American Idol

For your convenience–a handy guide to this week’s giant Idol Gives Back Special.

• Newsflash:  According to Usa Today’s Idol Chatter blog, Bono will be appearing on the Idol Gives Back special Wednesday.  Here’s the scoop, Bono will ”meet with the six American Idol finalists to talk about the work of ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History (www.one.org) and how the Idol audience can help. The IDOL contestants also will perform American Prayer, a song written by Bono and Dave Stewart about the AIDS emergency in Africa.”
• Ellen DeGeneres will be co-hosting the LIVE 2-hour Idol Gives Back special on Wednesday.  She’ll be introducing the acts at the Walt Disney Theater in Anaheim, while Ryan takes his usual place at the CBS studios for the eliminations.
• Tuesday night’s performance show is 1 hour.  The show will be taped, rather than performed live.  Rumor has it, the taping is today.
• The remaining six contestants will be singing ”‘life anthem’–songs of compassion and hope, in keeping with the Idol Gives Back theme.”  
• Afterward, viewer votes will, “trigger a donation to charities by the corporate sponsors of Idol — Ford, Coca-Cola, AT&T and News Corp.”
• Wednesday’s Idol Gives Back special will feature: Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Earth, Wind & Fire, Il Divo, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Josh Groban with the African Children’s Choir, Jack Black, Helen Mirren, Rascal Flatts, Quincy Jones, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox and Sacha Cohen as “Borat”.
• There is a rumor that the “special duet” between “two of the biggest stars in musical history” that Ryan mentioned on Wednesday’s results show will be Celine Dion duetting with Elvis Presley.  An Elvis impersonator will play the on-stage part of Elvis. Eep. And the Idols will sing back up.  The performance, has apparently already been taped.
• Ford has produced a music video that will air on the Idol Gives Back special, Wednesday. The video, as well as other musical performances from the night, will be available for download after the show. All proceeds will be  contributed to Idol Gives Back.
• Viewers will be invited to donate, through phone calls or the internet to: Save the Children, UNICEF, Malaria No More, The Global Fund and Nothing But Nets.  These programs aid “youth relief programs in Africa and poverty-hit areas of the United States including hurricane ravaged Louisiana.”
• Ken Warwick did an interview with Entertainment Tonight.  He says, ”…these kinds of shows can be a little bit depressing if you’re not careful. So throughout the show, there is a certain amount of humor and a certain amount of shock value, shall we say, that is going to entertain people, and that’s what we’re after. But it’s going to move people to put their hands in their pockets and make them want to watch to the very last.”
• You can donate through the Idol Gives Back My Space page.

For those of you a little confused about where your money will go, and how it will be distributed, here is some info from the Fox press release: Continue reading ‘Idol Gives Back - Ellen DeGeneres will co-host, plus Bono will appear with the Idols to Discuss the work of ONE’

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