This week’s TV Week backlot talk interview with Ken Warwick.
Ken on the contestant’s performances:
- Melinda – Ken says that the whole reason they do genres is to “catch people out.” To see “just how good they really are.” Can they sing absolutely anything? He says, “The fact of the matter is, Melinda can virtually sing absolutely anything, and I think…they’ve run out of things to say about them. It didn’t blow your socks off, but it wasn’t bad…any other week she’d have given that performance…it’s a good song.” Ken adds, that there are times when a singer just can’t do the genre, and the question becomes, will they survive to the next week? He says it’s all part and parcel of the entertainment factor of the show. me: I think the second reason is more likely why they do the genres…
- Blake – “The trouble is, we know some of these songs so well–when you mess them around–sometimes it works…sometimes it doesn’t. The thing about the beatboxing is, we all know that Blake can do it, and he does it very well. But, sometimes it gets a little bit tedious.
- Lakisha – “There you go again, it’s not LaKisha’s genre, that…which is exactly why it’s there…to catch her up…it would catch anybody up. It’s one of those genres that didn’t really suit LaKisha last night.”
- Jordin – “She’s got a fabulous voice, she really has. She’s got great control, she’s got great quality and talent to her voice…she did well. You know…we are having trouble finding a genre that’s gonna catch her out.
- Melinda – Ken says, “She’s great, she can sing. She nailed it, I think.”
- Blake – Ken says, “No it wasn’t [his best night] he should have done something like “Jive Talking” which would have suited him down to the ground, but sometimes he gets a bee in his bonnet…I said, ‘I don’t know that, how come I don’t know that’ and he said, ‘Exactly why I’m going to do it. And I thought, ‘ooooh I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Blake.’ And to be honest, I don’t think it was a good idea. He’ll live or die by that, and he does do that, he lives and dies by the decisions he makes. So, if the public liked it, he’ll still be there. If they don’t he’ll be gone” me: Ken describes this with a bit of a snit in his voice. And this paragraph, peeps, describes exactly why TPTB don’t want Blake to win or even be in the Final Two…
- Lakisha – Chuck Ross mentions the fact that Lakisha never takes the guest mentor’s advice, and that her voice was hoarse at the end of her song last night. Ken says, “That’s the thing…when you get to the end of the series the voices have been going non-stop now…voices are pretty much on the edge…I even noticed it in Jordin’s voice that it just started to weaken off a little bit…not that they can’t sing, but that their voices are absolutely exhausted.
- Jordin – Chuck thinks she nailed both songs last night. Ken says, “I noticed the signs of tightness in that last song.”
Other Highlights:
- The songwriter contest is ongoing. Ken says, “Hopefully, we’ll get a good song out of it in the end.” Ken says that “generally” he likes the songs. Then he mentions again that he things that Blake’s song last night was a mistake. me: The mp3 was edited badly, so I’m not sure what he meant there…maybe that even good songwriters like Barry Gibb writes some clunkers.
- Ken says that he and Nigel pulled out of producing the Emmys this year because they are exhausted. He says between the charity special, the series and the finale, they need a break.
- They will be collecting money for Idol Gives Back right up until the finale.
- Chuck did not ask Ken to comment on tonight’s results.
