'American Idol': Better Than 'Cats'

'American Idol': Better Than 'Cats'

On a very theatrical night of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs, Syesha goes cabaret, Carly rocks, and Brooke melts down






SUPERSTARS Both Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson were at the top of their game

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Okay, American Idol
fans, here's the ultimate Andrew Lloyd Webber-night head scratcher: Can
you do more damage to your credibility by remembering every line of
your script than by noticeably flubbing your lyrics?
In the case of tonight's American Idol episode, the answer is a resounding ''yes!''
On one hand, we had Brooke White's jaw-dropping stop-and-reboot
on ''You Must Love Me,'' David Archuleta's badly botched second verse
on ''Think of Me,'' and (sigh) even Carly Smithson's rhyme-busting
substitution of her song title (''Superstar'') when she should've
repeated ''Jesus Christ'' on her first run-through of the chorus. Though these obvious gaffes didn't exactly bolster the trio's fortunes
tonight, they couldn't come close to the integrity-immolating antics of
Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and even Simon Cowell, who might as well
have been reading their critiques off cue cards written by Nigel
Lythgoe himself.
Yes, folks, it appears that in a post-Taylor Hicks era, Idol
doesn't trust its 29 million viewers to do the right thing. And that
means when a preordained member of the final two forgets his lyrics for
the second time in seven weeks, all three judges flagrantly ignore it.
(Paging Wayne Brady! On second thought, scratch that.) And when a
cannon-fodder contestant like Syesha Mercado dares to deliver a
showstopper that's oozing with sass and sex appeal, you will not hear
one word implying that she's in any way a threat to crack the top
three, only the nagging implication that she'd be better off pursuing a
career in musical theater than getting her hopes up for a ''This Is My
Now'' moment.
I know, I know — the show has always played favorites to a
degree, but tonight's pimping was so out of control I'm wondering if
it's worth going to my DVR and watching Idol
back in slo-mo, just to be sure the producers aren't slipping in
subliminal messages — ''Vote for an all-David finale, or a newborn seal
will die!'' — at regular intervals. Yet with all apologies for putting
big-eyed, white-furred baby mammals at risk, I'm not drinking the
Kool-Aid. Which isn't to say Little David's ''Think of Me'' didn't have its
merits. For starters, I appreciated the kid's efforts to reinvent the
showy stage ballad in a more contemporary (or at least
adult-contemporary) fashion by infusing it with some acoustic-guitar
action. And interestingly enough, by taking Lloyd Webber's advice and
keeping his eyes open during his performance, Little David seemed more
emotionally connected to the material than he has in weeks. That said,
how could Paula use the phrase ''absolutely perfect,'' and how could
Randy dub David ''the one to beat'' following a performance in which
the line ''Imagine me, trying too hard/To put you from my mind'' got
reworked as ''Imagine me, [mumblemumble] softly/[Mumblemumble] my
mind''? (I'm not even gonna harp on the lack of breath support during
several big notes.) And conspiracy theorists take note: The show's
producers chose to cut to a weird overhead shot (showing the back of
David's head) at the very second he began to struggle with the lyrics.
Yeah, Simon called it one of Little David's ''weakest performances''
but then promptly declared the performance was ''absolutely gonna get
you through to next week.'' To take an adjective from the cranky
British judge: Appalling!
At least Little David himself had the courage to look out into
the audience and mouth what looked to me like a sheepish ''sorry'' —
though whether it was to his dad, to his fans, or to Lloyd Webber
himself, I'm not certain.

My girl fav is Syesha Mercado...and with the guys Im starting to like the rocker dude Cook...but I still like David Archuleta...hmmm this is close...no real winner...but some are starting to shine.

American Idol is joke. Karaoke contest and a waste of good TV space. Sony pulled the wool right over the publics eyes with this monstrosity. Imagine that... A Japanese company owns "American" Idol! Amazing.