American Idol

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.

Dave Della Terza started the Web site VoteForTheWorst.com, which mocks the talent offered on “American Idol.”

There is something about “American Idol” that extracts intense emotions from the audience: devotion for the contestants, perhaps, or passion for the songs. For Dave Della Terza, it elicits utter disgust. But it also turns a profit.

The Vote for the Worst Web site also reported that David Hernandez was once a male stripper.

Frustrated by what he called the manipulative nature of the televised singing competition, Mr. Della Terza started encouraging readers of a reality television message board five years ago to vote for the contestants they deemed the worst singers.

The idea spawned a Web site, Vote for the Worst, which received widespread attention last year for supporting the singer Sanjaya Malakar as he advanced in the competition.

For Mr. Della Terza, what started as a hobby has become a business. Last year, the site had revenue of roughly $40,000, Mr. Della Terza said, mostly through Google Ads. While some of the income paid for computer servers and legal fees, the site still made a profit, allowing Mr. Della Terza to take some days off work to maintain the increasingly popular site.

Mr. Della Terza is far from the only person cashing in on the “American Idol” juggernaut. The publisher of the popular “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series is promoting an Idol-themed edition. Walt Disney World is adding an Idol attraction to its Hollywood Studios theme park. Royal Caribbean International is embarking on Idol cruises.

But Vote for the Worst is unique, not only because it openly mocks the competition but also because it was formed spontaneously by an Internet-connected group of television viewers.

“It didn’t start out as a moneymaking venture; it wasn’t an attempt to leech off the ‘American Idol’ brand,” Mr. Della Terza said. “It started as a joke. But people really enjoyed it.”

The site now routinely breaks “Idol” news. In the first week of March, the site recorded 2.7 million page views as it reported rumors that a contestant, David Hernandez, had a background as a male stripper. Mr. Hernandez was voted off the show last week.

Mr. Della Terza said he did not expect to resemble a gossip columnist anytime soon. Still, the site has unintentionally become a font of “Idol” stories. Reports by Vote for the Worst in January that two “Idol” contestants had professional singing backgrounds subsequently became fodder for the news media. (Any person who is not under contract is eligible to audition.)

“We always post stuff on the site the producers don’t want you to know,” Mr. Della Terza said. “We don’t go out of our way to dig up dirt, but if it falls in our laps, obviously we’ll post it.”

The site’s fame rose last season when the radio personality Howard Stern repeatedly mentioned the site and encouraged listeners to vote to keep Mr. Malakar on the show.

In a conference call with reporters last month, Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer of “American Idol,” said he did not believe online voting campaigns have any effect. “There are too many people who vote,” he said.

Still, Mr. Lythgoe’s mention of Vote for the Worst testified to the site’s significance, which still seems to surprise Mr. Della Terza, 25, an Illinois resident who works in information technology and teaches part time at a community college. A camera crew from a local television station once walked into his classroom to request an interview, he said, prompting him to conceal some details about his personal life from that point on. A volunteer now handles media requests for the site.

Mr. Della Terza started watching “Idol” in its second season. By season four, the worst-vote effort moved to its own Web site; in season five of “Idol,” the site turned a modest profit; and last year, Mr. Della Terza’s site became a limited liability company to help protect its operators from any potential legal action. The show is now in it’s seventh season.

The production company responsible for “American Idol,” FremantleMedia, has delivered three cease-and-desist letters to the site, most recently in January, accusing the site of using copyrighted content without permission. A lawyer representing the site argued that fair use covered most of the content, but the site agreed to remove the “Idol” logo from its pages.

The site’s success has prompted Mr. Della Terza to ponder the post-“Idol” future of the so-bad-it’s-good brand.

“We have to think long term somehow and try to keep the site going,” he said in an interview last week. Mr. Della Terza, who had a star turn on “The Late Show With David Letterman” last year, has batted around a television show proposal with friends, but he said laughingly that “no one’s come calling about that yet.”

For now, the site is sticking with “Idol.” Mr. Della Terza’s efforts to elicit votes for the worst contestants on other reality shows, including “The Next Great American Band” and “America’s Got Talent,” never held the same appeal.

“It’s never as fun,” Mr. Della Terza said. “I don’t think people take those shows as seriously.”

f Kellie Pickler had to describe her current state in only three words, it’d most likely be the simple phrase, “Life is good.” Only a couple of years ago, she was a fan of Rascal Flatts, like many others. Fast forward to 2008, and she’s just finished touring with the popular country band. As Kellie said, “My life has done a complete 180.” She loved the experience and even said that she and the band members became like one big family.Since appearing on American Idol, Kellie has not only toured with some huge names, like Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts, but she’s also done quite a bit of humorous correspondent work on television. While that might have been a direction she was headed at one point, she said that doesn’t want to “stray too far from country music.” She’s invested so much time and hard work now and, although she enjoys the work on TV, she really would like to establish herself as a country artist above anything else. She also doesn’t plan on headlining tours any time soon either. She joked that it would be awful to book a huge arena and have two or three fans show up…although we doubt that would happen! Again, though, Kellie said she’d rather establish herself before taking on her own tour.

Kellie has carved out time from her busy schedule to do something that is near and dear to her heart, the USO tour. She flew to Iraq and did two to three shows a day for various bases while she was there last year. While she called the tour “exhausting,” she said it was the most amazing thing she’s ever done. The hectic schedule was worth it, and she walked away from that with a greater appreciation for life. She’s in the midst of planning her next trip to Iraq for more shows.

Another thing Kellie still makes time for is her AI peers. In fact, she said that she and Katharine McPhee are like sisters. She was just a bridesmaid in Kat’s wedding, and even plans on seeing her again next week. Despite her insanely busy schedule, she also said she’s caught a couple of episodes of “Idol” this season.

Kellie has also received some very prestigious nominations in the past year. She has an ACM nomination for the Top New Female Vocalist award. As she stated in the press release, “This is really awesome. A few years ago when I was a roller skating waitress at Sonic I was never nominated as employee of the month but maybe that was because I spilled a lot of the food on the cars. Now I’m doing what I love and to get recognized for it is even more special.” She also has three CMT nominations: Breakthrough Video of the Year, Performance of the Year, and Tearjerker Video of the Year, all for the song “I Wonder.” When asked about her emotional performance of “I Wonder” at the ‘07 CMA Awards, she said that she knew she’d be emotional, but she had no idea she would really break down the way she did. She made it through rehearsals with no problems, but she admits there was a lot going on behind the scenes. She said she had a lot to take on stage, and was also overcome at sharing that stage with so many amazing performers. She called it quite the “reality check” for her, and even said she could barely believe it was actually happening.

Kellie fans will be thrilled to know that she is currently working on her sophomore album, and she has big plans for it. Her absolute favorite part of the whole process is the songwriting, and she always lets the songs reflect what’s going on in her life at the current time. However, with her debut album, she was a little bit more cautious. She plans on taking more risks and having even more fun with this one, and she has a new producer to help her do just that. She wants it to have a very universal feeling…so much so that her fans will feel as if each song was written expressly for him or her. As she said, her fans can still expect the fun, sassy songs, the ballads, and girls’ anthems…”the whole shabang!”

Kellie’s style changed tremendously throughout season five, and even more so since her time on the show. Check out her Transformation Gallery!

source :americanidol.com 

With CBS close to losing the total viewers race for the first time in five years, CEO Leslie Moonves called Fox’s ratings hit “American Idol” a “monster” and urged somebody to “kill that show.”"While we’re in repeats, ‘American Idol‘ continues to be a monster,” Moonves said Thursday at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York City. “It’s a phenomenon. If somebody would kill that show, I’d really appreciate it. But it’s a national phenomenon, and it continues to do extremely well. It’s tough to compete with it.”

Fox has won the past three broadcast seasons among the adults 18-49 demographic and is expected to win this season as well. CBS has many crime procedurals popular with older audiences and has won among total viewers the past six seasons.

But after the writers strike gutted networks that rely heavily on scripted programming, Fox’s reality-driven slate with such shows as “Idol” and “The Moment of Truth” has outpaced competitors this season by a wider margin than ever. A couple weeks ago, Fox surpassed CBS among total viewers. Fox currently averages about 11.5 million to CBS’ 10.6 million, ABC’s 9.4 million, NBC’s 8.5 million and the CW’s 2.6 million.

Even with CBS’ scripted programming returning to the air in the coming weeks, Fox’s first-place position is expected to hold through the conclusion of the May sweep.

Moonves acknowledged CBS wasn’t going to be able to overtake its rival.

“Yeah, we’ll finish No. 2,” he said.

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 American Idol 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.

It could have been a hard day’s night when the 12 American Idol finalists tackled the Lennon/McCartney songbook. But a number of contestants rose to the occasion — notably the lightly regarded Chikezie, who fused bluegrass and classic soul on a raving version of She’s a Woman that ranks with the season’s best performances to date.

David Cook’s impassioned Eleanor Rigby and Carly Smithson’s wailing Come Together were also highlights, making up for a flat In My Life from Ramiele Malubay, a dismally countrified Eight Days a Week by Kristy Lee Cook and a misguided I Saw Her Standing There by David Hernandez. Surprisingly, front-runner David Archuleta stumbled (and forgot lyrics) on We Can Work It Out, perhaps delaying his instant coronation.

David Hernandez’s stripper past didn’t come back to haunt him on Tuesday night’s “American Idol.” Hernandez’s three-year stint as a male stripper wasn’t even mentioned during the live telecast, which featured the 24-year-old from Glendale, Ariz., performing a rendition of Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” However, acerbic judge Simon Cowell did mutter something about stripping, off camera, immediately after the song ended.Randy Jackson called Hernandez’s singing “pitchy” but said he had a “big ol’ voice.” Paula Abdul raved that Hernandez had some of the “best vocals.” And Simon Cowell said it wasn’t as good as last week, but Hernandez had secured himself a place in the finals.

On Thursday, 16 semifinalists will be narrowed down to the final 12 contestants.

Other than Cowell, no one alluded to Monday’s news that Hernandez worked for three years in Phoenix at Dick’s Cabaret. There, he would appear fully nude and perform lap dances for the club’s “mostly male” clientele, club manager Gordy Bryan told The Associated Press on Monday.

It apparently wasn’t Hernandez’s “most embarrassing moment” either. (Contestants had to ‘fess up about theirs during the show.) In a taped segment before his performance, Hernandez said his red-faced moment happened when he discovered he had “a pea-sized booger” in his nose following a photo shoot.

Fox and the producers have declined to comment about Hernandez.

In 2003, semifinalist Frenchie Davis was dismissed from “Idol” because of her appearance on an adult Web site, but Antonella Barba remained in the competition last year after racy photos of her surfaced on the Internet.

Third-place finisher Nikki McKibbin from the first “Idol” season briefly worked as stripper before the show, according to Joe Cannizzaro, president of McKibbin’s record label, Chenoa Music. Like Hernandez, McKibbin wasn’t dismissed from the show when her history as a stripper was publicly revealed — nor was it disclosed on the show.

Dick’s Cabaret manager Bryan told the AP he was aware that Hernandez was a vocalist, but that Hernandez never sang at the club. Bryan said he now believes Hernandez stopped working at the strip club on Sept. 30, 2007, because of his participation in “Idol.”

On a video posted on AmericanIdol.com, Hernandez said he broke the lease on his apartment and lived out of his car before auditioning for “Idol.” And, when asked in a Q&A posted on the site which talent would he would most like to have if he couldn’t sing, Hernandez responded: “Dancing! I’m horrible at that.”

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“American Idol” contestant David Hernandez once entertained audiences by removing his clothes instead of singing tunes, a manager at a male strip club in Phoenix told The Associated Press.The 24-year-old finalist from Glendale, Ariz., once worked as a stripper at Dick’s Cabaret, appearing fully nude and performing lap dances for the club’s “mostly male” clientele, club manager Gordy Bryan said Monday.

“He had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here,” Bryan said.

It’s not clear whether a history as a stripper could disqualify Hernandez from the competition. In 2003, finalist Frenchie Davis was dismissed because of her appearance on an adult Web site; but last year, Antonella Barba remained in the competition after racy photos of her surfaced on the Internet.

Fox spokeswomen Jill Hudson did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Monday.

According to Bryan, Hernandez steadily worked at the club for three years until September 30, 2007.

“He never renewed his licensing with the state, so he hasn’t been on my roster since then,” Bryan said.

Bryan said he was aware that Hernandez was a vocalist, but that Hernandez never sang at the club. Bryan said he now believes Hernandez stopped working at the club because of his participation in “American Idol.” Hernandez has never been referred to as a stripper or former stripper during the Fox singing competition.

Rumors of a stripper past — along with photos of a scantily clad Hernandez working as a bartender at gay nightclub Burn — were first posted last week on VoteForTheWorst.com, a site that encourages “Idol” viewers to vote for “the bad and truly entertaining contestants.”

“It was like moths to a flame,” said VoteForTheWorst.com founder Dave Della Terza. “As soon as I posted that, we started getting 10, 20 letters every single day from people saying, ‘Yeah, he’s a stripper in Phoenix.’”

Terza and other members of VoteForTheWorst.com community scoured MySpace, Photobucket and other social networking and photo sharing sites to find information and images of Hernandez. Terza said he contacted the club to confirm the Internet chatter, but they never got back to him.

“They said they couldn’t give me a statement before talking to their lawyers,” said Terza.

Hernandez, who originally auditioned for “Idol” in San Diego on July 30, 2007, is in the Fox singing competition’s top 16 contestants. Last week, he earned rave reviews from the judges after his performance of The Temptations‘ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” He is scheduled to perform with the other male contestants on Tuesday’s show