Archive for April, 2007

Bad news for Season 4’s  Jessica Sierra.   She was  arrested early Sunday morning  in Tampa, FL for allegedly hitting a man on the head with a heavy glass. She faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She was also charged with the introduction of contraband into a detention facility and possession of cocaine after officers found a small amount of  coke while searching her.   She was released on $11,500 bond.   She looks pretty rough in the mug shot…   More details here, and the police report here.

On a happier note–Jessica’s season-mate Anthony Fedorov  joins the cast  of  ”The Fantasticks”  in New  York  City.   His debut, playing the  character  Matt, begins tomorrow  night. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.com.

Congratulations to Ace Young and his fan-fundraising group High Rollers with Heart. They recently met their fundraising goal of $100,000.   The charity benefits The Children’s Hospital of Denver.   Ace received The Chair Award at a recent dinner honoring hospital volunteers.   The group passed the $100,000 mark 8 months ahead of schedule.   Well done!

Also receiving an award–Clay Aiken was honored by  the National Center for Learning Disabilities.   He  received  the Children’s Advocacy Award for his work with UNICEF and the Bubel/Aiken Foundation.

Yoo Hoo, Sanjaya, your hometown is looking for you. Har.

Monday Apr 30

Sunday Apr 29

This week’s preliminary Nielsen ratings

Tuesday:

“Idol” averaged 25.6 million viewers and a 9.6 rating/27 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research. It was the top show in both key ratings measures, though it was down compared with last week (26.5 million, 10.2/28).

Despite the hype surrounding this week’s Idol Gives Back charity fundraiser, Tuesday’s ratings were down 3% from last week, and down 10% from  last year  (28.6 million viewers and a 11.5/30 share).

Wednesday:

“Idol” averaged 26.4 million viewers and a 10 rating/26 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary data released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research. It rose from 21.6 million viewers at 8 p.m. to a peak of 30.2 million at 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday’s Idol Gives Back  overall  ratings were down  9 % from last week’s results show  (28.9 million viewers and a 11.2/28 share) and down  6 % from last year’s Top 6 results show  (28.2 million viewers and a 11.6/28 share).

Vote Totals

The voting totals  were up 47%  this year (70 million)  from last year’s Top 6 results  total of 47.5 million.   This year, viewers’ votes were matched 10 cents per call by News Corp–giving fans an incentive to vote more than usual. The voting window was 4 hours, twice as long as last year’s 2 hours.

This week’s Idol Billboard Update, right here.

• The big news this week–Bucky Covington’s first week numbers for his debut album are in and they are as sweet as sweet tea. Heh. His CD came in at #4 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top Country Albums  chart. It sold  61,042 units this week. According to Billboard, Bucky’s debut is the biggest on Top Country Albums by a new male artist since Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Some Gave All” started with 90,000 in 1992. Awesome.  Bucky’s single “A Different World” debuts on the Billboard Hot 100, Pop 100,   and Hot Digital Songs at #63, #68, and #64 respectively.
• Kelly Clarkson’s brand new single,  the angry girls’ anthem “Never Again”  was just released to radio, and of course, it’s currently all over the charts.   Hot 100 Airplay-#58, Pop 100-#57,   Pop 100 Airplay-#23 and  Hot Adult Top 40-#21.   Kelly also has a bunch of TV appearances coming up  to support her single and upcoming tour. Tickets for the tour go on sale May 12.
• Carrie Underwood’s unstoppable album “Some Hearts” received a nice bounce from her appearance  on the CMT awards last week.   The CD climbed from #14 to #9.  Ãƒâ€š  Her single  ”Wasted” sits at the #1 position on the Hot Country Singles and Tracks for the 3rd week in a row. Her single, “Before He Cheats” debuts on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart at #24.
• Kellie Pickler, who presented at the CMT’s also benefited from her appearance.  Her CD “Small Town Girl” climbed from #142 to #118.   She also appeared on the Grand Ole Opry last Saturday night, so she should follow up with another good week.
• Elliott Yamin’s single, “Wait for You” climbs from #91 to #78 on the Pop 100 and #48 to #42 on the Pop 100 Airplay charts.   The cross-country radio tour Elliott is currently on is probably giving the single a boost.   Check out Rickey.org  to hear Elliott performing a sweet acoustic version of “Wait For You”  at a Philly radio station.
• As the Daughtry single “Home” climbs up the pop charts, another single from the album   DAUGHTRY, “What I Want,” was released to rock radio this week.
• Tim McGraw’s “When the Stars Go Blue” re-entered the Hot Digital Tracks chart at #37 and the Hot Digital Song chart at #39.   Blake Lewis performed the Ryan Adams penned tune  as his country song,  Top 7 night.
• Look out for Paris Bennett’s new album, due to drop May 8.   She’s currently the spokesperson for McDonald’s American Idol themed Happy Meals.

Ken Barnes from USA Today has more numbers on his Idol Chatter Blog.   And you can check out more Idols on the charts  on Donna Reynolds’ Chart Watch  at foxesonidol.com.

Saturday Apr 28

Sorry the recap is so late peeps. I  felt like I needed to watch the special over again, and I just could not bring myself to do that right away.   It’s just as well, there’s a lot of information I’d like to include in the recap that wasn’t available last night.

ETA:   Here’s an interesting post from Reality Blurred.   Reuters tried to find out what portion of the monies raised came from corporate sponsors like AT&T, Ford and Coca-Cola, but the reporters were met with tight lips.   Also, TMZ reported  that Pink and Gwen Stefani’s videos were cut due to time constraints and will be shown later.  Daniel Radcliffe’s people are still trying to  find out what happened. (thanks dvls)

As of Thursday night, Idol Gives Back has raised $60 million.   You can still donate at americanidol.com and at the IGB  My Space page. Also, according to the AP article  Bono’s organization,  One has signed up 70,000 new members.

There’s some interesting stuff from the  in-studio reporters from the LA Times  Show Tracker  and Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch.   Rupert Murdoch and his family were in the audience.   Melinda Doolittle and Chris Richardson seemed to have a special bond. And, the audience murmured disapprovingly  during the Celine/Elvis number.

I’m not sure how the in-studio audience were reacting, but in comments here on the blog, people were speculating  about how Idol would manage to  mix up what’s supposed to be a feel-good night of charitable giving with  the tense and  sometimes unhappy task of kicking a contestant to the curb. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday Apr 27

Thursday Apr 26

What to look forward to tonight:

Update: Ryan just announced that tonight’s elimination will be THE MOST SHOCKING IN IDOL HISTORY….Plus, they got over 70 million votes last night.

• Kelly Clarkson singing with Jeff Beck on Guitar
• Annie Lenox singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water
• A taped message from Madonna
• Celine Dion and Elvis Presley (well, that’s the rumor anyway)
• Bono surprises the kids as they rehearse his song “American Prayer”

Nigel said on Ryan Seacrest’s radio program this morning that they had more than 65 million votes by 10 pm PDT last night.   They broke the previous record of 65.5 million votes that came in for the Season 3 finale…

Update: Tonight’s big shocking boot?   There was no boot.   Nobody was eliminated tonight.   As Ryan said, “Who could eliminate someone at the end of a charity special?”

It was hardly shocking however…

All of the votes from this week will carry over to next, and  TWO people will be eliminated next Wednesday.

Also, the show ran about 5 minutes over the 2 hour mark for those who are tivoing.

Wednesday Apr 25

Cold opening – Ryan is standing in the control room looking very serious. “Tonight,” he says, “We are presenting a very special show.   We’ve got the same 3 judges, the same  6 finalists (Each face is displayed on a monitor, the camera pans them).   But one huge difference–the calls that you make will not only save your favorite contestant, (Ryan pauses dramatically and turns around) they will also save lives.   THIS is Idol Gives Back.

Holy cow.   In comments, when things get tense,  I say  stuff like  ya know we ain’t solving world hunger here, peeps,  it’s only a tee vee show, so be cool! So much for that excuse.  At least for tonight.

I suppose I could get all cynical at this point.   Sure, there’s plenty to be cynical about.  TPTB may only be doing this to burnish their reputations–particularly since the most successful elements of the show rest on humiliating and mocking people.  Or,  perhaps the sponsors are merely playing the typical PR game rather than truly helping the poor.  Of course, this Idol Gives Back deal could be merely a way to boost ratings and maybe even finally win that coveted Emmy (would not be surprised if they finally do).  Could TPTB be exploiting the  poor children of the world in order to serve their own interests? Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday Apr 24

ETA:   Kirsten just posted this blog from Access Hollywood  in comments.   It contains a very detailed account of tonight’s show.   A couple of interesting tidbits not mentioned anywhere yet:

• News Corp which owns the Fox Network will donate 10 cents per call up to 50 million votes tonight for a total of $5 million.
• Carrie Underwood will perform “I’ll Stand By You”   from Africa on tomorrow night’s special.  A group of celebrities will sing “Stayin Alive” including Teri Hatcher, Gwyneth Paltrow and Hugh Grant.

Tonight’s performance show was taped yesterday, and there are accounts from Fans of Reality TV  from the dress rehearsal and Idol Forums  (check out the spoiler section, but you need to sign up first)  Ãƒâ€š  from the show taping.

Spoilers mention that Ryan said that Bono  mentored the kids  this week, but there were no clips during the show.   We’ll probably see that stuff during the special on Wednesday.   The show does feature clips from Africa and America interspersed with the kid’s performances.

Here are the song choices and performance order: Read the rest of this entry »

Sanjaya Malakar appeared on last night’s Late Show with David Letterman to read the Top 10 list, “Ten Things I Learned from American Idol.”

I got the video here: