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.