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AI... the final two

So tonight begins the final week of American Idol for yet another year... and to be honest, I don't know if we will watch. Yes, I know it is supposed to be the hottest show on television, but this year, it just didn't work for me. And that is not only because all the CJD-favs got booted. I have been expressing my overall disappointment with the show for weeks. Just none of these people got to me. And I know people are all jazzed -- er, rocked -- by Bo... and I just don't get it.

I am not saying that the show has jumped the shark. That remains to be seen... and we'll have to see next year. I'm just saying this year sure didn't do it for me. (Of course, it is hard to have a Star Wars passion going and an AI passion! One only has so much passion at any particular time, right?)

So we'll see how it goes tonight. At least it is only an hour tonight. They aren't milking it for a full two hours! That would be painful! But given that I haven't seen the Desperate Housewives finale... hmmm.

My pre-show prediction... Bo wins it all.

AI... the end is in sight

There are only three shows left -- tonight's elimination leaving us with the finalists next week.

We've been through this for months and the season is coming to a close. I am disappointed with the show this year. The group just didn't do it for me the way that they did in years past. Perhaps I am just growing out of the AI demographic? In general, my predictions this year were way off -- the only person in my final three still in the competition is Bo... and I don't even like Bo!

So, about last night... I say up front that I am not a Bo fan. I just don't get it. He sings pretty much every song the same! I know folks are nuts over him, including my AI group, but I just don't get it. (This morning, when I was in a foul mood, I was quite adamant, for some reason!) I thought his Rolling Stone rendition was the worst performance of the night. (And I cannot imagine buying a Bo album. UGH! Of course, I swore that I wasn't going to see the final Star Wars movie, and then... guess where I'll be at 12:15a tonight/this morning.)

Vonzell's Donna Summer was the best of the night. And I think Carrie was off all night.

So who should get booted: Carrie
Who will get booted: Vonzell... which is too bad. I think she has the most potential of the three of them.
But I think Bo will win it all next week.
And who knows -- it is proven that I can turn... and who better then Clive Davis, who is super-fab!
Oh... here is an empassioned defense of Bo from one of my AI group members:

I think Carrie and Vonzell sing every song the same...they all do. Isn't that what "making a song your own" is? Having your own personal trademark style? I just think Vonzell and Carrie are so cookie cutter. Bo has "kept it real" from Day 1....and his performance sans band last night was incredible. He's never tried to change who he is or his image, whereas Carrie has tried to dabble with rock and roll (not very convincingly with Joan Jett) and that 1950s-style song...also her second song last night sounded so strained (did anyone else notice that she was practically YELLING the words...and was also way off pitch/flat at the end?)

Watching Vonzell makes me feel nervous because she is too energetic and too type A (I 100% agree on the Miss Congeniality / pageant comment made earlier) some of her songs seem like they are pitched too high and aren't as easy on the ears...because she is trying to outshine SO MUCH (even the original artist).

Yes, it's a competition, but I feel more of that forced feeling from V than from the other two. Bo (and Carrie, too) seem to like to be able to kick back and just enjoy the music and performing. I'm still hoping that we will get to see Bo do an acoustic version of some song where he actually plays his guitar. Maybe I'm a Bo fan because he strikes me as more of a "musician" whereas Vonzell is more of a "singer/performer" does that make sense? I could see Bo writing his own music, playing his own music, instead of being the packaged product.

AI... too cute by half....

That's what I get for being too calculating! I should have just stuck to my original prediction, which was the correct one! Oh well! This has not been my best year for predictions.
No, Vonzell did not get voted off. Instead, dear Feteroff got the boot.
Bye bye Anthony! Nobody ever would have predicted that he would make the final four, so he did much better than expected, but... he's not the American Idol!

I'd love to see Vonzell be the American Idol -- I think she has much more promise, but my guess is we will have the Bo/Carrie match-up for the finale.

AI'05... down to three...

Before I get to last night, our good friend MJ's littl' brother is a junior at the University of Southern California (coincidently, CJD's alma mater) and she was chattin' with him this morning.

He "is telling me about this big party he threw last night -- and this is what he says: 'It was huge. 2000 people showed up. And have you heard of that guy named Ryan Seacrest? He was there and called me because he wanted to come and talk about on some show he has today.'

Some show? Ryan Seacrest, of course, in addition to being the host of AI and syndicated American Top 40 countdown show, also hosts the popular morning drive show on LA's KIIS-FM, so I'm not sure how he is out partying at night, but...

On to last night...
My American Idol voting pool has been suspiciously quiet about last night's festivities. Either everybody is busy or they are just depressed that AI is approaching an end for yet another year... or perhaps they just don't know what to make of last night. Personally, I fall in that final category... despite my pre-vote yesterday...

It seems that everybody only got to do one GOOD song last night -- if you did well on the first song, then the second one sucked... or vice versa. So I'm making a very calculated vote today...

Best performance of the evening: Vonzell... her second song was the bomb!
Weakest performance of the evening: Vonzell... her first song, however...
Most consistent performances of the night: Anthony... who knew!
Who should be in the bottom two: Bo and Carrie... Bo's first and Carrie's second songs outweighed their second and first songs.
Who will be in the bottom three: Vonzell and Anthony
Who should go home: Anthony... He's just not up to par with the rest of 'em.
Who will go home: Vonzell... I just think Anthony will pull young googly eyed girls and the votefortheworst.com folks leaving Vonzell with a trip home

AI... the home stretch...

It's the final four on American Idol. The show is still hours away, but it is already clear who is going to get booted -- poor Anthony Fedorov. (DMV's office calls him three-eyed blind! Harsh!)

Deservedly so at this point. Of the four, he is clearly fourth... or maybe even sixth or seventh.

The only thing he has going for him -- the Web site votefortheworst.com is in his corner! And everybody thinks they had an impact keeping blubberboy in the mix.

After being dropped from our server on Tuesday, we're back, and better than ever. We lost Scott, which is a huge bummer, but out site was also not around for the past 2 days to rally even more support. VFTW never gives up though, and our next target is Anthony. Join us and vote for Clay Aiken 2.0 for the full 2 hours. We may be able to stop the inevitable Bo/Carrie finale yet.

I'll report back when the show is done.

Subject: Hottest idol... discuss...

Given that Paula clearly decided to fling with... well, not the most attractive Idol contestant... who should she have selected?

Selections should only come from finalists, of course. There were many a hottie that auditioned, but let's keep it real. And it can be the hottest boy and girl, if you must.
So here are the finalists...
From Season One
From Season Two
An aside... do check out the horrible pictures of Clay. Yikes!
From Season Three
And, of course, from Season Four

Comments can be filed in the comment section... or e-mail me. I expect all three people that read this blog to respond!

And not to prejudice anybody, but I may have to go with JPL -- Jon Peter Lewis from Season Three. And yes, he now has his own Web site at http://jplewismusic.com/ where you can download his latest single, "Turn to gray" for 99-cents. The "news" on JPL is a tad bit depressing -- appearing at a mall in Indiana as part of an Idol Coca Cola mall tour. ARGH! But I guess I really shouldn't talk, right? Many more people know him then know me!

Fallen... yawn... Idol

First off, I have never been happier to be wrong then I was last night. Scott Savol was booted last night. Of course, on Tuesday, when Ryan asked him what he thought he was going to be doing on Wednesday night, he said, "Deciding what song I'm going to sing next week." Well, thankfully we are spared... and the votefortheworst.com folks are crushed. Will they rally behind Feteroff now?

For the record, they just listed the bottom two this week -- Savol and Feteroff.

But on to the real story... ABC News' PrimeTime Live's "Fallen Idol." I just had to wonder if Paula was going to sleep with somebody, couldn't she find somebody hot? Which actually raises the question: Who is the hottest AI contestant ever? Hmmm. A question to ponder. Thoughts always welcome. (Scott votes will be ignored -- no, deleted!)

It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to this story. I have said repeatedly that unless ABC found that AI was manipulating the vote count somehow, it just was going to fall short of "Quiz Show" proportions. My thought was, "So what?" So he gets coaching from somebody whose career was boosted by being an AI judge. By a person who just must have writers because nobody could come up with as many vapid comments on their own! So I was underwhelmed... entertained and interested, but underwhelmed.

I'll have to cruise the blogs to find out what others are saying.

AI05... who needs facts?

One doesn't need actual facts to have an opinion, right? No, I'm not talking about ABC News' PrimeTimeLive program tonight, "Fallen Idol," although I'm really looking forward to watching that... I'm talking about the show last night. I didn't see it! OK! Let's not make a federal case over it! It is no shock that I have not been all that enthralled with the show this year. (To be honest, I am more more excited about the PrimeTimeLive special!)

So, with little knowledge other than water-cooler talk, I predict Feteroff will get the boot this week. It seems Scott skirted by this week and he has an inexplicable base. So while I'm hoping for Scott and I would still love to, as my good friend V said, "I'm starting to think I'd like to see Anthony Federov doing some Calvin Klein underwear ads." Um, yeah baby! Unfortunately, I think it is bye-bye Anthony!

But what do I know. I didn't watch the show!

Back to PTL for a moment -- As I said before, unless ABC News has evidence that AI manipulates the phone count, the story is fun but falls short.

A pack with the devil!

That is the only way to explain American Idol this year -- Scott Savol has made a pack with the Devil! He sold what little soul he had and it has let him get this far.
Let me step back for a moment...
It has been a very busy week  -- more on that later today -- so I did not have time to do my usual AI05 post, but I will give you what my predictions were:
CJD's predictions:
Best performance of the evening: Carrie
Weakest performance of the evening: Savol... although Constintine tried to make a race of it. Hor-a-ble!
Who should be in the bottom three: Savol, Anthony, Constintine
Who will be in the bottom three: Savol, Constintine, Vonzell
Who will/should go home: Scott

As well all now know, Scott did not go home. In fact, Scott did not even make the bottom three. It was Vonzell, Constintine, and Anthony. Vonzell got to sit down and Constintine goes home amid a sobbing Paula.

So I am now convinced that Scott has made a pack with the Devil. How else can you explain Bobo The Wonder Idol's continued success?

We have officially entered bizarro-world!

And Bo, who is not a CJD-fav, is the only one of my original final three still in the race. It is just wrong! Bot is talented, but I just don't see him as a pop idol. And he pretty much does the same regardless of the theme. I guess the new CJD-fav would be Carrie, who is a bit on the boring side, but has great pipes.

One last aside... AI scandal watch. When does the ABCNews special air? The WP's TV columnist says the American public doesn't seems to care. I don't think that is the case. I just don't think anybody thinks this is a Quiz Show scandal. Are the number of calls fixed?  Save that, it falls short. If the big story is that Paula is goosing the boys she likes, that seems to fall far short of a scandal to me. She's a judge, for goodness sakes. Each week, she says who she likes and who she doesn't like... but I can't wait to tune in. Has ABCNews said when it is airing yet? Just checked...  tune in May 4 at 10p on ABC for PrimeTimeLive's "Fallen Idol"

AI'05... there will be six...

I have already said that I care less and less about this year's American Idol. The remaining people are a bore and the fact that Scott and Anthony are still in the contest but Nadia is not is just wrong. I watched last night, nevertheless. And so... CJD's take...

CJD’s AI take… 

Overall observations:

• It was a much better theme this week. It allowed them to strut their stuff much      more. But I was still left un-wowed. There is yet to be a performance this year that knocks my socks off. (sorry all you Bo fans! And how exactly was the song he did disco in any way?)
• Is Paula on crack? She has been totally wacky lately.
• Simon seemed tired. He usually has some interesting critique, but he was just off his game.
• Was there anybody that Randy didn’t like last night?
• There seemed to be some problem with the mix levels. Vonzell was quite good, but she seemed to be drowned out by the back-up singers.

Constantine… Singing the Bee Gees’ Nights on Broadway… Loved the all white jacket. I’m not sure what the deal with the mascara was. The judges say it is lame. Perhaps I just love the song, but I didn’t think he did that bad.

Scott Savol… Singing Everlasting Love… Best song in weeks. Of course, that is not saying much. He is totally out of his league. Can you imagine EVER buying a Savol album? And where did Seacrest’s “Scotty the Body” come from? It seems insulting at best.

Carrie Underwood… singing Donna Summer's version of

MacArthur Park … one of my favorite songs… I’m not sure she is the brightest light bulb on the Christmas tree. She called MacArthur Park good “despite the words” – some of which she forgot… again! Here are the lyrics. USAToday.com’s reviewer said her comment was “vacuous… I'm sure Jimmy Webb, one of the world's pre-eminent songwriters, must have enjoyed that review … Someone left her brain out in the rain.)"

Fedorov… Singing Tavares' Don't Take Away the Music… OK. He did OK. (I still think he is cute!) But honestly, didn’t you think, “Couldn’t somebody please take the music away from this boy!”?

Anwar… His version of September by Earth, Wind & Fire was better than the painful songs he has selected previously. I’m not sure it will save him, however.

Bo… So how is this song disco?

CJD Predictions
Best performance of the evening: Carrie
Weakest performance of the evening: Savol
Who should be in the Bottom Three: Scott, Anthony, Anwar
Who will be in the Bottom Three: Scott, Anthony, Anwar
Who should go home: Scott (if for no other reason then his general performances)
Who will go home: Anwar