Fox Reality Head Mike Darnell on Joanna Pacitti: “”Unfortunately, it was just a perceptional problem”
Mike Darnell, who oversees alternative programing for FOX, repeats to the LA Times, nearly verbatim what Ryan Seacrest told FOX reporters yesterday regarding Joanna Pacitti’s abrupt disqualification:
“Unfortunately, it was just a perceptional problem, that there [was] just too close a connection between [Pacitti and the employees], we felt,” Darnell said today in an interview. (Darnell’s job at Fox encompasses network oversight of the “Idol” franchise.) “A replacement was made as a producorial and judge choice. Simple as that.”
He added: “I think it was handled correctly.” (“Idol” host Ryan Seacrest told Fox News that the producers “didn’t want to risk” a conflict of interest problem with Pacitti.)
A perception problem? So, the conflict of interest was fine…until the public found out about it. At least Darnell didn’t lay on any horsesh*t, like Seacrest did, about the producers just getting around to figuring out Joanna’s connections…to their own damn company.
Feh.  Kinda sucks for Joanna. I was no fan of hers, but she was dragged through the mud for nothing. Maybe they’ll sign her anyway. In which case, I’ll take back what I said.
For Felicia Barton–hip hip hooray. She was one of my favorites from back when the spoilers leaked. To be in the center of a controversy is better than if she were just one of the 36. We haven’t heard much of her singing, but we sure know who she is now.
Posted in Uncategorized
20 Responses to “Fox Reality Head Mike Darnell on Joanna Pacitti: “”Unfortunately, it was just a perceptional problem””
For me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If things don’t change, this will be a year that the contestants will be eclipsed by controversy. Joanna will probably end up like Mario Vasquez…Who?! Exactly. And the winner will probably win because of it (I’m looking at you, Gokey)…I mean, I remember how Adam Cook became front and center when David and his family kept quiet about him. But since the show freely headlined his wife’s death every time he was on, I expect the coverage to intensify when he goes even deeper into the competition.
If they’re smart, they’ll drop it for several weeks. Danny has enough talent to go to the TOP 12 and do very well.
Glad the Joanna thing is no longer around for discussion (after today). ;o)
I don’t believe a word these guys say anymore.
It is way too scripted for me.
Seriously, the female that should have advanced when Joanna got dumped was Jenn Corbett, the blonde Simon preferred over Kristen. That was the lone singoff among the women.
Out of nowhere comes Felicia Barton.
The whole excercise was designed to promote Felicia Barton, a very strong female contestant, in a year where males are clearly dominant.
Same crap SYTYCD pulled with Katie Shean when they hummed and hawed about Katie making the top 20.
Frankie and Jesse also had a sing-off.
I’m not sure that the sing-offs had anything to do with anything. I think they picked the winners of the sing-offs well in advance and just chose the people for the drama. Two different looking blondes (I sense a theme with Simon and picking people for their looks this year which is even stronger than past years). Should you pick looks over talent? Plus, get the girl who has been embroiled in controversy in there. Then, pick a couple of best friends. And a couple of people that have practically the same story and have them both go through (like everybody in the rooms couldn’t count).
Felicia probably was considered better than Jenn all along, but there wasn’t a sing-off story that worked for her. Or, she fills the same kind of casting spot as Joana (they are casting a show here). Either that, or she looks enough like Joana that they thought nobody would really notice the switch.
Felicia WAS also part of a sing-off but they edited it…
here is what her husband wrote on her facebook fanpage (it’s quite interesting):
So hereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹behind the scenesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢…
Last night, we were at Freedom Fellowshipà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Idol viewing party with about 150 other excited, wonderful people. As the show began, I could see Feliciaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s eyes watering up as she sat, prepared to relive her Great Disappointment. It had been almost a month now, since she received the big à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Noà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ from the judges and we flew home, rejected. Trust me…our emotions and thoughts ran the gamut, as we tried desperately to process what had just occurred. What they didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t show on last nightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s episode is that Felicia was actually in a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹sing-offà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ with a 16 year old girl! Felicia sang à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“No Oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ by Alicia Keys, and she said she felt like it was her best performance ever, and then she listened from the hallway as the other girl give, what she felt, was a very average performance.
So you can understand Feliciaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s response of ,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ Really…are you sure?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ when the judges told her that it was the end of the road.
And more about when she got the call saying she was part of the top 36 (which was this past wednesday during the show):
And then we got the call!!! Sure enough, right smack in the middle of the 150 viewers that were gathered at Freedom to watch the show, Ken Warwick (executive producer for Idol) called Feliciaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s cell phone. She ran into the girlà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s bathroom to take the call, and she was bouncing off the walls when Ken told her to pack her bags, because she was now in the top 36!!!! He also told her not to tell a soul until they made it public the next day. So we had to finish out the night as if she never got the call!
Very interesting. I’m surprised at the lengths the producers went to not show any footage of Felicia doing her thing in Hollywood. I heard on IDF that Felicia was involved in one of those shark-jumping “OMG TEH DRAMA!” sing-offs. She must really be a threat to their Chosen One. But my theory has a hole: why would they invite their threat back?
Man, the stuff going on behind the scenes is more interesting than the actual show!
I was uber-shocked when Barton didn’t make the cut. Loved her vocals on the toob clips enough to think she’s the one girl who could give all the boys this season a run for their money. I was really frustrated when they barely showed her during Hollywood week, and then suddenly the cut, when most of the other girls shown just didn’t stand up to comparison. I think she could be really head and shoulders above everybody else, and TPTB just wanted to surprise viewers with a terrific unseen performer at the start of the live singing rounds. If so, they really played Pacitti. But I really really hope they weren’t that ruthless about the whole thing.
They seems to threat this contestant like chess figures.
But then you would expect that the people involved are aware of the plan that it doesn’t look like Felicia has been.
I think it would be better for the surprise if she wasn’t involved. And I don’t think for a minute she is or Pacitti is – if my theory pans out. Which makes the PTB very very skeeeery people. Heh.
I agree with Kirsten. I think they are simply casting a show and for some reason they wanted Pacitti over Barton. Maybe Felicia was too good for the role.
Do we know who the 16 year old was that she had a sing off with ?
Wow. See, this is why I think they could have edited it so that she was accepted if they wanted to. Just a few montage clips different and they would have had her be accepted. That would have been hilarious if she had seen it on TV before she got her phone call.
Lot’s of 16 year old girls (what’s up with that?): Allison Iraheta, Arianna Afsar, Jasmine Murray, Stevie Wright and Taylor Vaifanua. We could probably figure it. She would be one of the ones not shown leaving the room while cheering and they would have had to carefully edit it so that you didn’t see the girl sitting next to her.
I guess I’m surprised, don’t know why, after 7 seasons they are still so freaking sloppy.
^I think they do that on purpose – media ’scandal’, publicity, etc. Hee.
The editors at AI deserve all of the alcolades that we can hand out. If you watch closely very rarely are judges reactions to a song and the auditioner shown in the same frame…it is look at this look at that. Time frame is altered as well. Why would the last chaired contestants head back into a half full room when it was virtually empty several auditioners before. We, the viewers, are led down the path that AI has intended for us. Things don’t shake out until “live” TV begins.
I don’t see why Joanna made the top 36 anyway. She certainly didn’t wow in Hollywood. I don’t know that much about Felicia and I already have a favorite girl or 2 so we’ll see.
Oh my, the fun has just begun. Wait, it only gets better from here.
My guess on the 16 year old is Jasmine Murray, who has been nasally mediocre the entire time.
I really liked Pacitti and planty-plants don’t bother me. I really think TPTB used Pacitti for “drama”. I hope Pacitti was in on it from the beginning, because — that would really be almost too mean (yeah, I know) for TPTB to do this in a planned way from the beginning (and yes, I believe it was planned from the beginning).
Well, I guess, hurrah for Felicia Barton.
Yup. In this video of Anoop with the judges we can see the editing pretty well. Simon’s shirt is black, then at 0.41 is white and then is black again…
Exactly, and nothing spells fodder like being sixteen and being on Idol. I predict that there will be a maximum of one chaperoned contestant per bus, if that.