It seems Ken Warwick & Co. have woken up and realized this season has been more than underwhelming, especially evidenced by last night's performance episode being the least-watched episode since July 23, 2002 (that's Season 1 for those of you keeping score). Therefore, Idol's research arm has unleashed a survey to do what else but get feedback on the show. Per a short description on a post at the show's website from Monday:
Let your voices be heard! You can share your opinions about American Idol and give us feedback in the brand new survey. We want to hear from you, so share your honest opinions.
So what are you waiting for? Go take the survey and give the producers a piece of your mind through honest feedback to help them realize where everything went all wrong. I especially had fun filling out the "judges' save" portion of the survey, not to mention evaluating the judges' performances. Something tells me a few of them won't be happy with the marks they earn.
It this survey too little too late? Go ahead and share the parts of the survey you had the most fun filling out.
Alright, so last night was abysmal. There's no way of getting around it: Frank Sinatra would be embarrassed. As good of a mentor as Harry Connick Jr. was, and as much effort as he put into their arrangements, there was only one above average performance. To add to it, hardly anyone looked comfortable up there with a big huge swing band and barely any space to move around.
Plus, the banishment of all musical instruments (especially the guitar) all but stripped the finalists' of their comfort and confidence. Basically, if there was any less current of a theme that the producers could have picked for them, it would have made things only a little worse.
With that said, read my predictions for how tonight will go below:
Bottom 2
Aaron, Mike
Eliminated
Mike
So, after last week's prediction debacle, it only makes sense to pick the best performer of last night and think he or she is being sent packing due to his or her fans feeling complacent. That means Michael "Big Mike" Lynche is best suited to fit this bill. In all honesty, Mike's fans are not feeling as vulnerable as Casey's fans, who witnessed their favorite get absolutely pummeled by the judges last night.
Lee received the most praise, plus he went last, plus he's never been in the bottom three, so he's a good bet to be safe tonight. Crystal is, well Crystal, and Aaron seems to have the youth vote wrapped around his finger for the time being. So once again, Mike seems to be without a buffer to save him from elimination tonight, even though based solely on vocals he should be spared.
As for who will accompany him in the bottom two (there most likely won't be a bottom three if they follow the pattern set by previous seasons), Aaron is a usual bottom dweller, and his fans weren't as motivated as those of fellow usual lower end buddy Casey, so he will most likely round out the pair. If for some reason there is a B3, we can expect Casey will be there representing.
In my original predictions I had Didi finishing 5th, so that's obviously not happning.
Since the Top 24 I have correctly predicted 6-19 eliminations and since the Top 12 I have correctly predicted 2-7 eliminations.
Simon Cowell has proven to be influential in swaying opinions in the past, and now he's looking to flex his muscle once again. Writing a piece in today's Sun, Simon argued in favor of David Cameron, the leader of Britain's Conservative Party, as the candidate of choice in the country's national elections. He wrote:
I have met David on two occasions. I liked him immediately. I trust him and he was very quick to commit to helping with a serious funding deficit for a children's hospice charity I am involved with.
I have always trusted my gut instinct - and this was a guy who I thought would do the right things for this country.
Simon went on to close with a convincing statement of his vision for his homeland in the future:
To enable that, we have to bring back some common sense and encourage family values, a proper sense of justice and make people believe they have a decent chance to build a business or career for themselves. I see this moment as a fantastic opportunity to restore this, because I believe Britain Has Talent.
Who knows, maybe this will be what pushes Cameron over the finish line for a clearcut majority in the general election. If so, Simon has once again proven his influence when it comes to casting votes.
Last week's results were a letdown, so the Top 5 finalists really must dig deep to deliver stunners. Because let's face it, anything less at this point would be a disappointment of major proportions. Hopefully Harry Connick, Jr. is able to bring out the inner rat pack member of the finalists when they take on the song catalog of Frank Sinatra.
As always, please feel free to add your two cents throughout the one-hour blogcast, with coverage starting just prior to 8 p.m. ET.
Tonight's blogcast features the music of Brooke White, Chris Daughtry, David Archuleta, Elliott Yamin and Lil Rounds.
Once again we are down to one Idol-related album on HITS Daily Double's Top 50 building album sales chart, as Carrie Underwood's latest release Play On hung in there with another modest sales decline.
Carrie saw the album depreciate by 20% to 14.4k copies, marking a four-spot decline to #25. With no major releases by a fellow alum in near future, expect Play On to be a lone ranger in a desert of lackluster CD sales on HDD's chart.
Full sales data and chart positions courtesy of Billboard probably won't be published later this week, but it couldn't hurt to check back here just in case we're surprised.
It's been a while since an Idol alum released a book, so Melinda Doolittle is taking up the task and representing the franchise with her. In her own words:
Beyond Me talks about the behind the scenes of IDOL, but much more than that, it contains life lessons I've learned along the way.
Also out today on iTunes is a revamped recording of Katharine McPhee's next single "Terrified," which features the vocals of Chuck star Zachary Levi in place of Jason Reeves.
Links to purchase the aforementioned can be found below:
It's hard to believe how much stronger the Top 5 of Idol's fifth season is compared to the five remaining competitors we have now, but just watch Paris Bennett's performance of Prince's "Kiss" in the Top 5 round, one of two songs she performed that night, below:
Paris selected the song in the theme of contestants' birth year, while the other song she performed that night (Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You") was for the current Billboard chart theme. Although Paris was able to show off her bubbly personality, but unfortunately she couldn't withstand the popularity of her four peers. Still, it's amazing to look back at the stark differences between what he had then and what we're left with now.
The following are Idol-related odds and ends that happened this week:
>Since there are fans dying of anticipation ahead of this summer's "American Idols Live!" tour (yeah, right), the franchise decided to inform the world of the tour stops on Tuesday. The highlights of the tour? Besides the Top 10 finalists that will be contractually obligated to perform from July 1 until Sept. 14, some exciting stops include the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa., on July 15, the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., on Aug. 8 and the United Center in Chicago, Ill. on Aug. 30. A full list of tour dates reveals that 49 shows will be performed in 49 cities, including two Canadian locales.
Tickets go on sale beginning Fri., May 14, at 11 a.m., with the majority of them becoming available on Sat., May 15, at 10 a.m.
>It's as close to being official as possible: Kris Allen's second single will be "The Truth," the Toby Gad/Pat Monahan-penned ballad. Interestingly enough, Jive ordered the production of a version featuring the vocals of Monahan, the lead singer of Train, on the bridge, which will most likely be the version sent to radio. Listen to the redone version below:
Kris has yet to weigh in on the selection of "The Truth" as his second single, but regardless of what he thinks of it, he will be performing the song on the Idol finale. You can't ask for a bigger promotional opportunity than that.
>Jordin Sparks was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday along with U.S. Transporation Secretary Ray LaHood and congressional members to raise awareness for Allstate's "X the TXT" campaign. Per the press release, Jordin said:
"Sending a text is not worth taking a life," said Grammy-nominated Jordin Sparks. "Unfortunately, it can be easy to forget the dangers of texting and driving when you get behind the wheel. That's why it is important for teens, their friends and families to acknowledge the risks and pledge together not to do it."
Jordin also appeared on FOX News Channel to promote awareness of the campaign, which can be watched below:
>Ryan Seacrest recently announced that he will lend his voice to a character in the upcoming Dreamworks release Shrek Forever After, and now we know what his character will look like. Only known as "father of Butter Pants," the character was revealed in a screencap posted on Ryan's official site on Wednesday as seen on the right. Per the post on Ryan's site:
Coincidentally, the pudgy character of Butter Pants is played by "Shrek" director Mike Mitchell who says the scene that Ryan appears in is indeed a "pivotal moment" in the storyline.
Ryan's voice talents will be heard in theaters nationwide beginning Fri., May 21.
>Katharine McPhee announced Thursday she has recorded a new version of her song "Terrified," which features the vocals of Chuck star Zachary Levi instead of co-writer Jason Reeves, who is featured on the album version and seems to be in "Camp Kara" when it comes to his allegiance judging by his recent performance of the song with Judge DioGuardi on Lopez Tonight. Of Levi, Kat said in an e-mail:
He is amazing and the new version is incredible. Next week you'll get to hear the song and there's a great video to go with it as well.
Presumably, the single will hit iTunes on Tuesday. You can already see a rough clip of the video, which will be airing in movie theaters nation wide as part of "Screenvision."
It was more of the same for Idol-related tracks on a pretty dry Billboard Hot 100 chart for the chart week of May 8.
Adam Lambert's newly platinum "Whataya Want From Me" remained in the top spot among Idol alums, although it slipped three spots to #13. Kris Allen actually followed the trend set by Adam, as his single "Live Like We're Dying" continued its leggy run but was also down three spots to #33.
The one highlight of the chart came along with Carrie Underwood's "Temporary Home," which got a post-ACM Awards boost and was actually up #73-61. Fellow winner Kelly Clarkson didn't have much luck with her latest release "All I Ever Wanted," as it held steady at #96. Not a good sign to be stalling so early in its run.
Full chart positions courtesy of Billboard are posted below:
Hot 100
13 10 Adam Lambert, "Whataya Want From Me"
33 30 Kris Allen, "Live Like We're Dying"
61 73 Carrie Underwood, "Temporary Home"
96 96 Kelly Clarkson, "All I Ever Wanted"
IDOL LIVE is the place to stay up to date with the most current news on past, present and possibly future American Idol contestants, in addition to discussing the show in real-time as it happens.
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Once again we are down to one Idol-related album on 
It's been a while since an Idol alum released a book, so 
It was more of the same for Idol-related tracks on a pretty dry Billboard Hot 100 chart for the chart week of May 8.
