OF AN ALT-ROCK singer as if you don't know ( or are you so narrow minded that all you can think of is opera ?? Heck, even Pavarotti did a duet with Sting ).
In the long run, I think it is all good ---- Chris's early departure is more proof that rock music and American Idol will mix only so far. THIS WON'T BE GOOD FOR ROCKERS NEXT SEASON ( if we ever have an AI 6 ).
Let's be honest with ourselves and ask the question -- IF CHRIS HAD WON, WHAT KIND OF RECORD WOULD HE HAVE MADE WITH 19 E at the helm ?
These folks don't strike me as very savy when it comes to this market niche. They're all about Hillary Duff, Jessica Simpson, pop tart type of singers.
Had Chris won, do you think his record would be played by ANY , YES ANY ROCK STATION in the nation ? Heck. I'd bet they wouldn't touch him with a ten foot poll tainted with the 19 E disease.
Idol is anathema to the hipper-than-thou alt-rock crowd.
In the end, we'd be seeing Chris doing a less than stellar POP record ( look what they did to Bo Bice for instance ).
Now that Chris is well known, he should use this opportunity to take control of his record and career.
And here is the problem with selling your soul to the AI machine --- The non-winners can't sign a contract until 3 months after the AI tour ends. His fans will have to wait awhile for some music. So, you have to wait till next year to hear Chris' record if he comes out with one.
Hopefully, we 'll hear more of THE REAL CHRIS DAUGHTRY --- THE UN-WATERED VERSION.
BTW, the same thing I said about Chris applies to ONLY ONE OTHER CONTESTANT LEFT, who by my estimate, HAS NEVER BEEN AT NUMBER 2 AND HAS THE MOST SOLID FAN BASE ---- Taylor Hicks.
You fans of his --- BE HONEST WITH YOURSELVES AND DON'T LIE --- are you prepared to hear him on the radio singing songs with ttiles like --- "A MOMENT INSIDE YOUR HEAVEN WITH WINGS" ?
It would for me, be a DREADFUL HANDS OVER THE CHALKBOARD MOMENT !!
I just wish , WISH the AI machine would really leave Taylor alone if he gets to the finals and ALLOW HIM TO SING HIS OWN SONGS IN CORONATION NIGHT.
Look ---- Being a late baby boomer, I will admit that I am a fan of Taylor's type of music. What we have been witnessing here with Taylor being number one every week is THE REVENGE OF THE RETROS.
For the past decade what people like me have been subjected to his pure crap. Some producer finds one hip-hop, rap, grunge, rock, pop singer successful, and what do they do ? They go on and find another 10 or 20 who make EXACTLY the same kind of music. The result is airwaves filled with the same sort of banal sound.
NO WONDER THE GRAMMY RATINGS ARE DOWN AND SO ARE CD SALES !
The people who have the money ( People like me and many Gen Xers ) are being UNDER-SERVED.
Along comes a guy like TAYLOR HICKS.... a late Gen -Xer who appreciates the sort of music we like and we say to ourselves ... YES ! Our kind of music has returned to the spotlight ! NO WONDER TAYLOR IS GETTING THE VOTES ! He is the anti-type. It is as if the 60's generation are staging a reverse rebellion. This time with their DIALING and POCKET BOOKS.
HENCE -- WE HAVE THE REVENGE OF THE RETROS.
Unfortunately, what I just descrined about Chris WILL APPLY TO Taylor as well. That is why as much as I am a fan of his, I want him to go next week.
So, for me, a Happy ending for all and the music industry would be a Katharine vs Elliott finale. They fit the AI mould.
Elliott is a lot closer to Chris in singing style than most people will admit (shouting not included) and while they have different music genres, the fact that Chris went home instead of Kat has a lot of Chris' people angry. (It's a damned TV show, folks!!!! Not like Hillary Clinton won the Presidency)
Scenarios:
1) Chris people will bail. Natural when a favorite goes home to lose some voters.
2) Some will go to Kat simply because they are mad at Taylor and believe me, there is anger (again, A TV SHOW FOLKS) there.
3) Taylor and Elliott get votes to get rid of Kat. Taylor is the front runner and Elliott has developed momentum. KAT MUST GO is a strong force.
4) Chris' people go Taylor for reasons of rock and roll ability and while Taylor's stuff is older, the man does rock and roll pretty well!
I just wanted Elliott to get his parade here in Richmond tomorrow which he will get. If he leaves next week I will be bummed for him but in looking over the 19 E contractual arrangements, he would be much better off working with someone who can develop and promote him appropriately.
Working for 19 E means you need to wear a short skirt, 4 inch heels and stand on the street corner.
