UPDATE:
“Bottom” Two:
Chris Richardson
Stephanie Edwards
Eliminated tonight:
Stephanie Edwards
Next Week: Gwen Stefani is the guest mentor. She and Akon will perform her hit “Sweet Escape” on Wednesday. The Top 10 theme will be “Pop” (just confirmed-the contestants picks are not restricted to just the 90’s)
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Tonight’s elimination is particularly significant–the kids who survive tonight’s cut are guaranteed a spot on the Idols summer tour. That means, more exposure and more importantly–a BOATLOAD OF CASH. I’m thinkin’ the kids are extra specially nervous tonight as they await their fates.
No time for a group sing tonight (damn!), right after a recap of Tuesday’s show, affable guest mentor, Peter Noone, takes the stage to sing his 60’s hit, “There’s a Kind of Hush.” I wonder when the last time was that Noone performed in front of millions of people? This has got to be pretty exciting for him.
The kids do laundry and sing “Another Saturday Night” in this week’s Ford Commercial.
Back from the break. Brad Garett, pimping some FOX show he’s on, is sitting with the kids. Ryan “eliminates” him first. Ha ha ha. I have a feeling this week’s bootee won’t be getting a singout tonight. Promoting some lame FOX show is much more important than giving an eliminated contestant another shot to sing.
The eliminations begin. Ryan asks Phil Stacey, Melinda Doolittle and Blake Lewis to stand up. After they are all quickly declared safe, Ryan says, “You, are not our bottom 3 tonight.” Phil musta been nervous ’cause he’s whooping it up and screaming, ”Whoo! I love you!” No tour for somebody, and it ain’t going to be Phil! Really, he should just STFU.
Next, Ryan asks Chris Sligh, LaKisha Jones and Jordin Sparks to stand. And…they are “not our bottom three.” Phil is still whooping it up. Perhaps he’s thinking of all that dough he’ll make on tour? Really Phil, you must shut up.
Sanjaya Malakar, Haley Scarnato and Gina Glocksen are asked to stand. Finally, a little suspense. Not much of a chance Sanjaya is in the “bottom three,” although TPTB have been dragging this very popular contestant’s butt into the bottom line up week after week–although I’d bet you a cookie that his actual standings have been better than the producers have led us to believe. Ryan says, “You are not our bottom three.” Thank God, Phil finally shuts up.
Chris Richardson and Stephanie Edwards are left. Ryan asks them both to stand. “You are the bottom two this week.” Ryan tells us. The bottom two what, Ryan? Notice he never mentions the word “vote.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Stephanie is probably going home–a victim of vote splitting between the 3 R&B singers and 2 lackluster performances in a row.
Chris Richardson? Just thrown into the mix for drama. No way this kid is actually in the bottom. Not after Tuesday night’s personal best performance and tons of praise from the judges. It’s widely rumored that the producers get creative with the bottom three for the sake of good TeeVee. They don’t screw with who actually gets eliminated–but everyone else is fair game.
Poor Chris looks shocked.
After the break, there’s a shot of a poster that says, “Clay Aiken hurt me” with a little frownie-face. I won’t ask. Last week’s big “American Idol Challenge” winner is sitting in the audience. Let’s say hi! to her. This week’s dumb question for Cash! And! Prizes!: “Which of these American Idols has recently been cast to star in “The Color Purple” on Broadway? Is it a. Fantasia? b. Paris Bennett? c. Vonzell Solomon? Zzzzzz.
Ryan reminds the audience about the BIG Idol charity event “Idol Gives Back.” Ryan sends out a message to corporate America: “We need you! Does YOUR company want to be involved in this great night? If you are interested in making a corporate donation, send an email to: idolgivesback@fox.com.” And that’s tonight’s public service announcement.
The forever mod and spritely Lulu is next, singing her hit, “To Sir With Love.”
And now it’s time to eliminate a contesant.
After the break, Stephanie and Chris are standing center stage. Stephanie, who probably has accepted the fact she’s a goner is smiling. Chris looks like he’s about to crap his pants. The camera cuts back to the kids, who are all holding hands as if they are hoping…what? That maybe nobody has to go home?
“After 30 million votes, Chris,” intones Ryan, “You are staying.” No kidding. I am so NOT shocked. Chris hugs Stephanie before he goes back to his seat. Stephanie’s goodbye film package finishes, and it’s time to go. No time for a sing out.
In another season, Stephanie might have gone deep into the competition. But she was competing with similar singers–Melinda, LaKisha and to an extent, Jordin–who outshone her every week. Tonight’s elimination was completely predictable.
Stephanie had an incredible amount of poise for a 19 year old–and a great fashion sense too. She needs to work on developing a unique style. But she can work that out. She isn’t even out of her teens yet.
The kids will celebrate tonight. We’ll see them all on tour this summer…
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Yay!! Thanks.. I hope Chris R fans vote their fingers off and he moves up to 2 or 3!!
I think I believe Ricky’s spoiler better than dial idol since DI only counts the votes used with their software right?
DovCohen: I believe you are wrong about federal laws preventing TPTB from manipulating the bottom two or three. AI is a reality show, not a game show, and they can script whatever they want. In fact, they can probably lie about the votes completely and it wouldn’t matter (except to ruin their own credibility). The contestants are paid as actors per episode, unlike game show contestants.
I, for one, will be voting my fingers off for Chris R next week! He’s got true style and talent … he also is one of the few contestants without vocal coaching, and he’s great already, so I think he could be a real star with some coaching. I was splitting my vote out to make sure other contestants that I liked, such as Chris Sligh and Gina got through, but no more! Go Chris R!!
And remember last nite he called them like this..
Group 1 - Phil / Melinda / Blake
Group 2 - Sligh / Lakisha / Jordin
Group 3 - Gina / Sanjaya / Haley
Makes sense…they switched Sanjaya with Phil and then put Haley where Chris R was to make the dramatic.. bottom two of Stephanie & Chris instead of Stephanie and Haley which would have NOT been dramatic TV!
It’s also wrong that a really good singer, Stephanie, was voted off while Haley got through with her “HO” act.
szjlc - Could it be because Haley’s HO act was more entertaining thus getting people to vote than Stephanie’s great voice boring performance song?
Like the article on MSNBC said.. you need to get the people to VOTE for you for Whatever reason.
Could be cause they’re cute, or sexy, or nice or have a sense of humor..as long as they VOTE.. Whoever believes it’s a singing competition can go buy the brooklyn bridge….its for sale!
Odd. I was reading through posts and found myself thinking, “Who’s Stephanie?”. Hmm. I think therein lies her problem.
I’m not a Haley fan but this week she sounded a lot better than Stephanie who really sounded off to me. If they wanted it to always be the worst singer voted off each week they’d change the format or have the judges pick.
I think you hit the nail on the head! At the end of the day it is a commercial venture and it is about testing and finding out who the public LIKES and therefore will support and buy stuff! It is the biggest market survey going under the guise of entertainment. But it is entertaining! So does that make it a win/win?
So next week’s theme is “Pop”? Could that possibly be more vague? What’s going to be the theme after that - “Songs”? Sheesh!
Simple…charge $1/vote and all the monkey business will stop.
No-one believes that 34 million individual people actually voted anyway….
Donate the money to a charity.
AI has never tried to make people believe that it’s 34 million individual people voting–they just phrase it number of votes, they always have.
Charging for votes won’t make any “monkey business” stop. The only thing that can is if AI institues transparency in the vote totals, which I doubt they’ll ever do. So why would charging make it any different if they still don’t reveal exact vote totals per contestant?
It’ll stop the VFTW / Stern and DialIdol people from tampering with the outcomes….
Those people have just as much right to vote for what they want to see on their tv as anyone else does. Sanjaya was damn entertaining on Tuesday night. And dialidol doesn’t “tamper” with votes, it’s just an automatic dialing program that lets you vote faster.
Unless there are alot more votes being phoned in, Dial Idol will not be close in predicting anything. Think about it. They can only count the votes coming from Dial Idol and then measuring busy signals and applying a percentage for region. When California began voting, the rankings were way different from the final results. Traditionally the south votes the most and the west coast not nearly as much. The west could not have made that much difference. That then leaves Hawaii to determine the final DI predictions??? It does not make sense that DI could be correct with the vote totals way down from last year. I will believe DI when the competition narrows and the voting goes up.
I am going to pull my hair out if I have to read the “they should let the judges decide or count for at least 50%” of the vote for much more of this season. OH. MY. GOD. If you want to counteract another contestant’s votes, vote yourself, vote for two hours, and vote for your favorite only. DON’T SPLIT YOUR VOTES. Recruit family and friends to vote. Because peeps, this method of voting makes advertisers $$, which in turn makes the show $$. Plus, by the end, it all works itself out, so it’s not gonna change. Don’t fix it if it’s not broke.
Um, I have rewatched it - 6 times - and no, he didn’t. He had a couple pitchy spots but they were not “really horribly off.” But thanks for suggesting it, because I really enjoyed watching it all over again. Made me love him and want to vote for him even more. He easily had one of the 3 best performances of the night. This show is about the total package. If you can sing perfectly, but are boring, I’m not interested. Which is why I guess I appreciated Sanjaya this week too.
ETA this about the argument that the judges should have 50% of the vote:
Who’s to say that if the judges got rid of Sanjaya this week, that we would agree with their choice for next week?
Say it came down to Chris R and Lakisha in the bottom 2 and they said “well Chris R you actually got the lowest # of votes, but the judges think you’re more marketable so they overrode it, and Lakisha, you’re going home.”
People would be raising hell and demanding it be changed back.
Sarah, I agree about letting the judges decide. Remember, these are the folks who didn’t recognize a 311 song. Out of touch, much?
The commercialism of Idol this year has gotten sickening. Its bad enough they seat the “stars” in the audience, but putting Brad on the stage with the contestants and wasting time on a half hour time slot was ridiculous. There are so many commercials anyway, now the on camera time is becoming a big commercial too. For me, everything about this season just sux.
RenaRF, you obviously know more about music than the average listner. Sanjaya & Blake were my top 2 entertainers after Jordin! Go figure!!!
Oh Puhleese, Mosheeaka, that REALLY makes you sound a tad racist. How Sad. What about Paris outlasting Melissa, or Reuben beating Clay. Is it based on race the opposite way? Get over yourself.
She is gone beacuse there are three other singers that sing in the same style as her. “Divas”. The three remaining girls sing better, and their personalities have shown through. That, my dear, Mosheeaka, is why she is gone.
It’s actually a 1990’s pop theme..
No it won’t. Texting is paying, and VFTW texts quite a bit.
Dial idoldoesn’t tamper with the votes, but it is also not faster. You have to use a old dial up modem. It’s actually slower, but it is automated. That way you can just either let it do att the work, or you can use your sell phone, while your home phone is dialing by itself.
MJ said it’s confirmed that the theme is NOT restricted to the 90’s. The theme is just “Pop.”
Gwen will LOVE Blake I know, and he will do amazing once again!
He is just so talented….Go Blake!
There’s an assumption that VFTW voters actually make a difference. How do you know? There’s no way to split out those votes from the rest.