OK, we finally caught up to the show where they named the 12 finalists. Looking at how they performed, I'd have to say the most baffling decision was Bucky Covington over Geddeon McKinney. Not that either were gangbusters, but at least Geddion sang in a tolerable fashion.
I was also surprised at how overblown Ayla Brown's crying was. Well, maybe not surprised given how most of the rejected contestants are stage kids enough to put on a brave face. And also not surprised given the way media likes to crank things up to generate sales/ratings. Still, the way it was played up I was expecting a breakdown.
Further disappointment came at the much-reviled Brittenum twins being in the audience. Hope they weren't supposed to be on house arrest. Or maybe I do; a parole violation should keep them from making later "surprise" appearances.
I do know who the first two cuts are (obviously, given previous posts on Kevin Covais), and I'm still waiting for the first "surprise" cut. I'm hoping for Ace Young, as I really didn't need a cleaned-up version of Constantine Maroulis. Heck, I don't even need the original one.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
The Internet Just Doesn't Work
So after getting all sorts of national attention, you'd think that the power of VotefortheWorst.com would be at its height, right?
Apparently not, as Kevin Covais was eliminated last night. Let the conspiracy theories begin.
Apparently not, as Kevin Covais was eliminated last night. Let the conspiracy theories begin.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Bat the Brat
Good: Bravo's next season of Celebrity Poker Showdown will be at Harrah's in New Orleans, with the $1 million pot going to hurricane-related charities.
Bad: Phil Hellmuth replaces Phil Gordon as the poker expert. I don't think I could listen to his whiny ass for two hours. Sorry, Bravo. Nice work keeping Foley on, though. Call me when you hit the trifecta and bring in Phil Ivey as co-host.
Bad: Phil Hellmuth replaces Phil Gordon as the poker expert. I don't think I could listen to his whiny ass for two hours. Sorry, Bravo. Nice work keeping Foley on, though. Call me when you hit the trifecta and bring in Phil Ivey as co-host.
Democracy Just Doesn't Work
For anyone annoyed by the packaged hypefest that is American Idol, be sure to check out VotefortheWorst.com, a Web site dedicated to furthering the fortunes of the finalist adjudged the worst of the group. For this season, they've tabbed Kevin Covais, whose resemblance to the title character of Chicken Little and willingness to go along with the joke nabbed him the "honor."
The site claims "victories" for the finals runs of Johnathan Stevens and Jasmine Trias in season 3 and Janay Castine and Scott Savol from last season. Hard to say how much impact they really had, as the first two had a "cute" factor helping them (Johnathan with the moms, Jasmine with the teenaged boys), and Savol wasn't that bad of a singer (with him, it was everything else). But with the publicity the site's gotten of late, I would not be surprised if they get more help with pushing Covais deep into the finals.
The site seems primed to replace Covais with Kellie Pickler if he fails, which seems like a cheat given how much the show has pushed her as a finalist. I would suggest Bucky Covington, who doesn't have the Idol "look" (i.e. he looks like an average person) and is not among the best singers.
There should be some sort of Internet-led vote hall of fame for Covais, Kemal Ataturk (who won Time's Person of the Millenium on-line vote) and Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf (an Internet vote-in for People magazine's list of the most beautiful people.
The site claims "victories" for the finals runs of Johnathan Stevens and Jasmine Trias in season 3 and Janay Castine and Scott Savol from last season. Hard to say how much impact they really had, as the first two had a "cute" factor helping them (Johnathan with the moms, Jasmine with the teenaged boys), and Savol wasn't that bad of a singer (with him, it was everything else). But with the publicity the site's gotten of late, I would not be surprised if they get more help with pushing Covais deep into the finals.
The site seems primed to replace Covais with Kellie Pickler if he fails, which seems like a cheat given how much the show has pushed her as a finalist. I would suggest Bucky Covington, who doesn't have the Idol "look" (i.e. he looks like an average person) and is not among the best singers.
There should be some sort of Internet-led vote hall of fame for Covais, Kemal Ataturk (who won Time's Person of the Millenium on-line vote) and Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf (an Internet vote-in for People magazine's list of the most beautiful people.
I'll Tell You What
I'm pretty happy to read that Fox has ordered more King of the Hill for next season. As much of an afterthought as it appears to be on the Fox schedule, it's at least the equal of The Simpsons, which will now spend two more seasons churning out episodes that will make second-rate entries appear brilliant.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Unexpected Catch Phrase Creep
The school I work at held a career fair yesterday. The heading on the flying advertising the event?
"Suit up!"
For all the success How I Met Your Mother has had this season, I wasn't expecting that. I figured the dating lemon law that Barney came up with would make the jump to real life first.
Speaking of Barney, there was a recent episode that gave more of his back-story, and now I'm confused. I was under the impression that Ted and Barney knew each other in college, but this episode mentioned how Barney used to be some hippie-type until his girlfriend left him for a guy who inspired Barney's current persona. Ted didn't seem to know Barney was like this, or at least the episode didn't explain that he did. This strikes me as more of a continuity problem than the Belle & Sebastian thing, but given how closely I follow the show (i.e. not that close) I may be mistaken as to how Ted and Barney originally met.
"Suit up!"
For all the success How I Met Your Mother has had this season, I wasn't expecting that. I figured the dating lemon law that Barney came up with would make the jump to real life first.
Speaking of Barney, there was a recent episode that gave more of his back-story, and now I'm confused. I was under the impression that Ted and Barney knew each other in college, but this episode mentioned how Barney used to be some hippie-type until his girlfriend left him for a guy who inspired Barney's current persona. Ted didn't seem to know Barney was like this, or at least the episode didn't explain that he did. This strikes me as more of a continuity problem than the Belle & Sebastian thing, but given how closely I follow the show (i.e. not that close) I may be mistaken as to how Ted and Barney originally met.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Whammied
I don't have much to say about Peter Tomarken's death in a plane crash yesterday. Bad enough to have it happen, worse that it was a volunteer medical flight (not exactly being how you'd want to get paid back for charity).
If you've not seen Big Bucks, the special about the Press Your Luck "scandal" involving Michael Larson's memorization-abetted windfall, I'd suggest checking the GSN listings. It's sure to be re-aired in the coming days, and is pretty interesting.
If you've not seen Big Bucks, the special about the Press Your Luck "scandal" involving Michael Larson's memorization-abetted windfall, I'd suggest checking the GSN listings. It's sure to be re-aired in the coming days, and is pretty interesting.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Fox: All Idol All the Time
OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration; I think there are still a couple of days where American Idol isn't on Fox's schedule. For now.
Long-time readers of the main blog know I've had an Idol thing from the start, and have recapped episodes in reasonable detail (which explains why I have so few long-time readers). That's waned over the last couple of seasons, and continues to now, given how the show has become predictable in its approach and how its "stars" haven't quite lit up the music world as predicted, Kelly Clarkson notwithstanding.
(NOTE: I know Carrie Underwood is doing pretty well, but mostly within the country genre. If she ever crosses over to pop success, we'll talk.)
This season kicked off with seven audition stops, which were good for about a month of shows that increasingly cover the bad and ugly rather than the good. For next season, I expect nine audition stops that'll provide show material through the end of February.
Then it was "Hollywood" week (though they seem to be closer to Hollywood now than the season they spent the week in what looked like a Century City warehouse), where they pared 175 contestants to 24. There's been some inflation in the number of semi-finalists, too. I figure next year it'll be 28, taking the semifinals through April.
I did watch a reasonable amount of the shows about Hollywood week, and was aghast at the amount of screen time given to Derrell and Terrell Brittenum, a set of twins who, unlike every other set of twins to audition, were sent through to the next round together. It doesn't help that they are incredibly obnoxious drama queens whose attitude far outpaces their talent. The saving grace, as you may have heard, is that they were both picked up for a variety of felonies of the fraud and identity theft varieties.
You can look for them in the upcoming CourtTV series Prison Idol.
Anyway, from watching the shows for Hollywood week this year it seems like there was less everything - less time seeing people sing, less time showing the conflicts when contestants were preparing for group singings, etc. Not sure if that's a factor of the number of contestants, the filler material of the contestants playing tourist, or commercials. Probably all three.
But now we're down to 16, as 8 semifinalists have been cut. No real surprises yet, other than one contestant's Maxim photos coming too late to save her from a brutal first week of competition. People to look out for:
* Kellie Pickler, who is a combination of Carrie Underwood (looks) and Fantasia Barrino (home state and tragic back-story). The show spent a lot of time hammering away at her background, so she's likely a lock for the finals.
* Taylor Hicks, who stands out not only for his head of prematurely greying hair but for being Ray Charles reincarnated, down to the body sway. He's my favorite because he's so incongruous.
* Paris Bennett, who may be a little too comfortable given that her grandmother is some well-known gospel singer (OK, not well-known to me, but Randy Jackson freaked out a bit in a fanboy way when he saw the grandmother at the original audition). Paris can at least sing.
* Ace Young, who I learned today is dating Essence Atkins, who I'd never heard of, a fact easily explained by her being a lead on the UPN sitcom Half & Half. He's apparently been on the show and even sang a little. He's like Constantine from last year, but with better grooming and less leering (and, thankfully, less eye makeup).
* And, finally, Ayla Brown, who I've saved for the end given that she's a local, from Wrentham (best known, probably, for its outlet mall). In many ways she's the anti-Pickler, both in looks (Brown has, fittingly, darker hair and skin tone) and background - she went to private school and landed a basketball scholarship to Boston College. On top of that, her mom is a local TV news reporter and anchor, while her dad is a state senator and likely lieutenant governor candidate.
(This led to a funny moment during the show where they reduced the field to 24, where they showed Seacrest asking Brown's father a question, but cut his response with an abrupt edit, apparently in fear of having to give other candidates equal time.)
"Conventional wisdom" (which applies to this show how?) suggests she won't win, but the judges seem to be warming to her. I'm still on the fence, given that her dad's a Republican and she's joining up with that school in Newton.
So there you go. A post almost as long and tedious as an episode of the show.
Long-time readers of the main blog know I've had an Idol thing from the start, and have recapped episodes in reasonable detail (which explains why I have so few long-time readers). That's waned over the last couple of seasons, and continues to now, given how the show has become predictable in its approach and how its "stars" haven't quite lit up the music world as predicted, Kelly Clarkson notwithstanding.
(NOTE: I know Carrie Underwood is doing pretty well, but mostly within the country genre. If she ever crosses over to pop success, we'll talk.)
This season kicked off with seven audition stops, which were good for about a month of shows that increasingly cover the bad and ugly rather than the good. For next season, I expect nine audition stops that'll provide show material through the end of February.
Then it was "Hollywood" week (though they seem to be closer to Hollywood now than the season they spent the week in what looked like a Century City warehouse), where they pared 175 contestants to 24. There's been some inflation in the number of semi-finalists, too. I figure next year it'll be 28, taking the semifinals through April.
I did watch a reasonable amount of the shows about Hollywood week, and was aghast at the amount of screen time given to Derrell and Terrell Brittenum, a set of twins who, unlike every other set of twins to audition, were sent through to the next round together. It doesn't help that they are incredibly obnoxious drama queens whose attitude far outpaces their talent. The saving grace, as you may have heard, is that they were both picked up for a variety of felonies of the fraud and identity theft varieties.
You can look for them in the upcoming CourtTV series Prison Idol.
Anyway, from watching the shows for Hollywood week this year it seems like there was less everything - less time seeing people sing, less time showing the conflicts when contestants were preparing for group singings, etc. Not sure if that's a factor of the number of contestants, the filler material of the contestants playing tourist, or commercials. Probably all three.
But now we're down to 16, as 8 semifinalists have been cut. No real surprises yet, other than one contestant's Maxim photos coming too late to save her from a brutal first week of competition. People to look out for:
* Kellie Pickler, who is a combination of Carrie Underwood (looks) and Fantasia Barrino (home state and tragic back-story). The show spent a lot of time hammering away at her background, so she's likely a lock for the finals.
* Taylor Hicks, who stands out not only for his head of prematurely greying hair but for being Ray Charles reincarnated, down to the body sway. He's my favorite because he's so incongruous.
* Paris Bennett, who may be a little too comfortable given that her grandmother is some well-known gospel singer (OK, not well-known to me, but Randy Jackson freaked out a bit in a fanboy way when he saw the grandmother at the original audition). Paris can at least sing.
* Ace Young, who I learned today is dating Essence Atkins, who I'd never heard of, a fact easily explained by her being a lead on the UPN sitcom Half & Half. He's apparently been on the show and even sang a little. He's like Constantine from last year, but with better grooming and less leering (and, thankfully, less eye makeup).
* And, finally, Ayla Brown, who I've saved for the end given that she's a local, from Wrentham (best known, probably, for its outlet mall). In many ways she's the anti-Pickler, both in looks (Brown has, fittingly, darker hair and skin tone) and background - she went to private school and landed a basketball scholarship to Boston College. On top of that, her mom is a local TV news reporter and anchor, while her dad is a state senator and likely lieutenant governor candidate.
(This led to a funny moment during the show where they reduced the field to 24, where they showed Seacrest asking Brown's father a question, but cut his response with an abrupt edit, apparently in fear of having to give other candidates equal time.)
"Conventional wisdom" (which applies to this show how?) suggests she won't win, but the judges seem to be warming to her. I'm still on the fence, given that her dad's a Republican and she's joining up with that school in Newton.
So there you go. A post almost as long and tedious as an episode of the show.
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