This Week In Tonight In American Idol: 20 February 2007 Edition

At the very last minute, I decided I would live-blog American Idol tonight. Sue me.

8:00 PM: Ryan Seacrest tells us that "tonight, You take over". You again. I'm getting tired of You.

For background and ID info on our "semifinal 24", check here. We start with the men -- the women come up tomorrow.

8:02 PM: Ryan tells us that if we don't understand his explanation of how the next 3 weeks will work -- men and women compete among their gender groups, and 2 of each will be eliminated each week until we're down to 12 finalists [6 men and 6 women] -- we can "rewind" and hear it again, then "fast-forward" past the introduction of the judges. In case you took Ryan's advice, Simon tells the contestants that they should "sing well". Too bad he didn't give the same advice to Taylor Hicks last season. [Ooh, snap!!! -- Ed.]

8:11 PM: First up is Rudy Cardenas. Rudy performs "Free Ride" by noted Albino-American Edgar Winter. I've always hated this song, but Rudy's performance is passable. Randy calls it "corny". Paula calls it "fantastic". Paula is drunk medicated. Simon says Rudy does not have a "distinctive voice". Randy agrees. Paula repeats the word "fantastic" 3 times.

8:17 PM: During the first commercial break after the performances have begun, we get a commercial for AI. We hear Chris Daughtry's "Home" as the background music. My sister predicted in response to one of my earlier posts that "Home" would be the AI official "You've Been Whacked!!!" song this season. I think she's right.

8:20 PM: Our first commercial for the series finale of The O.C. Does anyone still care about this show??? Memo to Fox -- why waste an AI lead-in on a fucking series finale???

8:22 PM: Next up is Brandon Rogers. He performs a very lame version of Michael Jackson's "Rock With You". Randy calls it "pitchy" and "not your best performance". Paula reminds Brandon he's not a background vocalist anymore. Simon calls the song "too safe" and says he's much better than his performance.

8:27 PM: Next up is early-favorite Sundance Head. Sundance performs "Nights In White Satin" by the Moody Blues. I've always thought this song was vastly overrated as a "classic rock" song, but I'm sorta [but only sorta] heart-ing Sundance's take on it. Randy -- correctly, alas -- calls it "pitchy" and "off". Paula says Sundance "picked the wrong song". Simon says Sundance was "like Dad at a wedding". He notes that Sundance didn't bring the "rough, bluesy" style he showed earlier. He calls the performance "flat".

I personally hope Sundance survives his subpar performance this week -- I think he has potential in this competition.

8:37 PM: Next up is Paul Kim. During the performance, Paul does something that has never been done on AI before at least 3 different times -- he performs barefoot. Paul performs "Careless Whisper" by George Michael. Another song I never really liked, but I'm really heart-ing Paul's rendition. Randy doesn't like the performance as much as I did, but sees "a lot of potential". Paula says Paul "oversang the song" and was "pitchy". Simon suggests that Paul put his shoes on next week. He calls the performance a "copy", "third-rate" and "not overwhelming".

Never been done before, that whole barefoot thing:



[Paul Kim's gay barefoot performance of a George Michael song looked something like this. Except he was standing. And he didn't have these weird drum guys. And it wasn't as good as this.]

Ryan joins Paul on stage -- without his shoes. Randy asks Ryan why he is without shoes. Ryan responds: "I just got a new pedicure and I wanted to show it off". Ryan Seacrest is approximately as gay as George Michael, Clay Aiken, and Paul Kim.

8:44 PM: Next up is Justin Timberlake-wannabe Chris Richardson. Inexplicably, Chris performs "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw. Which was a losing pick for Bo Bice back in AI4. Randy misidentifies the song as "an Edwin McCain song" but calls it "the best performance of the night." Paula loves it too. Simon says Chris's voice sounded "small" and "below standard" but predicts the girls will vote him through.

8:55 PM: Next up is Nick Pedro. Nick Pedro famously made it to the Hollywood round of AI5 but "withdrew" just before the door hit him in the ass on the way out. Nick performs "Now And Forever" by Richard Marx. But not very well. Randy didn't like it at all, calling it "pitchy". Paula agreed, saying he didn't have the "magic" from his audition. Simon says, "I didn't think it was that bad, actually." Simon agrees that Nick wasn't as confident as he'd been during the auditions, but predicted he'd make it through this week.

9:04 PM: Next up is Blake Lewis, who performs "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane. Randy expresses surprise at the song choice and calls it "pitchy" but says he liked it. Paula also thinks it was an odd choice but liked it. Simon says Blake is the first singer tonight to "sound like someone from 2007". Simon calls it the best performance of the nite.

9:13 PM: Next up is Sanjaya Malakar. Wouldn't it be interesting to see Sanjaya win -- he's very good -- and see the producers struggle with how to promote him??? Also, FWIW, Sanjaya is the youngest male in this year's competition. Watch for the "age factor" to be important -- both on the stage and off -- this season.

Sanjaya performs "Knocks Me Off My Feet" by Stevie Wonder and does a great job IMHO. But Randy hates the performance and says the song is "too big for you." Paula also thinks he failed to match Stevie's level. Simon calls it "dull" and "the worst performance of the night". All of the judges agree that his age is not a factor in their opinions. Which simply confirms that the judges got Nigel's memo, and that AI is looking for older performers who are more mature and actually connect with the music they are performing.

9:24 PM: Next up is Jack Osbourne Chris Sligh who performs "Typical" by Mute Math. The performance is good, but I think it's a bad song choice. Randy calls it a great song choice and loves the performance. Paula agrees. Simon hates it -- both the song choice and the performance -- which validates my existence. Simon also picks a fight with Ryan and calls him "Sweetheart", which Ryan does not respect. Chris comes back with "I guess I could've sung the Teletubbies". Uhhhh.....

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of this band Mute Math before tonight. They're from New Orleans, and they seem to be Killers-wannabes. Here they are performing "Typical" on The Jimmy Kimmel Show:



9:34 PM: Next up is Jared Cotter. Jared tackles "Back At One" by Brian McKnight, which is pretty ballsy. And I'm not a big fan of his performance. Randy calls it "alright" but "not your best". Paula says "there's more to you". Simon calls it "unadventurous" and "nasaly". Simon says he needs "to take a few more risks than that".

9:39 PM: Next up is A.J. Tabaldo, who performs "Never Too Much" by Luther Vandross. Again with the ballsy choices. The performance is good, though. Randy calls it "pretty good", but says A.J. "didn't bring anything new to it". Paula says he did a great job. Simon calls it "good, nothing great, nothing terrible". He also calls it "a theme-park performance".

9:49 PM: Our final performer of the nite is Phil Stacey. Phil is the guy who missed the birth of his child so he could make the auditions. Phil performs "I Could Not Ask For More", which, completely in spite of the fact that it was written by the craptacular hack Diane Warren, I think is actually a good song. "I Could Not Ask For More" actually was an Edwin McCain song. It was also covered by "country" singer and "Dancing With The Stars" veteran Sara Evans [a love for the music of Sara Evans is, I GUARAN-DAMN-TEE YOU, the only quality I share with Tom DeLay]. Randy says it was the best vocal performance of the nite. Paula agrees that after a rough start, he really hit it. Simon agrees the start was shaky, but that he made it "okay", but "didn't nail it". Simon predicts he'll make it through.

9:52 PM: Ryan gets in the first "Britney Spears is bald" joke of the season by commenting that Phil Stacey was "going with the Britney Spears haircut".

9:53 PM: Ryan asks Simon why he was so negative tonite. Simon responds that he doesn't believe in lying to people or patronizing the audience. "It wasn't the best set of performances tonight." But here's your money shot of the nite...Simon: "I'm not going to lie to people. You can do that on your radio show, Ryan." Ouch!!!

*****

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty mediocre nite. If I were forced to predict who will get the boot on Thursday, I would say.... The bottom four will be: Sundance Head, Sanjaya Malakar, Nick Pedro, and Chris Sligh. Of the four, I think Sundance and Nick are the most likely to make it through.

*****

Just because, I leave you with Sara Evans's excellent cover of "I Could Not Ask For More"...

Sara Evans - I Could Not Ask For More [mp3, via YSI]
Sara Evans - I Could Not Ask For More [mp3, via zShare]