Expect American Idol to stay strong in Season Five, or so says Media Watch, an industry paper for Media Buyers:
The fact that Tribune Entertainment will likely confirm a syndication deal for American Idol this week hasn’t diluted the appeal of the series for this season, Media Life writes. The series, which generated its best ratings last year – landing the most-watched program of the season and propelling Fox to its first full-season win in adults 18-49 – is returning for its fifth season next Tuesday, and many media buyers believe it will be as strong as ever.
This syndication deal–it intrigues me.
This Cnn article covers a lot of the same territory, but the last few paragraphs are devoted to the Weblog site MySpace, which FOX’s parent company News Corp acquired last year:
News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, speaking at Citigroup’s annual global entertainment, media and telecommunications conference in Phoenix Monday, said that the company had big plans for MySpace, including the recent launch of free video downloads, its own instant messaging services and eventually, an Internet phone offering.
Next? The Spoilerage:
Wow! Thanks so much to everyone who left comments on my blog after my last entry! As a result I do have some updates to post.
According to Auburn Tiger, who claims to know Taylor Hicks:
I know Taylor Hicks. He is 28 years old, his hair just turned gray when he was in High School. He has a great voice and I think people will really like him. He has been in many bands since I have known him and has lots of fans in Alabama. You can listen to some of his music on this website http://www.wbhm.org/Tapestry/bands/TaylorHicks.html I remember being at an Allman Brothers concert talking to him about Bo Bice and I was trying to talk him into trying out for the show since Bo did so well. I had just seen Bo at a Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan show where Bo came out and sang some songs with them. You will see that Taylor is a great guy with an amazing voice, he is also a talented guitar and harmica player.
The above link contains information on the Taylor Hicks of this site. I’m completely confuzzled. If he’s contracted to American Idol, how is it that he has a gig this weekend? And appears to be touring to promote a recent CD? www.taylorhicksofficial.com has been registered by AI. But if this dude is the Idol contestant, there’s NO WAY he’s Top 24, and it’s hard to believe he’s Top 44, because I imagine the contract stipulates that Hollywood contestants stay out of the public eye until the shows they appear on have aired. Unless I have that completely wrong.
Spoilerai, on Idolforums also provides information that seems to back up Auburn Tiger’s account, mentioning Taylor’s graying hair and aged looks and confirming the pictures on the site are the Taylor Hicks she met in Las Vegas. Hmmm…
According to my buds at my message board, and some folks who left messages here, April Walsh posted during the auditions as “Apeygirl” in the Television Without Pity AI forum. According to NoLamo:
April posted at TWoP back during the San Fran auditions, and most of the people there assumed she’d made the Celebrity Judge round because she wouldn’t divulge any information after she had made it past the first round. I figured it was her when I first saw the name, but I didn’t want to post my assumption at TWoP because I figured it broke the “don’t talk about the boards on the boards” rule there. And what do you know, a moderator jumped in to cease the talk of a TWoPPer making the semis. She had a pic of herself in her TWoP profile, but it’s all been removed. I remember it though, and I remember the same hairstyle. Oh, her name at TWoP? Apeygirl. However, in case TPTB go on a head-hunt to remove interesting female contestants (which the girl seems to have in spades and the agenda for the producers is a guy winner from what I’ve read) I’m going to put a disclaimer right here. All her posts (and nearly al post referring to hers) got deleted at some point (I think by a moderator). If it is April, she neither confirmed, nor denied she had made it to the celebrity judge round, and has not posted as to her current status in the competition at the TWoP forum, I want to make that clear.
A few of ApeyGirl’s posts have been left to stand in the auditions thread. April talks about singing “Dream a Little Dream of Me” in San Francisco. Apparently she auditioned there as well as Denver. A couple of posts down she says “Back from San Francisco, bleh” and that is basicallly her last post.
Finally Spoilerai dropped by to say that April Walsh and Torah were both posting on the FOX message boards during the audtions:
I remember Apeygirl used to post on the idolonfox message boards and so did Tora (torah).There was some kind of club that planned to meet in Denver (i wasn’t part of it) and they both were in that I think. It was called the dream team or something similar. I’ll see if any of those messages are still around.
Here is a link to those posts where they discuss meeting in Denver.
Again, thanks so much to Spoilerai and Auburn Tiger for dropping by with some great information. And I’d like to give a little shout out to Miranda–Hey there girl, make sure to validate your username, OK? ;).
