It was a girls’ night out on American Idol Wednesday night.
‘IDOL’ CHATTER: What do you think of the season so far?
Syesha Mercado, Brooke White and, somewhat surprisingly in light of her recent comeback, Kristy Lee Cook were placed in the bottom three. Syesha, whose chances seemed to be vanishing (title of the Mariah Carey song she sang), and Brooke were quickly declared safe, and — long after most thought she’d be gone — Cook, 24, was eliminated.
MySpace, the world’s most popular social network, announced today that they are partnering with American Idol to engage MySpace members around the world to raise awareness and funds for IDOL GIVES BACK. The MySpace donation drive begins Tuesday, April 8 at 12:01 AM and IDOL GIVES BACK will air the following night Wednesday, April 9 (7:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The initiative includes a sweepstakes giving MySpace users a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to attend the American Idol finale and post-show party, and possibly have his/her name mentioned during the finale broadcast on May 21. There is no purchase necessary and full rules and details are available at MySpace. Also, MySpace announced today a new viral fundraising application tool designed specifically for IDOL GIVES BACK, which MySpace users can post on their profile or share with their friends that will drive awareness and track real-time donations.
“MySpace is extremely excited to be part of IDOL GIVES BACK for the second year in a row,” said Tom Anderson, President and Co-Founder of MySpace. “The MySpace community boasts over 110 million members worldwide who are actively engaged around music and promoting social awareness – making IDOL GIVES BACK an ideal partner. We are thrilled to be able to have this opportunity to create a community where we can drive awareness and raise funds for such an important cause.”
Through initiatives and sweepstakes, hosted exclusively on the IDOL GIVES BACK MySpace community, users are encouraged to make financial contributions and raise awareness for the IDOL GIVES BACK FOUNDATION. Find out more about IDOL GIVES BACK and the IDOL GIVES BACK FOUNDATION .
Download the widget and get official sweepstakes rules at MySpace!
Thank goodness Ryan Seacrest kicked off tonight’s edition of Idol Gives Back with the reminder that, at its heart, the event is all about raising money for disadvantaged children. In doing so, he gave me the perfect excuse to send my inner cynic to bed early, so he wouldn’t pester me all night with snarky asides like, ”Why does Fox insist on putting subtitles on the screen for foreigners who are speaking perfectly understandable English?” Or, ”If really wanted to give back, couldn’t they have shaved a half-hour off the telecast and not forced us to turn on our TV sets at 7:30?” Or, ”And why do folks continue to encourage Robin Williams?”
Okay, so yeah, clearly my inner cynic walked through the living room a couple times during the 150-minute telecast — he said he needed to get to the kitchen and refill his water glass. But for the most part, tonight was about sitting back and appreciating some pretty terrific musical performances — and the fact that I’ve been born into a life where I’ve got the luxury of doing so. Heck, who didn’t get a perspective check during that package with Forest Whitaker and his wife Keisha visiting a hospital in Angola, where that baby girl Maria was fighting a brave battle against brain swelling caused by malaria? The producers, of course, stacked the emotional deck by playing Sia’s ”Breathe Me” in the background, but I think I would’ve gotten choked up from the footage either way.
(Which reminds me: If you’d intended to make a donation and haven’t gotten around to it, you can end your procrastinating by clicking here. As someone who spent 99 cents to download Alexandrea Lushington’s semifinal performance of ”Spinning Wheel” off iTunes back in March, I figure I’ve got no excuse for failing to pony up myself.)
Oh, and speaking of ‘’show me the money!” plugs, I kind of enjoyed how Idol managed to appeal to pretty much every possible demographic with its pre-taped messages. You had George Lopez speaking in Spanish and appealing for the Latino dollar, Jimmie Johnson talking directly to the NASCAR crowd, and Kylie Minogue on the scene to ensure no gay wallet would be left unopened.
The musical guests, on the other hand, represented a slightly less diverse pack. In fact, if it weren’t for all the Idol Gives Back banners, you might’ve thought you’d stumbled across Fox’s Night of a Dozen Divas (and Snoop Dogg). (Someone get Jody Watley and Taylor Dayne on the line with Fox’s reality programming chief Mike Darnell! America needs this show!)
Anyhow, back to the event at hand, I have to admit: I went into the evening wondering if any of the big-name artists on the lineup might end up sounding a little, well, pitchy. I mean, come on, we’ve spent the last eight weeks dissecting every note, every song choice, every second of on-stage banter from the season 7 finalists. And starting next Tuesday, we’ll do it again for 12 more episodes. But, to go all Randy on you for a second, most of the performers did their thing, made it their own, worked it out. The highlights:
With so many hits to choose from during Dolly Parton week, the Idols had their work cut out for them. They picked some great songs, and really seemed to have a blast with this week’s theme. Check out the song choices below:David Archuleta
“Smoky Mountain Memories”-Dolly Parton
David Cook
“Little Sparrow”-Dolly Parton
Jason Castro
“Travelin’ Thru” -Dolly Parton
Michael Johns
“It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right” - Dolly Parton
Brooke White
“Jolene” - Dolly Parton
Carly Smithson
“Here You Come Again” - Dolly Parton
Kristy Lee Cook
“Coat Of Many Colors” - Dolly Parton
Ramiele Malubay
“Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” - Dolly Parton
Syesha Mercado
“I Will Always Love You” - Dolly Parton
According to Billboard, all three American Idol judges are represented on the Billboard charts this week. Simon Cowell’s label, Syco, has the No. 1 song on the Hot 100 with Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love.” Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson are on a variety of charts, including Adult Contemporary, where “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” (Dream Merchant 21) opens at No. 29. This is Paula’s first AC entry in 12 years and five months, since “My Love Is for Real” peaked at No. 40 in June of 1995. Paula’s collaboration with Randy is her ninth Adult Contemporary chart entry over a period of 19 years.Billboard actually outlines Paula’s nine Adult Contemporary songs rank in order of chart peak:
No. 1 (five weeks): “Rush, Rush” (1991)
No. 5: “Blowing Kisses in the Wind” (1991)
No. 11: “Forever Your Girl” (1989)
No. 17: “Will You Marry Me?” (1992)
No. 26: “The Promise of a New Day” (1991)
No. 29 (to date): “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” (2008) [Paula Abdul & Randy Jackson]
No. 39: “Straight Up” (1989)
No. 40: “My Love Is for Real” (1995)
No. 45: “Opposites Attract” (1990) [Paula Abdul with the Wild Pair]
“Dance” is Jackson’s first AC chart appearance as an artist
American Idol Bottom Three in tonight’s Top 10 Results show:
Looking for how to download the best performances from this week’s Top 10 on American Idol? Click on your favorite singer to download this week’s Idol performance on iTunes right now!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Click the singer’s picture to download their songs
Reality titan “American Idol” had a rough night Tuesday, while the series finale of “Jericho” concluded on a weak note.Fox’s 90-minute episode of “Idol” (24.4 million viewers) led the night but hit a season-low delivery, and was down 37 percent from the season opener. Overall, Fox won the night with 21 million viewers.
ABC was second for the night (12.7 million). The “Dancing with the Stars” results show at 9 p.m. (17.2 million), in which magician Penn Jillette and tennis star Monica Seles were booted off, added 7 million people from the hour-long recap that preceded it.
NBC was third (8.1 million), led by an on-par “Biggest Loser: Couples” (7.8 million).
CBS was fourth (7.1 million), and could muster only 6 million viewers for the last episode of the apocalyptic drama “Jericho,” down from its season-to-date average of 6.8 million.
The “rocker nurse” Amanda Overmyer was eliminated Wednesday from “American Idol” on Fox, leaving 10 contestants, as the show’s audience of 25.5 million viewers easily outpaced its four network competitors combined in the 9 p.m. time slot, according to Nielsen’s estimates. Fox finished No. 1 in the night’s ratings, leading the 8 o’clock hour among adults 18 to 49 with “The Moment of Truth,” which went head to head with CBS’s “Survivor: Micronesia.” But that long-running CBS reality show drew slightly more total viewers: 11.3 million, compared with 10.7 million for “The Moment of Truth.” CBS finished second on the night but struggled at 9 and 10 with “Big Brother” (6.7 million) followed by a “CSI: NY” rerun (6.2 million). NBC’s “Law & Order” won the 10 o’clock hour (10.5 million), helping NBC finish third over all, just ahead of ABC.
A juicy backstory wasn’t enough to keep David Hernandez on “American Idol.” The 24-year-old ex-stripper from Glendale, Ariz., was dismissed Wednesday, leaving 11 aspiring singers to vie for the “Idol” title and a record contract.”Honestly, things happen for a reason,” Hernandez said before leaving the stage. “I think we all have a plan. … This isn’t it for me.”
Hernandez, who sang the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There,” made headlines last week after it was revealed to The Associated Press that he worked as a stripper at a Phoenix club with a “mostly male” clientele.
Kristy Lee Cook, a 24-year-old from Selma, Ore., and Syesha Mercado, a 21-year-old from Sarasota, Fla., rounded out the bottom three vote-getters.
Finalists had the opportunity to perform classics from the John Lennon-Paul McCartney songbook this week. The show’s producers recently got permission to use songs belonging to Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a company formed by Sony and Michael Jackson.
The standouts were Carly Smithson (”Come Together”), Brooke White (”Let It Be”), David Cook (”Eleanor Rigby”) and Chikezie (”She’s A Woman”).
David Archuleta, whose cover of Lennon’s “Imagine” drew heaps of praise two weeks ago, showed that he’s merely mortal when he flubbed the lyrics to “We Can Work It Out.” That didn’t fly with Cowell, who called the 17-year-old’s performance “a mess.”
Wednesday’s show also featured a performance by season-five finalist Katharine McPhee and musician David Foster (on the piano).
Viva Wide Stance! Long live Krazy Eyes! And tell that lonely barrel horse, wherever he is, that he’s gonna have to wait at least one more week — ’cause Mama’s not comin’ to get him…yet!
Indeed, despite the fact that her country-on-speed rendition of the Beatles’ ”Eight Days a Week” was uniformly detested by the judges (et tu, Paula?) and EW.com TV Watch readers, Kristy Lee Cook will live to strut the newly renovated Idol stage again — presumably in an incongruous blouse-jeans combo — and take another vicious swing at the Lennon-McCartney songbook next week.
Although America did not have the good sense to put Kristy Lee out of her misery, she at least landed in the bottom three — along with two other performers who struggled with pitch problems and overall relevance during week 1 of the season 7 finals. Alas, it was one of my favorites in the competition — David Hernandez — who ended up getting eliminated, proving once again that no matter how much talent you’ve got, it only takes one abysmal performance to destroy your Idol dreams. (Unless, of course, you’re a lyric-flubbing plush toy who has benefited from scads of screen time all season long. Yes, I am a tiny bit bitter right now. Sorry. I’ll get over it.)
Maybe it was the pressure of being on the big Idol stage for the first time. Maybe it was the widespread press reports over the past 10 days about David H.’s previous job at a gay strip club (which Ryan alluded to as a ‘’stressful week”). Whatever the reason, David H. seemed bizarrely disconnected during his Tuesday-night rendition of ”I Saw Her Standing There,” delivering the song with all the passion of a Banana Republic checkout clerk trying to convince you that, yes, actually, you would like to fill out an application for a store credit card and get a whopping 15 percent off that sweater. As a fan of the guy’s semifinal performances of ”Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and ”It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” it pained me to see him suddenly leering into the camera and trying to pass himself off as a pinup boy for screaming tween girls.
On the plus side, though, at least now there are only two Davids left in the competition, which should cut down on general viewer confusion over the next 11 weeks. (Now if we could just do something about the surplus of folks with the surname Cook — I say there’s room for only one on this year’s Idol tour.)
EW.com TV Watch reader That’s So Raven had an interesting theory about why David H. went home before Kristy Lee, one that gave me just a little consolation: ”I don’t think our ears can handle hearing Kristy sing her version of ‘Eight Days a Week’ again, so hopefully she’ll stay and either David H. or Amanda will be singing goodbye to us.” (The joke was on us viewers, since the producers had each of the bottom three performers reprise their Tuesday-night performances.)
A reader named Eddy, on the other hand, argued that ”David H. had no right being in the finals. Everything about this guy is contrived and I’ll say it again, he can’t sing. Am I the only one who cringes whenever he leers at the camera?”
Still, the vast majority of you posters felt Kristy Lee should’ve paid the price for her fast-paced, fiddle-rific performance. Nadia H made the day’s funniest comment by arguing that ”if Kristy Lee was just ‘going country,’ then Deliverance was just ‘going canoeing.’ Horrible!”
And an anonymous reader also took issue with the way Ryan Seacrest (and a few EW readers) defended Kristy Lee by saying the judges had suggested she try to fill the country niche this season, then punished her when she did. ”There’s a big difference between pop country and the county-fair vaudeville show Kristy Lee put on last night. News flash: Country music isn’t just a couple of guys blowing over the hole of a jug while Clem picks a banjo anymore! You can’t just sing with a twang and a ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ dance and call yourself ‘country.’ The judges were right; Kristy Lee just dun them wrong!”
And picking up on the running Idolatry gag that Kristy Lee might actually be a robot, another reader noted that the contestant’s penchant for making sudden bulging-eyed expressions during her performances was caused by ”a surge from her batteries.”
Still, I have to hand it to the horse-lovin’ Oregonian for handling her bottom-three position with grace and good humor. I loved how she started asking for her microphone before Ryan even declared her fate, and her apology to the judges before repeating her performance (”Sorry you gotta hear it again!”) was priceless.