American Idol - Season 5 (1 Viewer)

[ScottR]

Ronetta was an actress? I thought she had the best line of the entire season, when speaking of Paula:

"She old as Hell!"

 

[Chris_Morris]

No, she was real, it was an actress playing her doing the award acceptance bit.

Best AI finale ever and the stand out points to me were:
1. Opening song
2. Guys group sing, truly showed that the talent was weighted heavily to their side this year.
3. Chris/Live
4. Carrie Underwood's performance
5. Clay Aiken's performance, though I hated that he was saddled with the annoying wannabe (and what in the world is going on with his hair?)
6. Taylor winning it all, even if both of them getting contracts makes it anticlimatic, plus it makes it two winners in a row that I've called from the start.

 

[Lucia Duran]

Well after watching that, it's painfully obvious why the other AI contestants got the boot (other than Mandisa). This was by far the worst finale of AI. The only high point and saving grace was Prince performing. That man can dance, sing and look as hot as ever!

I was so embarrassed for the contestants, because most of them were beyond off key during all the songs and what the hell was with That horrible duet between taylor and katherine (song from Dirty Dancing)...ugh! That was just bad all around.

I think AI got Aiken to sing by telling him that he had a fan who he was to sing to on stage, when in reality (tv) they were trying to make fun of Aiken. I think the whole performance was nothing more than AI/FOX trying to humilate an already humiliated contestant. His career is officially over, poor Clay.

The stupid awards were just ridiculous and such a waste of time. Why prolong the agnony for two hours? Have prince sing, and give the results. That is all we needed.

Oh yeah and Carrie underwood sang beautifully. I enjoyed her. I am not a country fan at all, but she really did a great job.

As for the host, well..... he is so last season! LOL!

 

[Bryan X]

Rain is right about the Ryan/Prince thing. Ryan just set it up like that's it, then SURPRISE! Prince is notoriously shy and it would have been a shock for him to talk to Ryan after the performance.

 

[MarcoAD]

He sang "Lolita" & "Satisfied" from his new "3121" CD. I thought it was a great performance and cool seeing him pop up on stage. Also, not that it matters but man "3121" in my opinion is leaps and bounds better than "Musicology"!

Either way, good show. It was very entertaining and hell I almost missed the start of LOST due to it, hehehe. TiVo'd the rest of A.I. and watched after LOST. Good show and congrats to Taylor. I'm definitely interested in seeing what type of CD he puts out and would definitely see him live.

 

[danak]

Jon Martin,
I think that's more likely referring to the ability to blast thousands of votes per second, like spammers do with email or faxes (apparently there are programs available to allow you to do this). DialIdol is about the same speed as someone dialing manually.

Ratings news according to bloomberg.com:
The finale attracted 20% more viewers than last year. The 2-hour show averaged 36.4 million viewers (last year averaged 30.3 million). It was the highest ratings for a season closing Idol episode since 2003 (I think that was Season 2 with Ruben and Clay, right?). The 2003 finale attracted 38.1 million viewers.

As I previously said, I think this was the best finale episode ever. On the other hand, I think Season 2 with Clay and Ruben had the best Final 2 episode ever, with Clay's rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" being the best ending of any Final 2 episode.

You can hear the studio version of Taylor's single "Do I Make You Proud" over on AOL: http://us.video.aol.com/video.index....pmmsid=1652909. It sounds great. I believe it's supposed to come out June 13, with Kat's coming out a week later

Dana

 

[MikeM]

Prince really needs to hire near dwarf-like side dancers to give off the illusion that's he's not the height of Spud Webb. Other than that, it was fun watching him on stage, but it would have been nice for him to play at least one big hit from his heyday.

The AI finale's ability to flip back and forth between genuine moments, and utter cheese-ball moments was pretty well done and fun to watch for the entertainment value alone. I was shocked at how much fun I had watching this finale.

 

[TonyD]

lucia, are you joking, didnt think this was a good finale?


i dont even care for the show, i watch with my wife because she likes it
but i thought the finlae was entertaining and good.
sure most of those do not sing well (thats why they didnt win) but also this was a live show and it sounded like a few were just losing their voice near the end.

puck n pickler was a riot.

i've never thought that Meat ever sounded good live.

here in philly we also had the glitch that had the beginning of the show repeated until half through the country girls song.

the awards were mostly funny.

the clay aiken guy was the hi-lite for me.
his reaction, along with the way the real clay looked was priceless.

i didnt thik the prince thing was a secret or a surprise.

even howard stern was talking about it maybe 6 or 7 weeks ago
and wondering why prince would do it and were wondering if he would start being a slave to his record co again, as maybe they were pressuring him into the appearance.

the non announcement of prince was awkward.
probably planned that way but it was strange.

i though katherine should have won as i think she has more potential as a
singer then hicks.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have to agree with Lucia.

I finally watched the finale last night on Tivo and I gotta
say, this was an absolute freak show.

It's tough to watch because really, for the past 12+ weeks we
have been watching a very well-run showcase of talent. On
Wednesday night they turned AI into the biggest freak show
I have ever witnessed since The Gong Show (see my avatar).

I would have opted for something a little more dignified. I am
shocked that someone as talented as Prince, who really is very
exclusive about what he does, even showed up. It was just so
"out of place" to see this talent mingled in with the parade of
misfits.

I know my opinion will not be the popular one, but I know
where Lucia is coming from on this.

 

[TonyD]

i guess i agree with you ron and somewhat lucia.
but that is what i think about the entire season not just the finale

of all the participants only 3, 4 at the most has any true talent.
this season was the worst so far.
maybe only 2 were true talents.

thats why i only like the beginning with all the fools who try for the show.

it's pure comedy and not a real audition.
after that when they get the top 12 or 16 whatever the number is,
it isnt good because only 3 or 4 are actually good and can sing.

same reason why i liked the end.
comedy except for the 2 finalists.
and that was bad.
it seemed obvious that katheine could sing and can become a good recording artist.

hicks is a lounge act and is just goofy.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Oh, indeed, American Idol is totally corrupt on the
concept that it showcases the best talent America
has to offer.

The Producers are to blame and so is the audience.

The Producers are to blame for taking a stadium filled
with auditioners and selecting not the most talented
but those with the most "personality" good or bad. That
talent is dwindled down to a mere few who then go before
Paula, Randy and Simon for television airing.

I bet there are hundreds with "true talent" that get turned
down just because they lack personality that viewers will
find entertaining.

Then there's the audience who, most obvious in this season,
vote for a person not necessarily based on true talent, but who
comes across as most entertaining. And, if you happen to piss
off one segment of the fanbase by letting one of their favorites
go home, they'll go after the person they feel was responsible
(such as in the case of Kat vs. Chris).

I always wanted Taylor to win -- but not in my
wildest dreams did I ever really think he would. There were just
so many better singers in that group. Watch the finale and you
can see how Mandisa was just beltin' out that Aretha
Franklin song making you think, "Damn, this girl is so much better
than anyone we have seen tonight." But why didn't people pick
Mandisa? For one, bad song choices -- but even more, she was
overweight and people made fun of her week after week for the
clothing she wore.

Despite all these problems with American Idol, it still has remained
a cultural phenomenon. Nobody can deny that it's hugely addicting
and makes for perfect water cooler conversation at the office.

 

[danak]

A strong lesson about Idol is that a strong fan base will carry a contestant far, perhaps to a win if the fan base stays strong. Of course, the other lesson is the contestants need to appeal to enough people to pick up voters from eliminated contestants. Mandisa is a good singer but after 2 weeks of bad performances, her fan base deserted her. Kellie had a strong fan base, but they too deserted her after she crashed and burned two weeks in a row. Chris had a strong fan base, but he couldn't pick up enough new voters as contestants were eliminated. Kat started out strong and built a strong fan base. She faltered a bit with "The Voice Within" and landed in the bottom 2. She came back strong for several weeks, gathering new voters from eliminated contestants. When she started faltering again and became erratic during the final few weeks, her fan base was strong enough and determined enough to keep her in, all the way to the Final 2. If she hadn't faltered so badly on the original song, she might have made the contest close or possibly had a real shot at winning. She seemed to give up on that last song, somewhat deflating her fan base's desire to vote for her and ensuring Taylor's win.

I think one of the lessons learned this season (or relearned perhaps) is if a favorite is a strong performer and they do well for several weeks, don't abandon them when they falter. Stick with them and they just may pull out of their slump (or they may not).

Another lesson that keeps having to get relearned is don't assume your favorite is safe and not vote for them.

Dana

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I remain confused why anyone thinks the wrong person won.

People vote for who they like, and that can't be wrong. If someone else's criteria is different from your own, that's your burden to bear. The entertainment industry (and life in general) is full of examples of people with less technical talent having more successful careers than people with more. It takes more, specifically in pop, to win (and be successful) than being the best singer, and we all know that, so why the pushback?

I think Kat's a better technical singer than Taylor, and if I were visiting a city for a formal night out and she were singing, I'd be OK listening to her. But Taylor is someone I could listen to anytime because he represents fun and passion in music to me. Kat has wonderful technicals, but little emotional connection.

When I was younger learning music, I had to go through all these difficult technical things to develop my skill. All of us did. Still, I can remember when formal band practice was over, people would just start playing "fun" songs. Like Sting's band did in that movie "Bring On The Night" when they started playing/singing The Flintstones theme. Taylor is fun music, and anybody who wants that and supports that cannot be wrong in that choice.

Maybe Kat will eventually be a more successful singer (IMO, that's nowhere near guaranteed), but the right person won American Idol. That's doesn't discredit Kat's talent at all. Nor Elliott's. Nor Chris's. Nor Mandisa's. Etc.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Mikah,

I can't argue with this. Great point.

 

[danak]

Mikah
Well, yes, it kind of can be wrong if we want to try to pick the best talent or entertainer out of a group of people. If Kevin Covais had somehow won, would that have been the right choice?

Dana

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

If (let's just say) you say Kat is the best entertainer to you and I say Taylor is the best to me, how can either of us be wrong? That's what American Idol is asking us. Who does each of us like more? For whatever reasons. At the end of the day, the votes are tallied and majority rules.

I would say the same thing if Kevin Covais won, even though it would mean the majority of voters disagreed with my assessment. I wouldn't say America is wrong because they didn't vote according to my own personal standards and tastes. Voting is always painful, but you generally get what you deserve.

 

[danak]

Mikah,
I guess I can't really disagree with that (post #1456). Idol leaves it up to the viewers to decide (although they manipulate emotions to get us emotionally involved) and enough of them will decide on someone to pick a winner, no matter who it is.

I think I've learned something this year, given all the bashing that several of my favorites have taken; that is, to go easy on the bashing of other contestants who aren't my favorites (and not question the fans' intelligence too much). I know Idol sets it up for there to be rivalries between the fan bases, but I need to understand that contestants stay in the race because their fans want them there, for whatever their reasons are. I will say though, I think teenage voters and adult voters vote based on different criteria, with teenagers voting mostly because they think someone is cute or they like them and adults voting more on the talent (and that they like the contestant as well). For the future, depending on the allure of older contestants, I think we are going to have more older viewers making the effort to vote. That may mean older contestants will have more of a shot of winner. Also, with more adult voters, the ratings and voting totals will probably go up.

I still can't get over how great this year's finale was. I hope the producers can do it again next year.

At the same time, I fear that next year will pale in comparison to this year. Perhaps it's for the best, as it's probably better I don't get so emotionally involved every year.

Media appearances for Taylor and Katharine (and Elliott) this next week:
Larry King Live on CNN - Monday 9pm Eastern, repeat of Friday's show, with Taylor, Kat, Randy Jackson, and Ryan Seacrest sitting in for Larry

Live with Regis and Kelly (ABC, 9am Eastern):
Tue, May 30 - Taylor
Wed, May 31 - Katharine
Thu, Jun 1 - Elliott Yamin

The Ellen Degeneres Show (NBC, 11am Eastern):
Fri, Jun 2 - Taylor

The Today Show (NBC, 7-10am Eastern)
Thu, Jun 1 - Taylor and Kat

The CBS Early Show (CBS, 7-9am Eastern):
Thu, Jun 1 - Taylor

Dana

 

[danak]

Oops, the Larry King Live segment with Taylor and Katharine was (is being) repeated tonight (Sunday) at 9pm Eastern. Sorry about that.

Dana

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Drat. Missed it. Anything interesting?

 

[Patrick Sun]

"Soul Patrol!!!!!"