So sawry if I ruined the surprise for anyone on the West coast by posting the name of the eliminated contestant right after the East coast Results show. I post spoilers here. And posting the name of the eliminated contestant is a spoiler.
Here is a rule of thumb: If you don’t want the Results show spoiled, stop checking the blog after the Results show ends on the East coast.
Top 6 Results show Recap
Hey hey now, can you fake it? Can you make it look like we want? Hey hey now, can you take it? And we cry when they all die blond?
Bye Bye Kellie Pickler!
Wow. We got the Shocking! Shocking! elimination tonight, but not quite what we expected eh?
Ryan mentions that there were 47 and a half million votes cast last night. According to Nigel, this was the third highest vote total–behind the Season 3 and Season 4 finales, respectively. And the highest non-finale total since Idol began.
Backpedal, backpedal
First order of business tonight? Simon apologizes to Katharine McPhee! During Nigel’s TVWeek.com interview, he was very concerned that the judges were much too harsh on Katharine’s performance last night. Tonight, Simon says, “I think I was unfair to one person last night and I want to apologize, because I don’t think this person got the right appraisal. And that person is Katharine.” The crowd cheers, Kat looks delighted, and now we know she’s certainly NOT on the chopping block tonight. “It sounds different when you watch it back, ” says Simon. Randy throws in a, “it was a little harsh, a little harsh” for good measure.
Simon asks Ryan if he’s speaking to Paula. “Yes” he says, not altogether too convincingly. “One dysfunctional family” says Ryan. Kudos to the script-writer who came up with that moniker.
Car-mercial
Another good Ford commercial. I like the photography here–all cool blues and grays. Cute doggies too!
American Idols Live!
Ryan announces the summer tour. It looks like I’ll be attending the opening show kids! Me and my camera will hopefully be seated right up front to catch all the fun and excitement. Whee! And no doubt I’ll attend at least one or two more shows during the tour. I’ll be sure to post full reports, with pictures! and maybe some video…mwahahah.
Andrea Bocelli and David Foster
I watched this in real time, so there was no fast-forwarding. What can I say, peeps. I’m really not digging the Opera Voice all cheesed up like this. Sample lyric, “Like stars across the sky…we were born to shine”. Ugh. Trite. Dreck. Andrea sings beautifully, but as Simon would say, “Not for me.”
Three Groups of Two
Check it out. Lisa Tucker in the audience, pimping her appearance on this week’s The OC. It can’t be fun for her to sit through a results episode, can it? Unless she’s experiencing a tiny thrill watching folks who outlasted her get the boot.
In this week’s TVWeek.com interview, Nigel promised that the Top 2 would be revealed to the audience for the First! Time! Evah! Oh boy. Ryan calls out each contestant: Katharine McPhee heads far stage right. Elliott Yamin (he looks nervous) heads to the middle. Kellie Pickler heads far stage left. Paris Bennett joins Kellie. Taylor Hicks joins Elliott. Chris Daughtry joins Katharine.
Ryan immediately declares Elliott and Taylor safe. Time for a break. Which group is in danger? Paris and Kellie or Chris and Katharine? Ooooh. The suspense is killing me! Actually, I’m kidding. When Kellie and Paris are grouped together, I instantly think: “Bottom 2”. Figuring out the Top 2 is a little trickier. Elliott and Taylor are sent quickly back to the couch. Does this mean they are Top 2? Taylor has been polling high for weeks. Elliott gave his best performance yet with much pimping and love from the judges. They could easily be Top 2, right?
Not so fast.
After the break, with 5 minutes left, we quickly find out that Chris and Katharine are the Top 2. Ohhhh. It all becomes clear now. The scrambling, the backpedalling, the apologizing to Kat–the People overwhelmingly disagreed with the judges critiques last night by voting her into the Top 2. Take that. In order not to look completely toolish and foolish, Simon, Nigel and Co. had no choice but to flip-flop and apologize. This is a complete about-face from what happened during the Top 10 Results show, when Katharine wound up in the Bottom 3 despite being pimped and overpraised by Simon. Speaking to her on the seal, Simon said that he watched her performance back, and it was nowhere near as good as he previously thought. She was so pissed that night. She must feel so vindicated right about now.
After Katharine and Chris are sent back to the couches, Ryan turns to Paris and Kellie. Oh, this is a no brainer right? Kellie’s just too dang popular to be sent home now right? Paris just doesn’t have the fan base to keep her going. Yes? Paris, when asked how many trips she’s made (several) to the Bottom 3 says, “This is my first trip to the Bottom 2.” Ha, ha. Way to go Paris! I’m really going to miss you!
But…
Kellie says, “After watching my performance last night, I feel like I deserve to be here.” Then, very quickly because there are only a few minutes left, Ryan says, “Kellie, tonight is the end for you.” Holy Freaking Cow! Paris hugs Kellie (she’s learning, good girl) and goes back to the couch.
Kellie doesn’t cry or carry on. No dramatics here. She doesn’t seem surprised. After her “Bad Day” video, she gets a few scant seconds to say goodbye, and she’s cut off mid-sentence. No singout, but that’s probably a good thing.
Kellie Pickler
Tonight’s show was a surprise. I did not expect Kellie to leave. And neither did anybody else, really. Neither DialIdol, other vote trenders like Aunt Edna, or the Gambling sites predicted a Kellie boot. The AI pundits–well, except for this guy from People–mostly thought Kat or Paris was a goner. What happened? Maybe two really bad performances in a row, coupled with the judges suddenly dropping the pimpage, did Kellie in.
Kellie could have a successful career. She’s not a great singer, but there are many successful pop performers out there who aren’t great vocalists. Heh. Just ask Paula Abdul about that. Kellie could be packaged as a Country Pop Tart, and with the right songs, she could do very well. I could see her starring in her own reality show. Really if Paris Hilton can have a hit show, why not Kellie? She may seriously have a future in television. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox put her to work right away.
At any rate, I’m not going to celebrate too much. I’m sure this is a sad day for Kellie and her fans. But, it was time folks, way passed time for Kellie to leave. And really, she probably did not want to know the world of hurt in store for her if she had knocked off any of the 5 remaining contestants–all of whom were completely out of her league vocally. So it’s win-win for everybody.
And thankfully, there will be no tearful reunion with Daddy during the finale.