Shifting gears: Phil Stacey steering career into Christian music
Now he’s charting a new course for his music in the new year.
“I’ve changed labels. I’m with another major label (although he declined to give a name until the deal is finalized). I’m doing a Christian record this year. Right now I’m still in the songwriting phase. It should be out about May.â€
Tweaked “American Idol” returns with new judge
LOS ANGELES, Jan 11 (Reuters) - “American Idol” returns for its eighth season on Tuesday with a new judge, a better showcase for talented singers and a wary eye on its status as America’s most-watched television show.
The five-month search for a new star kicks off with a two-night, four-hour premiere featuring the familiar blend of hundreds of hopeful, and sometimes hopeless, contestants auditioning in cities across the nation.
But producers have tweaked the formula to keep viewers tuning in en masse after last year, when the numbers of “American Idol” faithful slipped to about 28.1 million per episode from an average 30.8 million in 2006.
More Idol Headlines after the JUMP…
‘American Idol’s’ high-wire act
Since its inception, America’s leading entertainment juggernaut, “American Idol,” has redefined the landscape before it. But this season it will test a new show-business frontier: Can a prime-time show dominate in its eighth season on the air?
For “Idol,” ratings are of paramount concern because it will never be enough merely to survive or cling to its prime-time slot. It has demolished virtually all comers, except for CBS’ durable crime drama “NCIS,” and it must continue to overpower once again or risk losing its uncanny ability to coin genuine (not the 15-minute variety) stars each season.
By the numbers: Radio ranks Season 7’s finalists
What’s the difference between winning American Idol and simply placing? It’s massive when it comes to radio airplay. I’ve been playing around with Mediabase numbers all week, trying to find the different stories they can tell. And this one’s a doozy: I’ve ranked last season’s 12 finalists according to the radio play they’ve received. Naturally, David Cook, David Archuleta and Kristy Lee Cook outpace the other nine, since they had major-label record deals and a corresponding level of promotion. But the amount of fall-off between the not-really-successful Cook and the next-most-played finalist is simply staggering.
Eighth season of American Idol’ begins Jan. 13
It’s the same old song. Hear it? The familiar January refrain asks whether this will be the year “American Idol” tumbles, surrendering the title of America’s most-watched program.
The Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Fox’s talent-search reality show have been No. 1 and 2 in the ratings for three straight seasons. With the eighth version of “American Idol” starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday on WJW Channel 8, some industry watchers see the juggernaut slipping a bit and heading for that tumble.
Last January’s seventh-season opener was down 11 percent in total viewers from the sixth-season premiere. Even more alarming to Fox, it was down 13 percent in the age demographic most prized by the network and advertisers, 18 to 49. And the entire seventh season was down 10 percent from the sixth.
FOUR’S A CHARM
The holidays are over, the decorations are put away, the calendar has turned to a new year. For millions of people across the country, this means one thing: Ryan Seacrest saying dramatically, “This … is ‘American Idol’!â€
The eighth season of “American Idol†premieres this week locally on WUTV Channel 29, with two-hour audition shows from 8 to 10 p. m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
“American Idol†remains television’s top show but saw its national and local ratings slip during last season. As the competition narrowed, viewers began to return, and the David Cook-David Archuleta finale drew 8 percent more local viewers than 2007.
Kentucky talents will tune in to ‘American Idol’
Craig Carter knew that just being a good singer would not be enough. The Paducah science teacher had been through American Idol auditions once before, when the show came to Memphis in 2006. That’s where he learned that in addition to having pipes, he needed to have a story that would make him compelling to the judges and ultimately, the viewing public.
So, when the auditions came to Louisville in July, Carter was ready with a bright yellow-green sign saying, “Be Smarter. Pick Carter from Possum Trot, KY.”
Meet newest ‘Idol’ judge
When “American Idol†starts season eight Tuesday, you can be the judge of its newest judge.
Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson sometimes have had guest celebrities sitting in with them, but they’re getting a permanent addition to their panel. Songwriter and record producer Kara DioGuardi turns the trio into a quartet.
The two-part season premiere (Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 p.m. on WFXT, Ch. 25) showcases the sometimes poignant, often amusing auditions, staged last summer in eight cities ranging from San Francisco to San Juan. DioGuardi was on hand for the tryouts, so she got an early sense of what she’s in for, but she realizes it will take the official on-air start of “Idol†for her to know it fully.
Simon Cowell: 10 reasons to tune into ‘American Idol’ this season
Who would have thought on July 11, 2002, that a blip-on-the-radar singing contest — an import from England — would become the television hit to end all television hits?
Not Simon Cowell, the show’s famously ascerbic judge and show producer.
“When I first did ‘American Idol,’ the one thing I made sure I had was a return ticket,” he said in a recent media conference call, “because I genuinely thought we’d be off the air in about three or four weeks.”
‘American Idol’ gets a tuneup
For most of the decade, American Idol has flattened its TV competition, developed a small stable of pop stars and even launched the career of an Academy Award-winning actress. But after each success, a nagging question would always be asked: How long can this last?
So as overall TV viewership continues to slide and the talent show enters its eighth year (a ripe old age for a network program), Idol’s producers aren’t taking any chances. They’re ready to unveil the biggest changes to the familiar formula since the show’s early seasons.
When Idol returns Tuesday, it will have a fourth judge, Grammy-nominated songwriter Kara DioGuardi, a larger field of semifinalists and fewer freak-show auditions that initially made the reality show a cultural phenomenon.
Ch-ch-ch-changes on ‘American Idol’
Last year’s installment of “American Idol” was pretty drama-free — but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Season 7 crowned the right guy — Kansas Citian David Cook — but it lost about 7 percent of its viewers, many of whom complained that the show had become dreadfully dull and particularly predictable.
There were no big blowups. No terribly surprising eliminations. No over-the-top personalities.
The most memorable moment of the whole season occurred when Paula Abdul, already known as a certified space cadet, misread her cue cards and critiqued a yet-to-be-sung song.
Season 8 gets under way at 7 p.m. Tuesday on Fox (cable Channel 4-24) with lots of changes intended to scramble the too-comfortable format.
So You Think You Can Sing? Rules for New ‘American Idol’ Contestants
With the new season of ‘American Idol’ upon us, we thought it wise to give some advice to the men and women who compete on the popular talent show.
Seven years of watching ‘Idol’ has offered an insight on what the singers should and shouldn’t do, and we’d like to share. PopEater’s Rules for ‘Idol’ Wannabes
FACTBOX - American Idols — where are they now?
REUTERS - “American Idol” returns to U.S. television on Tuesday for an eighth marathon search for the nation’s best undiscovered singers.
Over the years, America’s most-watched TV show has found plenty of new talent, as well as some unlikely heroes. Following is a look at where some of the most memorable
“American Idol” contestants are now.
Your own “American Idol” photo shoot
If, like myself, you feel that you were meant for glory on the “American Idol” stage but are being held back — persecuted even — just because you can’t carry a note or keep time with even the simplest beat, “American Idol” now has an alternative for you. It’s a way to find “Idol” glory, or a fantasy facsimile thereof, that you can share with your friends, who will gape in awe when they see your Christmas card next year emblazoned with mock proof of your “Idol” grandeur.
Starting this week, an “American Idol” photo booth will be touring the malls of our fair land, allowing fans to have a full photo shoot in front of the legendary “Idol” backdrop, posing as and in the footsteps of the giants.
David Cook — Dude’s Got Balls
‘American Idol’ Constantine Maroulis takes on Broadway - but can’t save it
Can an “American Idol” belter save Broadway?
In a word: no.
It’ll take more than that to rescue the Great White Way, which has been hit hard (nine closings last week, and more to come this month) by a nosediving economy.
Still, it can’t hurt for an Idol to try. And one shaggy-maned rocker from the popular TV reality contest is reportedly about to step up.
While word isn’t yet official, Brooklyn-born Constantine Maroulis is said to be on board for the Broadway transfer of “Rock of Ages,” the ’80s musical of Journey, Bon Jovi and Whitesnake tunes.
Simon Cowell: I haven’t asked Dannii Minogue to return to The X Factor
Simon Cowell is yet to finalise plans for Dannii Minogue to return to The X Factor.
The music mogul isn’t sure the Aussie judge, 37, wants a place on the panel following the tension between her and Louis Walsh, 56, during the 2008 series.
‘I’m going to sit down in January and ask everyone if they want to come back on the show,’ Simon, 49, tells the News Of The World.
‘Dannii and I have genuinely never discussed her coming back. I’ve not sat down with anyone and discussed coming back – including her. If Dannii says no then there’s always someone new, and that applies to everyone.’
But Simon has hinted that he’d like supermodel Kate Moss, 34, to join the team.
Brooke Burke Marvels at Karina & Maksim’s ‘Steamy’ Engagement
Brooke Burke was among those not surprised by the engagement of Dancing With the Stars’ Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
“You could see the chemistry,” Burke, 37, Dancing’s Season 7 champ, told PEOPLE in Las Vegas Friday night. “I’m really happy for them and I hope it works out.”
The two professional dancers became engaged in Las Vegas at Wynn Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve.
Its all good wareallinnocent. We are both happy with David. This is a small disagreement. I think comparing across years can be interesting, and there is legitimacy to interpreting sales that way. I am more of the mind to look at how others did relative to their peers at the time. Daughtry and Carrie dominated their genres sales wise, sold way out of proportion to everyone else on the Billboard charts, and stayed in the top 10 comfortably for weeks. They had debut singles that went to the top of their charts (pop and country) and sold boatloads. So DC didn’t have quite that level of success in my head. But he still has great success. Make sense? Anyway, its all in fun!
Makes total sense, and your way is probably a better gauge.
My comments (actually more questions) really went to the article comparing Idols and having Cook among those coming up short. For me, aside from the article lacking supporting data, I found that assertion really premature, and likely unfair at this point. Not to mention, it seems only to apply to Carrie, if we’re talking Idol champs, right? (I ask because I really don’t know, not being an Idol follower… :-)) So the broad assertion that recent winners haven’t been successful, therefore AI is in trouble, seemed a bit of a stretch to me.
But, yeah, I’m being defensive of Cook, no doubt about it. And, I have to admit that I really am sort of rigid when it comes to wanting peeps to have measurable data to support assertions that may have a personal or professional impact on someone else. Sorry ’bout that.
Moving on…. And, sorry for bogging us down here, everybody…. C’mon Mariah week! :-)
Concur wholeheartedly. To present Cook as a success, you only have to regurgitate facts. To paint him as a disappointment, you have to spin the facts and/or leave out pertinent information. If you have to work to prove your point, maybe you have no point to make. Anyway, I’m a big pop culture junkie, and the only time I’ve seen career damaging negative buzz surrounding an AI winner, it was all about the fact that they either had zippo mainstream (top 40 or HAC) radio presence or they were outsold out of the gate by an also-ran from the same season, “proving” that they didn’t “deserve” to win, or both. (Not saying this was the Idol winner’s fault, or that it couldn’t be overcome at a later date.) Cook’s already slayed both of those beasts and has moved on to other challenges. Any other comparisons are just too early to make. Kelly was warmly regarded off the bat, but Breakaway is considered the pinnacle of her career thus far. I didn’t watch Season 4 of AI and had no clue that Carrie Underwood was doing THAT well until Before He Cheats hit mainstream radio, and even then it took my casual AI watching cousin playing her CD out of the blue to drive it home. The pop culture jury has not ruled against David Cook, and I don’t think it will, unless someone tries really hard to bend the facts to suit a largely negative perception.
That said, what does worry me is the thought that 19, who thus far have been pretty awesome to Cook, might be willing to bend those aforementioned facts to turn him into some sort of sacrificial lamb to play up the new and improved angle. I do not relish Cook being abused to pump ratings for AI Season 8. That will not make me happy.
Don’t do it, Fuller.
Archie is on the Valentines issue of J-14!
hehe ozarka
Judging by DC’s AI commercial and the “winning means something” meme delivered by other AI Commercials, I’m gonna say I don’t find it likely that AI will do anything to diminish DC. That’s like Fuller burning away his own money.
I don’t see it happening.
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes the other way and DC gets pimped on the show more than some of the previous winners. AI benefits from the success of its alumni, and if there is success to pimp, they will use it.
You can bet that if there’s a songwriter competition this year, the Magic Rainbow will get high pimpage - this is the most successful coronation song Idol has had, I’m thinking they won’t let it slide.
I’ll also bet DC gets his Platinum plaque for DCTR on the show, further highlighting him. I’m not worried about AI hurting DC, to me it’s clear they’ll pimp him, just a question of how much.
A month ago, I would have agreed emphatically, Jolene. But now, I dunno
… I went to the new AI website after reading this thread to see what’s up. I can’t find the video of Cookie’s AI commercial there anymore. There’s an AI calendar up, it looks new, and I just noticed that every AI winner, even Taylor, has a big picture, with the exception of DC and Fantasia. There is pimpage of Archie’s single in the calendar along with the major accomplishments of AI alum, but no mention of Cook’s platinum Rainbow, Light On, or even of his album being released. It strikes me as weird, but this could all be coincidental. Eh, stepping off the knoll now.
I don’t see anyone bashing.
Someone asked for the numbers for Kelly, Carrie, and/or Daughtry, and I provided them. Not trying to make anyone look good or bad, just trying to answer a question, because it was asked.
Comparison between seasons, winners, and other finalists who release albums through Sony will be inevitable simply because it’s the easiest comparison - and people like to compare. There really aren’t any other ways to adequately compare success, since you’d either be comparing them against established artists who already have however many successful albums under their belts, or a brand new artist who wasn’t seen on television by 30 million people for 11 weeks plus.
I seriously doubt that that is going to happen, Sunchick. The AI commercials seem to indicate that they are really trying to push the point that AI winner = superstar. And AI could use another superstar winner, so being negative toward DC as an artist doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. Plus, it definitely seems like DC has done what he needs to do to make 19 happy with him—by all accounts, he’s easy to work with. And he has, thus far, been successful.
I do think that it is difficult finding a good comparator for either of the Davids. Comparing against releases from prior years is skewed because the market is down. Comparing across genres doesn’t make sense, and there is no AI winner with a similar genre to DC. Given how DA is being marketed, I don’t know that there’s a great AI runner-up comparator for him, and there hasn’t been a strong AI runner-up since Season 2 which was . Comparing to established artists with multiple records out is problematic, but both Davids come in with certain advantages that debut artists don’t have. I mean, I spend as much time comparing the numbers for DC to other people as just about anyone else, but it’s still the case that all of the comparisons have some flaws and, in some cases, serious flaws.
“Brangelina Diss Ryan Seacrest on the Golden Globes Red Carpet!”
http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/brangelina-disses-ryan-seacrest-on-the-golden-globes-red-carpet–75
http://www.americanidol.com/archive/videos/
His commercial is still there, it’s just not smack on the front of the page but on the front page there is a scrolling playlist of videos and his picture is there in 3 different places including a video where he talks about his CD. His pic is right on the front page with a link to the “finale flashback”. Scroll through the news pages, there’s plenty of mentions of him including TOML and LO and his accomplishments. As for the calendar when you go to the main calendar page the main pic there is his winning moment (May as well)
http://www.americanidol.com/calendar/december/2008
Eh, I’m not getting the concern.
I removed that comment.
BTW, could we dial it back a bit generally here? I want to keep these discussions free for all types of different viewpoints. The giant pile-on tends to intimidate folks from even attempting to join in the conversation.
I would just ask folks to disagree without getting defensive, angry and repetitive.
Thank you.
DOH.
I couldn’t find the promo vid because they have it listed in the scroll under season 8. 
I hadn’t seen the new site before today, and I must say it’s not really easy to navigate…she said, looking pretty dumb with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an L on her forehead… Anyway, my knolldar is probably way out of whack cuz I’ve never actually rooted for a winner before and emmotional attachment clouds objectivity. Yeah, that’s the ticket, nothing to see here…did I mention that the Steelers AND the Eagles won? And Heath Ledger got a posthumous Golden Globe tonight? Yay? Look, it’s the Loch Ness monster! *slinks out of thread unseen*
Well, I’ve been reading through the comments here. However, I haven’t had a chance to read them all but want to give my 2 cents.
YMMV, but personally I don’t see DC as the typical AI winner. I have read too many comments by fans stating things like:
“This is the first yr. I ever voted for anyone on AI.” (re:DC)
“I may have voted 1 or 2 times in the past, but I voted as often as I could this yr. for DC.”
“I’ve watched a couple of episodes of AI in the past, but I just had to tune in every week this yr. to see what DC would do next!”
My fav, heh, “‘Innocent’ was a mess, so this was the night I just had to vote for DC so he would stay.”
One person-”I was tired of what I was hearing on the radio, so I emailed several friends asking for new music. A friend sent me Analog Heart and this is what I was looking for, then, much to my surprise, I turn on the TV a few months later and hear that voice on AI.”
One person-”I was flipping through the channels and saw DC singing and thought he was a guest singer, but much to my surprise he was a contestant and I started tuning in every week to see what he would do next.”
Okay, there are probably others, yes definitely others, (and perhaps those who have followed AI in the past can say the same things for past contestants), BUT my. point. is. that I don’t think we can compare DC to past ‘hit’ AI winners (I’m only talking about winners here). Whatever may happen with his sales, people will always be drawn to DC, imho.
I’ve seen fans say those things every year for the Idols. The show appeals to tv audiences who haven’t bought a lot of cds until they suddenly get hooked on a contestant, or else people who don’t normally watch the show discover a certain contestant and start watching it.
I guess he’s different in some ways than other winners/finalists and similar in others. I think it’s logical to compare sales of Idols because they all come from the show and they all have a certain momentum from that, and also a stigma in some people’s minds.
I think there’s too much concern about whether or not DC’s going to be successful. He’s doing very well (as is Archie) and I don’t understand the concern. I am looking forward to a new single, because I think there are better songs on the cd than LO, and can’t wait for people to hear them. But I don’t have concern about his success. I think he’s doing great.
It’s interesting to compare sales of other Idols, but at the same time, each person will have a different path. So far I think that DC will be one of the successful Idols.
“But the ratings aren’t Idol’s only concern. Cook and other recent winners like Jordin Sparks and Taylor Hicks have failed to match the post-Idol success of their predecessors.â€
I disagree that “their predecessors” had better success. First, Kelly only had a moderate hit with Miss Independent, which wasn’t a great song, and she didn’t have huge success off her first cd. Her big success came with her sophomore cd. Second, I didn’t notice huge hits by Ruben or Fantasia. They got a lot of radio play on r&b stations, but not that much elsewhere. Clay only had one minor hit, Invisible. Maybe he had some success with Solitaire or Bridge Over Trouble Water, but no big hits like they’re talking about.
The only two Idols that I think had huge initial success was Daughtry and Carrie. And on her second CD, Kelly. Those three have had phenomenal success.
Those articles are rewriting history and distorting the facts, imo. Jordin is doing well, too. I think you can find a zillion different articles out there about AI and they’ll each have a different slant.
David Cook talks about the Disney American Idol Experience attraction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5n02C-_eN4