Well, thanks to the trending topics feature of Twitter I found out pretty quickly (actually I was pretty late in Twitter terms) that Ellen DeGeneres will be the new host of American Idol. (You see my wife said to my about hour before I found out that, “Ellen is going to be on Idol,” and I thought she meant my aunt Ellen, so later when I saw the trending topic, she laughed at me.) Here were the trending topics tonight:
So, my initial reaction was a little concerned because I didn’t want this to turn into a scenario similar to when Dennis Miller went to the Monday Night Football booth throwing out witty comments like this:
Now, I’m not saying Dennis Miller wasn’t funny, it just wasn’t the right place for him. I am worried that the same fate might be fall Ellen here. I really think Ellen is quite talented. I didn’t think I would like her show, but I actually find that she is very quirky and funny and runs a good show. I of course only watched it because Taylor Swift was on, but the show was good none the less. So, I still wasn’t sure what Ellen was going to bring to the table because I don’t want to hear Simon Cowell keep saying, “This is a singing competition not a…” insert random weird British saying.
Well, after much reading and think, I may have found the answers in an article on CNN.com:
This made me realize that Ellen’s role will be to help the contestants out with their stage presence and how to conduct themselves as a star. This was the one area Paula Abdul had over the other judges because she had been a performer before. Ellen hopefully will be able help them with their ability to be a star. That is a quality the judges talk about throughout the season about “Being it.” Ellen is “It” and hopefully she can teach what that means to the contestants.
I support this decision by Idol. The chemistry will be odd, because Ellen is different than the rest of the panel. I think Paula will try to pick on Kara Dioguardi, and Randy Jackson and Ellen will kind of hang out together in the cool area. I am still not convinced by Kara, but maybe she will feel more confident since she is not the outsider coming in. I will admit I am little surprised they went back to the 4 judge system when they had an easy out. The must really like the idea, and Idol is rarely wrong.
American Idol has been over for a few weeks now and I invested a lot of time in that show this season but I was a disappointed with the finale. I have no problem with Kris winning, he is a talented artist and will do a great job. The actual finale, for me, was a low point in the American Idol franchise. There were some good performances, but Idol was trying very hard to recapture the magic they had a few year’s ago when Clay Aiken came out on stage to surprise the geeky wanne be kid. That was the best finale ever.
In this season’s finale, they brought back bikini girl to sing since she was a funny auditioner, which was fine I guess. (Kind of tasteless but she is the one that came to auditions in a bikini.) Then things went downhill from there. (Although it did bring a rather funny point when she walks out with a clearly new boob job and Ryan said, “Well I’d ask you what’s new…”)
First of all Kara felt the need to try and upstage bikini girl in a singing contest like she did during the auditions. This was a huge mistake. Kara Dioguardi is a judge on the show. She does not need to lower herself and prove herself as a better singer than bikini girl. This very act dropped my respect for her a lot. It just shows how petty, ego-centric, and immature Kara is that she felt the need to show up this obviously less competent performer.
So, on top of that, Kara flashes the crowd in a bikini under the guise of “charity.” I don’t even know how to fully express my disgust with this action, but what was the point? Is Kara so insecure with herself that she needs to show off her body to make a point? I am really surprised that Idol sunk to this level and if I had been watching the show with Isaac I would have been pissed! This is supposed to be a family and now there are TWO people in bikinis on stage. Kara needed to be the bigger person.
I of course will still watch Idol next season, and I will give Kara another chance because I am a forgiving person. But if Idol doesn’t pull itself our of the gutter I may need to change my Tuesday night viewing.
Top Three show tonight. Going into the night I felt like Kris was the underdog but I feel like he made up some ground. The contestants each sang two songs: a judges choice and their own choice. I found the judges first round commentary fairly useless. I guess that is to be expected at this point in the year, there isn’t a whole lot left to be said. Kara Dioguardi and Simon Cowell’s little feud was kind of stupid because they were both saying the same thing, that they wanted the contestants to make the song their own. Kara felt the need to point out that she has interpreted songs and Simon hasn’t which is kind of a Randy Jackson name drop thing to do, but then Simon came back and said that he personally spoke to Bono of U2 in order to get permission for Adam Lambert’s song, so he returned the name drop.
Round 1
Danny Gokey — Dance Little Sister
Danny came out singing a song I had never heard of which is sometimes helpful and sometimes confusing. I can’t tell if they are just doing a sound alike performance or if they are being original. I liked the energy he brought with the song even the through judges mocked his dancing. I don’t care if they are great dancers, but I like the effort. He did a nice little bee bop thing with the saxophone player in the middle of the song which I thought worked well for him. Again the judges didn’t agree.
Kris Allen — Apologize
I thought this was Kris’s best performance of the year. I liked the hip hop background beat combined with him at the piano. I thought he sang it well. Usually when I hear songs on idol I can’t imagine actually hearing them on the radio (this is especially true with Adam Lambert) but this was a song that I could totally hear on the radio. The judges seemed to disagree, so maybe it sounded too much like the original, which I have not heard. This was another instance where I was a big fan of Kara and her little, this is a song everyone knows. Well, sorry, I didn’t.
Adam Lambert — One
Well, I’m glad Simon called Bono because Adam did a great job with the song. He made it original and he sang it like a song that could actually be on the radio without losing his personal touch. It was Adam, but not so over the top as usual Adam. Not much more to say about him except he is really good and really should win the contest.
And now… Continue Reading…
Idol was good tonight. I am not a big rock & roll guy so I don’t always get what is good, apparently, but all of the singers did well. I think I am done with Kara DioGuardi. Once she said “Rock God” to Adam I was close to being done. He is good, so that may be acceptable, but then saying Allison is a “Rock Goddess,” is a little over the top and she lost me. It really seems like she is trying to popular at times. When she critiques at times she has some interesting insight into the songs involved, since she is a song writer, but I don’t know that I feel that she has added anything to the show other than time. I tend to agree with former Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe that they shouldn’t have added a fourth judge.
The set was falling apart tonight and that caused the dress rehearsal to be disrupted. I don’t think that affected the show, but I did notice that it affected Paula Abdul’s comments. You may recall when Paula messed up a few years ago with Jason Castro’s comments after dress rehearsal and the changing of the shows order. Paula’s comments tonight were definitely not as solid as other weeks, so I wondering if she didn’t have a chance to get her thoughts together.
I liked the duets they added. At first when Ryan Seacrest started the show, I thought they were all going to be duets, so I was a little concerned, but just having two of them worked well I think. Now the recap:
Adam Lambert
Adam did not take my advice and just Continue Reading…
I’m excited for Idol tonight. We should finally get two songs per contestant. I was only slightly surprised to see Adam Lambert n the bottom two last week. He is slowly becoming a one trick pony. He takes songs and sings them over the top in a very unique way.
I don’t know if cabaret is the correct word, but there is a style to it. Now, he sings those songs really well, but from what I have seen on YouTube he has already made a living singing songs in that style.
What I would like to see from him tonight would be to come out with his first song and do something different than what he always does. I am not exactly sure what that means, but I think we will know it when we see it. If he does a song like that and one of his normal songs, he should be sitting pretty.
Danny Gokey is probably the front runner because he does seem a little more marketable than Adam. Danny has some variety in what he can do and he can probably Continue Reading…
I was surfing through my referrers in the data I collect for how people get my blog and I often see that google.ca is a referrer. So, I decided to follow the referring link back, and I found that was again the top search result for Google for a certain topic.
Here’s the pic: Continue Reading…
Posted in Share 10 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:19 pm. Add a comment
Tonight was another nice night of American Idol. For some reason I thought it was going to be two songs per singer, but I was incorrect. However, I wish they had done two songs each because the number of commercials tonight was off the wall. Maybe they had to play catch up because they had an extra competitor last week because of the save. Another theory is that they had to find a last minute mentor and so they ended up ditching a song. They seem this year to be obsessed with having every episode be only an hour long. I don’t recall this being the case in years past.
Perhaps Fox has decided that the most popular show on television wouldn’t be able to draw in the viewers for the extra half hour it might take to let everyone sing an extra song. Well, every season it has handled it, so I would like to see them re-think this theory.
The Rat Pack week includes a lot of famous songs that can be sung be a wide range of singers, so this is always a solid week. I think Jamie Foxx was a very good guest helper and he brought a lot of the show. I don’t always remember that he is such a talented singer. I remember how great he was in Ray and he seemed pretty insightful with the music.
Another tid bit I noticed is that the male judges tend to always dress down each week while the female judges tend to dress up, I wonder why that is. Well, here were my impressions: Continue Reading…
Another great week of American Idol. I agree with Randy’s comments that this one of the best groups ever. I also appreciated that they let all four judges speak and did away with the contestant promo videos instead. I think this was a good choice. Not letting Simon speak is always a mistake. Although I could do without Kara and her poor math skills most of the time. Perhaps I am being a little too harsh with her, I often forget how hard it can be to be scrutinized constantly on live TV and to be part of a new team. I have been critical of Paula since the beginning, and she is finally finding her skin. So, maybe by season 16, Kara will be okay.
Disco night is always a little bit iffy, but this time many contestants made you forget it was disco night. I have believed for a while that since the David’s last season, the show has changed. It is not enough to sing karaoke, you have to me a musician and take songs and make them your own. You don’t necessarily need to play an instrument (Danny and Adam are fine) but you need to understand music and not just be a good singer. I think this is the fundamental difference you see with Lil, Anoop and even Allison. They are good singers, but Adam, Kris, and Matt clearly understand music. I am not sure where Danny falls on that continuum, but the fact that he bought a guitar makes me think that he has some musical interest.
Here are my thoughts: Continue Reading…
American Idol keeps getting better each week. I wasn’t a big fan of the judging system, but I guess they need to save time. I would rather they go to a 90 minute show and let them all talk. Or at least Simon, because I want to know what he has to say. During the show you could definately see the pain on his face when he wanted to speak, but wasn’t allowed to. I give him props for not interjecting when I know he wanted to. I am still trying to give Kara a chance, but I haven’t found her real insightful as of yet. Paula has definitely stepped up her game this year. At times I wonder if she has a writer, but she seems to be trying to stay a step ahead of Kara.
Here are my thoughts on the contestants: Continue Reading…
In response to Martigyrl’s comments about my first Clay Aiken post I would like to expound on my appreciation of Clay Aiken. I was going to reminisce more in the first post, but I was getting sleepy and I didn’t think anyone would notice. 
I think it is a shame that he lost to Ruben. I guess Ruben was okay, but it seems to me that Clay was a much better vocalist. Neither could dance, so that didn’t matter and they were both really good people, but I love Clay’s voice. It is so clear and strong, he reminds me a lot of Ronny Dunn. In the end neither has had huge commercial success (compared to Carrie Underwood orKelly Clarkson), but I think part of that is because Clay has focused a lot of energy on other items such as his son and political causes.
One of the reasons I like his singing is that he seems to Continue Reading…
Posted in Share and Television 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 3:53 pm. 2 comments
