Idol Headlines For 8/31/08

Life after ‘American Idol’ keeps contestants busy

Smithson, who performs Wednesday at Van Andel Arena with the rest of the Top 10 finalists, not only exited with head held high, but with the distinct possibility of exhilarating new opportunities.

“I can’t really talk about it yet, ” she said, “but I did get some pretty good news the other day” regarding a recording contract.

If she does release an album on a major label, it will be her second experience doing so. As Carly Hennessy, she put out an album with MCA Records called “Ultimate High” in 2001. When the record company merged with a parent company, her album got lost in the shakeup and sold few copies.

Mlive.com

‘American Idol’ tour hits Grand Rapids Wednesday

Commemorating an ‘Idol’

Blue Springs, Mo. ‘  David Cook was speechless when the cloth came down and the mural designed in his honor was unveiled.

…Wow. I dont think I have ever looked that good, he said of the mural in downtown Blue Springs, Mo. …Thank you guys. All I can say is thank you. I cant say anything else. This is huge.

Cook, a Blue Springs native, was the seventh winner of …American Idol in May. He was back in his hometown Friday to attend the unveiling of a mural, designed and painted by students in the Blue Springs School District Summer Creative Arts Academy. All are students at Blue Springs South High School this fall, Cook alma mater. More than 100 people attended the unveiling.

Enterprise News

More Idol Headlines After the JUMP…

The tour comes to the Wolstein Center in Cleveland on Sept. 4.

Full circle is where …American Idol season 7 top-five contestant Brooke White recently found herself when the …American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008 played Philadelphia, which is the city the singer auditioned in last summer.

…Oh my goodness, it was a year ago this month and we just played there, said White, calling from Washington, D.C. …Talk about coming full circle. I stood on the stage, pointed to the section I sat, which was 222A and told the crowd that for 20 hours I waited for my first audition. So to go from sitting up there and standing on this stage within a year time, that pretty surreal and unbelievable.

Vindy.com

‘Idol’ is the arbiter of musical talent

The concept of “American Idol” is nothing new. It is, after all, only a talent show, and we’ve been seeing those for at least a few hundred years.

From town squares to radio to television, the talent show has long been an accepted, and welcome, form of entertainment. Even Frank Sinatra got his start on a talent show.

So why is “American Idol” so annoying? Beyond Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, that is.

Courier-Journal.com

T.I Sets Perennially Broken Hot 100 Record

Speaking of week two, and big debuts, let’s talk about the two aberrant debuts from last week, and one more from this week. Archuelta’s single makes a predictable second-week plummet, falling 13 spots to No. 15. Digital sales fell by nearly half after Archie’s big iTunes debut, and the song’s airplay remains too weak (it’s still nowhere to be found on Hot 100 Airplay) to offset that fall-off. Falling even faster is Taylor Swift’s “Change, ” which drops 29 spots after its No. 10 debut last week. Her sales go down by 56%, and country radio still isn’t focused enough on the song to give it an airplay boost.

Idolator

‘American Idol’ Finalist Phil Stacey Will Perform Sunday at Oxford County Fair

LEWISTON – One year after reaching the Top 5 on TV juggernaut “American Idol, ” singer Phil Stacey still shakes off the nerves that jangled his network performances.

“It was pretty crazy, ” said the 30-year-old country artist who will headline the Oxford County Fair Sunday. “There was a lot to enjoy about the experience. On the flip side, when you know that somebody is going to criticize your performance on national TV right after you give it, it’s a different vibe.”

He worried about the technical issues of singing for TV – such as standing in the right spot for the cameras and coping with the audio monitor in his ear – and he tried not to get caught up in the music.

“I was nervous enough just trying to sing, ” he said. “You know if you get too into it, someone’s going to make fun of you. It’s a confusing process. If you give the karaoke performance of a lifetime, it’s still a karaoke performance to them.”

Red Orbit

Review: “College”

Apparently, they don’t think high school seniors are smart enough to call the cops after being kidnapped, beaten and robbed of thousands of dollars. They don’t think high school kids are smart enough to ask for another dorm room when the one they’re assigned to is filled, opting instead to go stay in “The Dungeon” of a fraternity. But worst of all, they don’t think high school kids are smart enough to avoid this sham of a movie that can’t even deliver on lowbrow humor.

“College, ” featuring Nickelodeon star Drake Bell and Levittown’s favorite “American Idol” finalist, Kevin Covais, plays out like some twisted after school special. Its objectives get so confused that after a wild weekend of exploits – where girls bare their breasts and boys bare their butts and pigs get fed laxatives and the kids do body shots off a naked hairy man – the movie actually tries to get preachy, hammering us all over the heads with messages of personal responsibility and being true to yourself and your friends. No, really.

Newsday

TV Review: The X Factor, ITV1, Saturday 30 August, 7.10pm

Finally, after being trailed for the past two weeks and almost all of last night’s show, we got to meet scary Ariel. Attitude problem much? But she wasn’t the only scary thing about this third week of auditions. I was also spooked by the fact that my request of last week to mix up the format a bit had apparently travelled right to the ears of the producers, and they put the good singers on first.

TV Scoop

The Brit pack stars leading the charge in Hollywood

Over the summer American Idol is estimated to have generated $100m in advertising revenues. This month Lythgoe, 59, announced he would be stepping back from Idol to …get a life – which involves adapting half a dozen more British formats for US television.

…Mark Burnett [a former British Army paratrooper] may have started the American reality craze with Survivor, but right now Entertainment 19 are the biggest Brits in American television, said Guber, baseball team owner and chairman of Manda-lay Pictures, which is retooling the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds.

Times Online

Barack Obama’s show even tops ‘Idol’

More than 38.3 million people tuned in to see presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama address the Democratic National Convention Thursday night.

That was the largest audience for the 2008 DNC this year, and bigger than the audiences for the “American Idol” finale or “The Academy Awards.”

Sen. John Kerry drew just 24.4 million for his acceptance speech in 2004.

The audience watching Obama’s nomination speech was actually larger than reported, though unmeasured. Nielsen’s estimate counts 10 networks’ coverage in the 10 p.m. hour, but not PBS and C-Span, which also carried the event.

“There has been enormous interest, ” CNN senior vice president David Bohrman said. “[The presidential race] has transitioned into a must-see TV event….People have become transfixed.”

CNN had 8 million people watching. ABC averaged 6.6 million; NBC averaged 6.1 million; CBS, 4.7 million; the Fox News Channel, 4.2 million and MSNBC averaged 4.0 million.

NY Daily News

Dancing With The Stars: Official Couple Photos

Oh No They Didn’t

The Idol dream may be over, but Earl did it his way

His Canadian Idol run is over, but Lloydminster Earl Stevenson is showing no signs of slowing down.
On Tuesday night, Stevenson Canadian Idol journey ended, but he remains optimistic for the future, with plans to move to Toronto to pursue a music career.
…Kind of sucks that I am kicked off but you know, I dont think you necessarily have to win to be successful, so I just am going to keep going, said Stevenson. …I want to do a bunch of music ¦ just continue, definitely just go hard at the music.
Stevenson journey on the popular reality show began in January when he auditioned in Edmonton and received a gold ticket to Toronto. After grueling auditions three months later, Stevenson made it through the top 200 to only 24 contestants.

Meridian Booster.com

About mj santilli 34830 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!