It seems like only yesterday, but Brooke White's infamous restarting of her performance of "You Must Love Me" during Andrew Lloyd Webber week made AOL TV's Top 5 TV Trainwrecks of 2008, coming in at #2. Refresh your memory by watching the moment below:
A few quick notes and spoilers regarding tonight's performance show (all spoilers are from IDF)...
-David Archuleta won the coin toss last week, and elected to go second (duh).
-Clive Davis, despite being demoted over at Sony BMG, chose a song for each of the Top 2 to sing. It was revealed that he chose Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" for David A., but his pick for David Cook has not been revealed.
-David A. will sing "Imagine" for his reprise, while David C. will sing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" as a new choice rather than a reprise.
-Each David got to choose which coronation song they would like to perform out of the Top 10 chosen by viewers' votes. Or so they claim...
UPDATE: David C. has chosen "No Turning Back," while David A. has chosen "Here I Am."
Looking ahead to tomorrow night's finale...
-Carrie Underwood will perform her new single, "Last Name."
-Bo Bice and Jennifer Hudson have confirmed they will appear, and two former contestants from every season will perform.
-Both Davids will do a duet to OneRepublic's "Apologize." OneRepublic will also be there.
-The Top 5 contestants will each perform with an "idol" (kind of like what happened in Season 5). Bryan Adams is one of those rumored to be performing with someone.
-The Jonas Brothers will perform their hit single "S.O.S."
-Paul McCartney is rumored to be performing.
-The Top 2 will each perform with Mariah Carey and Neil Diamond.
UPDATE: David C. will perform with Carey in a duet of "Always Be My Baby."
That's about all I've got for now. Keep checking back later for more.
After all the controversy Idol has seen this week, it is a little surprising that Brooke White, who many had predicted would be in danger, was eliminated last night.
The 24-year-old native of Mesa, Ariz., wiped away a stream of tears after learning her fate, and managed to pull herself together to thank her fans. As she tearfully struggled through a final performance of "I Am...I Said," the Top 4 finalists surrounded her and comforted her, which was a really touching scene.
The reason why her ouster was unpredictably predictable: it would have made more sense to have a "shocker" happen to help America forget about Paula's loopyiness the night before, but it seems we have already put that behind us anyway regardless. But looking back, it also would have looked bad had Jason Castro been ousted, and his fans would have called foul, blaming Paula's gaffe for his elimination (and rightfully so).
Syesha Mercado, who was also in the bottom 2 last night, should not have been there, and she has now broken Season 1's Nikki McKibbin's record for being in the bottom 2/3 the most times in a season. Hopefully she can keep her streak alive without falling out next week.
As for what many are now referring to as "Paulagate," Ryan Seacrest was vague in his brief statement on the controversy, when he said the rumors he had bene reading about her online were "not true" and that they are "family and we love her." Simon gave Paula a hug, he sat at the judges' table misty eyed. It is very odd that Ryan did not offer an excuse on Paula's behalf, as she had done so earlier in the day on his KISS-FM radio show. That decision to let the gaffe go unexplained, even if they were to give a classic BS excuse, should raise some red flags. If it was a simple misunderstanding, come out and say so.
The highlight of last night was by far and away Natasha Bedingfield's interaction with David Archuleta, as he has a crush on her and Ryan asked her out to the prom for him. Natasha said she had a dress and a boyfriend, which she must not understand is a classic example of giving mixed signals. She was cute when she sat over on the couches with the finalists and sat next to David, hugging him. She even sneaked a kiss on his cheek, most likely enraging 90% of the U.S. under 14 female population.
That situation aside, the rest of the show was a total bore. Maybe a surprise call from Simon's first kiss, a 46-year-old woman named Tara Miller, was a nice touch, but it went on for too long and Paula's well-intentioned but Debbie Downer-like comment on whether Tara had "cured the rabies" yet was in poor taste.
The Neil Diamond medley and Neil Diamond's performance were both lackluster, Diamond's performance in particular was really disconnected from the audience. He seemed a little bit aloof but friendly.
Next week, the Top 4 take on songs from the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, which most definitely will not favor a particular contestant *cough*DC*cough*. Hopefully it lives up to its theme, unlike this week.
The mess that was ultimately Neil Diamond night left viewers wondering how Nigel Lythgoe approved such a disorganized display. The performances, although not bad, were hindered by their short durations, and the whole flow was missing. There was no excitement until Paula's blunder of epic proportions (but that will be addressed in the following post).
To kick off the night, Jason Castro performed "Forever In Blue Jeans" to a less-than-responsive audience. His second song, "September Morn," was the worst quality performance last night vocals wise, and was boring with a capital B.
The judges' rapid-fire critiques at the end of round one were a very bad idea to put it nicely, and Randy's empty description of Jason being "ok" on "Jeans" did nothing to help his cause. For "September," he basically adding a sentence worth of the same words, calling it an "ok whatever" performance. Thanks Randy! Paula...well, we'll just skip her first round comments, but she thought Jason took the same liberty on both of his performances. And Simon's merciless yet incredible slash and burn style of comments pegged Jason as "forgettable," following up with saying the judges "don't recognize [him]" and he did nothing to change the arrangements.
David Cook proceeded to sing "I'm Alive" and "All I Really Ever Need Is You," two lesser-known Diamond songs, yet he was able to rock them out and make them sound current, as Simon noted. He called his second performance "brilliant," after earlier declaring "Alive" to be "just above average." Randy liked both, saying he was "in the zone" (for the first of three times last night) on his first song, and telling David he is a "huge David Cook fan" last night because he "rocked the house." Paula said she felt like she was "looking at the next American Idol."
Some lighter fare was brought forth by Brooke White, who tired her hand at The Monkees' classic "I'm a Believer," which was very erratic and her vocals were not all there. But her second performance of "I Am...I Said" was beautiful, and the fact that she heeded Neil Diamond's advice by substituting "Arizona" for "New York" in the song to connect more with the audience was very wise. Randy thought "Believer" was better than last week, and she was vulnerable on "Said." Paula said she had fun on her fist song and was vulnerable on her second. And Simon boldly called her first performance "a nightmare," to which Brooke shook her head and the audience booed loudly. But he thought her second was "a million times better" than her first.
And then the resident teen singing sensation David Archuleta tackled "Sweet Caroline," which would have been better had he ad-libbed a few lines ("oh! oh! oh!" and "so good! so good! so good!"), but this Red Sox fan will settle for what he was able to deliver. He also did "America," which he thankfully did not morph into a ballad and cracked a tiny bit on a high note, but it was not too bad. Simon thought the first song was "amateurish" but thought "America" was a "clever" song choice, saying he ticked all the boxes (whatever that means). Randy loved both, which was a big surprise of course. And then Paula thought his voice was "on point."
Syesha Mercado closed the show, after first singing "Hello Again" to much praise, with the exception of Simon's "old-fashioned" comment. She looked beautiful last night and was able to show a lot of personality on "Thank the Lord for the Night Time," which was not as strong as "Hello" but was still a fun way to end the night. Randy said she was "in the zone" not once, but twice over the course of the night, and that he liked her doing the theatrical kinds of performances. Paula compared her to Corrine Bailey Ray, and Simon used his signature reverse psychology to trick voters into voting for her by declaring he thought she would be in trouble this week, which her fans will surely appreciate.
Simon closed out the night by saying it was "officially the strangest show we've ever done," which is the complete truth. Even neglecting the Paula episode, the night was rushed, chaotic and was only fun to watch in a train wreck sort of way. It will surely go down in American Idol history as one of the wackiest moments the show has ever seen.
As for predictions, it looks like Jason is a goner, but not only that, David A. will make his first appearance in the bottom two. Why is this? Well, there are many reasons, but a good one will be Nigel & Co. trying to get America to forget about Paula's gaffe because of the utter shock everyone will be in from seeing TCO standing there on the brink of elimination. Syesha is as safe as a Swiss bank account and David C. has nothing to worry about. Brooke, although she probably received the second-lowest amount of votes, will be spared due to her embarrassment last week. So in a way, this will work out for everyone because a) David A.'s fans will get a wakeup call, b) America's short term memory will discard Paula's antics to make room for David A.'s shocker and c) Nigel will see a ratings surge from the controversy. I will be a little disappointed if things don't go this way tonight, but as Neil Diamond week proved, nothing is certain on this show.
Predictions:
Bottom 2: David A., Jason
Eliminated: Jason
