American Idol: Discussion Thread

[R!ck]

What a snoozefest

My predictions, and not necessarily who I want in the bottom 3.

Haley

Gina

LaKisha

[RogerNewcomb]

I enjoyed tonight's show. Chris and Melinda were my favorites.

Phil must go!

[R!ck]

My faves as well Roger, But unfortunatly Phil ranks #2 on DialIdol Gawd I hope they are wrong.

[DaysFanJean]

I think Chris may go. He isn't very strong in vocals. I think that Phil was so good tonight. He looked beautiful and can croon, wow....just like Paula said. Simon was so cruel to him. I was disappointed in Gina tonight. Her voice sounded tinny and weaker than usual...may be the song. She should stick to rock. My favorite (who just blew me away tonight) is Melina. I was disappointed in LaKisha as she sang one of my very all time favorite songs and just ruined it for me. I like playful Haley and guess she is getting a huge male population vote LOL. I still think she may be the one to go though if Chris doesn't.

The AOL poll has Sanjaya number one, then Melinda, Jordin, Blake, Chris, Haley, Phil, Lakisha and Gina.

Dial Idol has Melinda, Phil, Chris, Sanjaya, Blake, LaKisha, Jordin, Gina and Haley.

If these hold, I'm predicting LaKisha, Gina and Haley in the bottom three with Gina or Haley going.

[David_Vickers]

I wasn't too thrilled with Tony Bennett week. An odd choice IMHO, as will be the upcoming Country Night, since none of the finalists are country!

(1) Melinda Doolittle (of course) ---- she should WIN Idol. Hands Down IMHO. She's a 20 compared to the next best a 10. As Randy said, she feels the songs. Excellant. Also loved her new 'do, much improved over her previous hair don't.

(2) Lakisha Jones ----back to form, Loved her version of "Ain't No Sunshine", and she looked good as well.

(3) Gina Glocksen ----- Probably her best performance yet. She's becoming a fave of mine.

(4) Chris Richardson ----- the first time I had him as the best man in the competition. Very good, probably best performance so far.

(5) Jordin Sparks --- good, much improved over last week. She looked hot.

(6) Blake Lewis ----- still good, but a little disappointing this week..

My Bottom 3, and I hope one will go home.

(7) Haley Scarnato ------one of her best performance, but still not very good. Green is her color, I agree with Paula. I'm sick of her copying Katharine McPhee.

(8) TIED Phil Stacey----agree with Simon, he looked gloomy and sounded like he was singing at a funeral. He said he was singing to his wife. I'm scard for her. LOL

& Sanjaya Malakar ----- back to his worst. He said he was gonna prove that he could sing tonight. He didn't! LOL!

Love this post Rhiannon!!!!!!! And I'd love to see Kat McPhee beatch-slap her, with all of Haley's acting like Kat.

[DaysFanJean]

The AOL poll which has not missed since the beginning of the final 12, now has LaKisha dead last. I just can't see her getting booted this soon, but I do agree, it was an awful night for her. Sanjaya is number one. I loved him tonight.

Dial Idol has Jordin and Gina nearly tied in bottom 3, LaKisha and Haley tied for bottom 1.

It is feasible that LaKisha will go. I think Haley has a huge male voting fanbase and she is number five on the AOL poll.

[PhoenixRising05]

The theme sucked again. It was to boring and broad. I am not a Tony Bennett fan and the songs were dull but, whatever. It felt like a John Steven's nostaglic night at some points

Blake: Ok. Nothing special. His performance skills and his great finish saved this performance.

Phil: Ah, in the curses 2 spot on Idol. He was horrible and I always say never be horrible or boring if you are second because that means you are gone. Gloomy, dark...just bad. His vocals during the chorus are good but the rest are just...eh. He should go but there is someone else that should first .

Melinda: Brilliance. No more words needed. See ya in the finale.

Chris: Not bad but yet again, he is copying Justin Timberlake more and more and it needs to stop. You can have his style but the hat, the pose at the beginning...STOP IT!! Be original!! The vocals were good but I am sick of the copying of JT he does.

Jordin: Great. Great vocal, lots of personality. Awesome job. She looked great and reminded me alot of a young Kimberly Locke yet again tonight, only she had better vocals then her.

Gina: Not bad but boring and not enough of a challenge. Way too simple and safe. She is better then this and needs to pick songs to make her voice soar. She doesn't always have to do rock either but she can't pick boring, simple songs.

Sanjaya: Ugh...shades of John Stevens and the dance with Paula was sweet but...come on. The vocals were trash. Nice kid but he is becoming a joke in the media and to this competition. Save this kid and his family the misery and send him home. He has overstayed his welcome. The judges are even trying to find ways to get him out. He can be ok later on in life singing but not now. Cut him loose so we can get the focus back on performing and singing and not on whether Sanjaya will leave or how he will wear his hair this week.

Haley: First off, she was wrong to imply she only cares what Simon says. Secondly, the judges were rude to her and there has always been this underlying tension with them and her. I think she did or said something off stage to piss them off because I have never see them treat someone like this or a contestant react to them like this. Randy and Paula were rude to deflect commenting to Simon the leg comment as rude. Haley signed on for this show knowing what it entails so she should expect harsh criticism, even if all she seems to get is negative. Her whining about rarely getting positive feed back is getting old and SHE NEEDS TO STOP COPYING KATHERINE MCPHEE!! Her performance was ok. She obviously went back to the flirting, sex appeal route but it was just ok. Not boring so that is an improvement. I like her but I do have some issues with her obviously.

Lakisha: Loved her until the end when she seemed to back off on holding a high note at the end and opted for ending the song and making that weird face. I said when the top 12 started that Lakisha would be the traditional shocking elimination this year and it looks like it may happen if polls and dialidol are to be beleived. It would shock me because she was good and she was last and people going last hardly ever get knocked off. She was good tonight but not great and she has been losing appeal since getting to the top 12. I would also be shocked that she went this early as when I predicted she would go early I was thinking more like around the final 6 or 7. I will be pissed if she is anyone else but Phil or Haley goes before Sanjaya but I could see it happening.

My bottom 3 is Phil, Sanjaya and Haley with Sanjaya going home

As for what I think the actual bottom 3 will be, I think Haley, Gina, and Lakisha with either Haley or Lakisha (shockingly) going.

[R!ck]

I absolutely agree Phoenix..

I think the problem with LaKisha is that she peaked way to soon and she's great so her fans are not voting for her because her fans assume that she is safe.

Hopefully Haley goes this week.

[KMan101]

I agree about LaKisha. She peaked too early.

Ugh I hope she doesn't go.

I think we can all say Melinda will likely win this show and she so deserves it.

I was so bored last night.

I actually thought Chris was GOOD.

Haley wasn't that bad.

Jordin was very good.

I didn't even watch Phil's or Sanjaya's (how I dislike them so)

Gina wasn't bad.

It was just a boring night and no one but Melinda really stood out so it could be anyone going.

[DaysFanJean]

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Intervie...F-40A9890FFA58}

Idol Boss Talks of "Quitters," Vote Tampering and Sanjaya

by Matt Webb Mitovich

American Idol boss Ken Warwick assesses the new season.

Did one of this season's American Idol wannabes almost call it quits? Are those seeking to rock the vote succeeding? And is Sanjaya's "success" a liability for the popular singing competition? Idol executive producer Ken Warwick addressed those topics and more in a Tuesday conference call with reporters.

Late last week, upon Chris Sligh's ouster, the big story was that the big guy had allegedly inquired into dropping out of the competition a few weeks prior. TVGuide.com asked Warwick if he was in the loop on that possible departure — and his answer might surprise you. "Um, Chris Sligh sometimes talks out of turn, to be absolutely honest," Warwick told us. "I was never, ever aware that he came to the producers asking to be dropped out of the competition, so I don't know what he's going on about. He's stirring up interest in himself, and I wish him the best of luck — he's got a good voice — but I was never aware of that, and I think I would have been!"

Warwick later added that another of Sligh's grousings — that singers are forbidden from singing songs they've written themselves — wasn't completely true either. "We never tell them they can't do anything, but we can advise them at certain places," he said. "The truth of the matter is we just advised him against [singing his own song]. We did not tell him he couldn't do it, we just said, 'Chris, it's not a good idea. People do not respond and relate to songs they've never heard before.'"

Warwick also spoke on the hot topics of:

... the media's obsession with Sanjaya, for better or for worse:

"The fact of the matter is that someone on the show getting attention doesn't really bother me, obviously. What I love about this business is keeping people interested, and he's certainly doing that. It's a competition, so you do whatever you can to keep your face there!"

... upcoming theme weeks:

"You've got J.Lo and Latino music coming up next week, you've got Jon Bon Jovi coming up for what I guess would be rock week.... There are interesting things coming up."

... how harsh judging can backfire:

"The fact of the matter is [simon, Paula and Randy] do influence the viewers, but when they go too far, the viewers have a great way of bringing them back down to earth. The day that Simon said [to Haley Scarnato], "You're so insignificant I can't even remember your name" — which was really, really harsh and uncalled for — the public absolutely responded with, 'Screw you, Simon!' and the kid was way up that week."

... the possibility that robo-voting — namely, one man's claim to have voted for Sanjaya 34,000 times last week — is messing with Idol outcomes:

"There's been expensive equipment in place to stop this block voting ever since it came up in Year 1... and never once has it been used. There is very often [phone voting] congestion at the local level, but there has never been congestion at the national level. [busy signals occur] at the local exchanges, not the national exchange, which I can't do anything about. The voting is as straight and as fair as it can possibly be, and anybody who says otherwise is not telling the truth."

... the first time he heard LaKisha and Melinda sing:

"I said those voices had to be on the program. They are very strong, very powerful, very good voices, and they deserve to be in that top-24 spot. End of story."

... Haley's considerable charms:

"I like her a lot. She's quite a shy girl — that's the problem, that she's not in your face all the time — but she's a lovely kid, she looks good, and she has a good voice. I don't care what Simon says!"

... the impact of campaigns by Howard Stern and one dubious website to keep Sanjaya undeservedly in the mix:

"It's very minimal, to be truthful. There is very little hype anybody can do that would affect the vast number of votes that we get. Even if every single person who listened to Howard Stern voted, the gap above and below Sanjaya is so big that it swallows that up and it doesn't affect the outcome at all."

... how Sanjaya is surviving:

"Say what you like about Sanjaya, he's not actually got a bad voice, and he changes things up week-on-week; he's always a talking point the next day.... He's a good-looking kid, and young girls love good-looking kids. He's not as bad a singer as everybody makes him out to be. And part of this business is your communication with your audience, and he's certainly got that. Personally, I don't expect him to be there in the end, but you never know. It's not up to me, it's up to the public."

[DaysFanJean]

I was thrilled to read the guy who matters voice his opinion of Sanjaya. Poor kid has such mean-spirited folks trying to topple him. Also, I think it's laughable for anyone to think Howard Stern could actually have any impact on a show like American Idol. It's really frightening if you think about how if he could do that, then he would chose our president, the senators and congressmen, governors, winners of the Oscars, Emmy's, Golden Globe award, and you get the picture. It's ludricous. How many people even listen to his words? And, of those who do listen, how many actually do anything he says?

What he says about Haley is sweet, too because too many are saying really tacky things about her, also.

[David_Vickers]

I think Haley deserves all the tacky things people are saying. She's seems like a be-atch and she is most definitely copying Katharine McPhee.

If Lakisha is actually in the Bottom 3 and goes home, it will be stupid as hell. Lakisha was very, very good again last night and was the 2nd best last night IMHO and in no way should be anywhere close to the Bottom 2.

[PhoenixRising05]

I said at the beginning of this year's top 12 that Lakisha will be the "big shock" this year" and I still think that. Someone shocking always goes home and usually there votes go to someone who ends up in the finale. Usually, every year you have the big shock and then a little shock towards the end to upset the show a bit. I am thinking Lakisha will go tonight and the surprising part is that while I had her going before the top 5, I would never expect it this early. Her going before Sanjaya is a joke IMO but I think it may happen though. When you are watching the show tonight pay close attention to the time. If there is alot of show left and they are about to reveal the bottom two or three, Lakisha is going. They need time to milk the shock with the judges and make it some big emotional end so the show time will tell us if she goes or not.

It's funny because usually those that go last don't go because you can remember them but we'll see.

[Days4Life]

I'm not a Haley fan and usually agree with Simon, but I was shocked last night at how the judges treated her. It's a singing competition and they are supposed to be giving constructive criticism so Simon's "you've got great legs" comment was demeaning and disrespectful. I felt really bad for her last night.

[PhoenixRising05]

I agree but, as I said in my post last night, I have never seem them treat someone like this. She must have did or said something because they have been against her since the top 24. They never really give her credit even when she makes improvements. I think she is ok but she copies McPhee too much. They were very rude last night but she was a tad rude to implying she only cares about what Simon thinks.

She needs to stop worrying about the judges and just focus on impressing American. They are the voters. She worries far too much about getting good comments from them and that tells me she has self-esteem issues. It seems she is rather shy (despite her flirty performances) so I am thinking she relies too much on good reports to give her confidence and that is why she desires them so much. It is getting annoying though.

I like her and want her to just stop worrying about the judges and just impress American. Just stand there and take the comments regardless of good or bad. She signed up knowing what this was so she should expect anything.