So I knew I wanted to watch, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to write about it. But how could I not! Let me summarize the things I already love: No bad auditions! They get right to the top 12 on show 1. That is refreshing. Secondly, the judges are all sane! What a concept! And thirdly, they all sing songs that I know, and I don’t even really listen to country! Ok, one more, the elimination was not a long and drawn out event.
Nigel, I hope you’re taking notes.
I don’t have floating heads for these kids, because blogging this show was a little last minute. But I am going through a little Idol withdrawal this season, so I am latching on. Until I can get this sorted out, I am being lazy and typing this out paragraph style.
Pearl Heart: Wide Open Spaces - they need some work on their harmony. It was great at first, but their voices don’t have too much control. Give ‘em a few weeks though–they could polish up real nice.
Tommy Stanley: Walking in Memphis - I liked the original arrangement. It was a little fast though.
Shawn Mayer: Piece of My Heart - Her video piece makes her sound like she has an attitude. Her range is really good though.
Third Town: Elvira - I love them! They were the most entertaining group yet. The judges hated them, though.
Coffey: Drift Away - His voice is definitely the most distinctive that I have heard. I can’t decide if I love it or if I find is vibrato annoying. It’s really walking the line. But he is so entertaining, that I have to give him another chance.
Laura and Sophie: Stand By Your Man - I don ‘t know if they blend as well as they think. One is stronger than the other (I don’t know which is which.) But they are pretty safe.
Gabe Garcia: All My Exes Live in Texas - I like this kid - he seems really down to earth. His style is a little too country, but that’s just me. I can see his appeal.
Alyson Gilbert: Suds In The Bucket - I think she Is trying too hard. I want to like her, but she has some voice problems. She brought it home in the end, but like the judges said it was too pageant-y.
Ashlee Hewitt: Bubbly - It was a really honest performance. I enjoyed that. I think it was a good song choice for her, although she has a few annoying voice quirks that need to get worked out.
Charley Jenkins: I Like It, I Love It - Pretty good! He has a classic country voice, too, and he flirts with the audience.
Justin Gatson: Drops of Jupiter - I want to like this hottie, but his voice sucks in comparison to the other guys. He has charisma and all, but the singing wasn’t good at all.
Melissa Lawson: Something to Talk About - I love her! She will be a front runner for sure. The judges seem to love her, and She will definitely go over well with the audience too.
The judges eliminate one tonight, but after tonight it is America. The judges voted Charley Jacobs out. I thought it should have been the hottie kid, but I guess there is a different set of criteria for this show. I think this will be a fun show to watch. I am a borderline country fan, and since tonight didn’t prove to be too twangy, plus I love Jewel, this will be permanently Tivoed. I encourage you to do the same…
June 9th, 2008
Before I start the finale summary, let me give you a little briefing of the day up to that point. We (Beth, aka, inventor of the smiley rating system, and I) arrived at LAX at 11:15am, rented a car and made it to the line by 12:15pm (record time). We had vouchers, but that didn’t stop us from having to stand in line, and since the lineup began at 10am, I knew we would be cutting it close.
When we arrived, we were told we were 1200th in line. Later we were told we were 3100th in line. I knew the theatre held 7000 people, so I was not sure what to think of either of those numbers. At that point we had been waiting about an hour an a half. Just before 2pm, someone came around and told us that they started the day with 1500 tickets, and we were about 1800 in line, but we would be officially numbered shortly. The 1500 had been given out, and they would try acquiring more tickets as the day went on. The box office would release them in bunches.
When we finally were officially numbered, we were 1866 and 1867. That was about 3pm. We kept seeing the line monitors (people with the headsets) walking around and talking with each other. Things were getting nerve wracking.
Then the line started moving again, and we turned the corner and were finally within sight of the theatre–and the end of the line. We counted about 150 people in front of us. We waited and waited some more, and the headset people finally came around and said there were absolutely no tickets left, and the only hope was that they might get 5 or 10 more. They told everyone with a number higher than 1850 to go home. We refused.
They said we could turn in our vouchers for VIP tickets for a taping for next season. Many people chose that option because they said there was a 150% chance we would not get in. The line kept shrinking, both behind us and in front of us. We still heard nothing, about 45 minutes before the show began. We counted about 60 people left in front of us. The people with headsets said we were waiting in vain.
30 minutes before, one of the headset people came sprinting back to the line with a small stack of tickets, and there was enormous cheering, especially in the front. We slowly moved up, but there was not enough to get back to us. Again, we counted about 25 people in front of us. It was now 15 minutes before the show started taping, and we were all freaking out, praying, and keeping our fingers crossed.
10 minutes before the show started, the same guy was sprinting back towards our line, and I saw he had enough tickets to at least reach us in line. They told us to run the one block down to the theatre because the door would be closing, so here we are, sprinting in heels, after standing in the heat for 5 hours. I probably smelled really bad.
Once we made it to the theatre, we went through security, who confiscated our phones and cameras and gave us a ticket to pick them up after the show (If I only could have had my camera I would have so many pics!). We were told to rush into the theatre, head to the aisle at the other end, and go all the way to row C. Holy Crap, that is the second row! HOLY CRAP! We nearly collided with Ace Young as we were running down the aisle (not necessarily a bad thing) and found our seats. right behind Fantasia and next to Jasmine Trias. OMG. The people who camped out all night in our line got balcony seats. But our pocket of 25 people got first or second row. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. I’m telling you, American Idol loves me.
Now onto the show!
Ryan enters and says that one David got 56% and the other 44% - not the close match I was expecting. But 97 million votes? Now that is impressive.
And how did Mikayla and Matt Rodgers get to be correspondents?
The first group song, accompanied by the SYTYCD dancers is to “Get Ready.” Obviously Jason did not get ready for the pyro at the end. Not sure if you caught it but he did not hold his pose at the end and jumped up, then was randomly sauntering around stage, and MJ shooed him back into place. He takes a good 5-10 seconds before he leisurely gets back into pose. Seriously, WTF, Castro? That boy is crazy.
The Davids are up next singing Hero, with some mighty fine harmony. Excellent, fantastic, etc.
Um, Guru Pitka? Seriously? This was a little much. I wonder how Mariska feels about becoming a greeting? But the shaving cream on DC’s face was priceless. Also, Ryan almost falling off the stage as we got a crotch shot. Even more priceless.
Back to the real stuff, my girl Syesha singing with Seal! Something seemed off with the performance. First off the song was way too low for her to really shine, but she did the best she could with it. There were also some weird key changes with the bridge and it sounded like they were all off key, but I think it was correct. Just not the best. But the performance part of it was entertaining.
Castro goes solo with a performance of Hallelujah. As I understood it, the top 5 were supposed to duet with a famous person, so I wonder who bailed on Castro. And I wonder what they were supposed to sing–it seemed like a last minute switch.
We see the Ford commercial with outtakes from the previous Ford commercials to Let The Good Times Roll. After that, the Davids each win an Escape Hybrid, which is coincidentally green, and parked on a green carpet. Archie may have his license (barely) but Dad-chuleta is secretly thinking how he will steal it after the show.
The girl medley is up, and what would a season of idol be without a little Donna Summer. Amanda looks like she is having a little trouble keeping up with the choreography. yikes. Then Donna Summer herself comes out to, what? Pimp her new single? On Idol? No….i don’t believe that! Also, Ryan rolling around on the floor was awesome! He even did a backwards roll and then did some break dancing. He should probably not quit his day job, though. Also, Syesha was great, and I also think she is hilarious–like when she doesn’t know what to do on stage, she just sort of dances around in a circle (see screencap)…haha - she is awesome.
After the break, Carly and MJ sing the letter, which I thought was by far the most entertaining number all night. I HOPE they do this on tour! It was all kinds of awesome.
A little insider goss - the Jimmy Kimmel thing was taped - he was not actually there. I kept looking around for him, but no such luck. They used this time to prep the stage for the next act. Although the Sanjaya reaction shot was live because he was right behind us. Ah, the magic of TV.
Up next the Bryan Adams medley, where everyone sounded pretty good except Castro. Honestly, what is with this kid tonight? Also, I didn’t think Bryan Adams was that old. I guess the summer of ‘69 was longer ago than I thought.
Jordin pimps the new Idol “ride” (not so much a ride but a show) at the park-formerly-known-as-MGM in Orlando. It will open in January (it was supposed to be November) and when I was there two weeks ago, I saw there was not much done besides the construction wall. Way to be behind schedule, Disney.
DC with ZZ - Awesome. And with a little effort, and about 10 years of patience, David could also have a beard to fit right in with the band. My favorite part is when David did the funky chicken. Hahaha (see screencap)
Brooke with Graham Nash was a little lackluster for me. Couldn’t they get Carly Simon? I mean she voluntarily called into one of Brooke’s interviews to say what a fan she was - I’m sure Carly would have done it. Or what is Carole King up to these days? Come on Idol!
Another behind the scenes story - during the commercial breaks people would be out of their seats running around (getting ace young’s autograph, schmoozing with former idols, etc.) But during this commercial break, all I could hear was deafening pubescent girl screaming. I was like WTF is going on? I looked on stage to see 3 pubescent boys, and I was like, ahhh, so THOSE are the Jonas brothers (I had no idea what they looked like.)
I am thankful for the brevity of the bad audition recap (though I think it is still hilarious when that Alexis girl said “I’m going for actressing”) And then Renaldo gets his 15 minutes of fame with the USC marching trojans. Um, ok….that seems very random.
Davie-poo sings with One Republic - which was ok. He didn’t get as much singing time as the other duets tonight, but it shows Archuleta could put out a single like that which would be great.
Jordin is up next, who I don’t think could have asked for a better post-idol year. Her dress looks really fugly on camera, but it really didn’t look that bad in person. Also, she looked about 20lbs lighter in person - the camera really does add weight. Her performance was great though - she worked the stage, made use of the ever fabulous background singers, and looked like she was having a lot of fun. Go Jordin, I am rooting for you!
The Gladys Knight thing was pretty funny, too. Way better than the dead elvis/celine thing. I was hoping Gladys would actually be there, but whatevs.
Next up my girl Carrie! Yes, I was super pumped that I was like in her presence. And what’s more, after she was done performing she walked right in front of my section - I was like “Carrie!!” like I was a 15 year old fan girl (which at heart, I kind of am). Her performance was fab, her dress was super fugly. I love her new song, too.
OK, the George Michael medly - don’t you love how they made the stripper say the “bold and naked” line? So planned, I tell you. This was probably the best medley of the night. Too bad it had to be followed by such a downer performance. I guess it is a good song but the tempo was slow and the song was way to long. As an audience member, it was the only time I really got bored throughout the show.
Finally, the results. The judges say their last words, Simon apologizes, Paula says something obscure, and Randy “dawgs” a lot. And without unnecessary drama, Ryan tells us the winner is David…Cook!
He gets choked up, his mom comes up to give him a hug, and the word nerd is at a loss for words. He sings the real winning song, a true coronation song about magic rainbows or something (seriously? Magic Rainbows? It sounds like it should come with a box of Lucky Charms cereal.) But he did an awesome job with it, and there was confetti, and pyro (that scared Jason, again) and the group standing on the platform at the end. Ugh, how awesome was that. Go Cookies!
A few anecdotes about what happened after the cameras shut off. First, there wsas another round of applause for Cookies, then they ushered all the kids back on stage for some photos, and then got a few sound bites from David (for a commercial or the website, perhaps?) and then the two Davids were off for interviews. The rest took there time getting off the stage, and I was able to yell out to Brooke, Kristy, and Syesha, who were having fun playing with the fallen confetti. We hung out to see if we might see anyone else on the way out. I said hi to LaKisha, Blake and Haley from last season (and blake and haley were pretty buddy buddy - they are so getting it on.) Ryan walked past and we yelled to him and he waved.
But the best part was Simon was walking out though the aisle right in front of us. The people in front had already left, and I yelled to Simon and held out my hand - he had already passed me but he turned around and walked back and shook my hand and said “Hello, thanks for coming. Hope you had a good time.” OMG, I just shook Simon’s hand. And he was nice. A few seconds later, Randy walked past as well, except he was being escorted by 3 body guards, and I yelled to him, too, and he did not stop, nor turn around and just yelled “yeah, yeah, my dawgs, my dawgs!” Seriously? He needs a thesaurus or something. So I thought the niceness of Simon, and the not-so-friendliness of Randy was an interesting story. Also, when we were leaving, I was walking right behind Teri Hatcher. I enjoyed her in her adventures of Lois and Clark days, but I’m not a fan of the housewives. Also, we saw Lori Laughlin aka Aunt Becky walking out, too. Pretty cool celebrity sightings.
I may have a skewed view, but I think this was the overall best finale yet. There are some moments from previous years that were not topped (Bo with Skynyrd, anyone?) but it was an entertaining two hours to say the least. And I saw Nigel, too, and I wanted to personally than him for the reintroduction of the weekly group song this season, but I don’t think he would have cared.
Thanks for a great season idolreview.net readers! I’m sorry this summary comes two days late, but as a consolation it includes screenshots. See you next season!! Laura, out.
May 23rd, 2008
