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Wednesday, May 7, 2008
5/7: Whoa! Jason is (finally) gone! Idol top 4 elimination show, slipping ratings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Has anybody been more relieved to be leaving “Idol”? Probably not!
Jason Castro is finally able to grab a beer, relax and go home. Phew!
The farewell video is amusing because it shows him dancing with that happy Asian dude during auditions singing “Since U Been Gone.” He is truly a goofball, a sweet kid. And he left us a couple of great performances (“Over the Rainbow,” “Hallelujah”) and as Paula says, a real person and a wonderful Jack Johnson surfer dude vibe.
But in recent weeks, he’s either become overwhelmed or tired or both because he clearly wasn’t able to deal with the workload. Two songs in one week? Whoa! That’s too much to memorize!
“Three songs next week. I don’t know what I would have done!” he said.
For only the second time, I correctly predicted the person leaving. (Ramiele is the other one.) But if you look at my original top 12 eight weeks ago, this is the third person I nabbed correctly back then (Michael, Carly, now Jason.). My top 3 at that time was 1) David Archuleta 2) David Cook and 3) Syesha Mercado. I’m most proud of the fact I had faith in Syesha to make it this far. It’s far more fun than noting that I thought David Hernandez would finish in the top 5!
Anyway, the first 54 minutes was the usual filler.
By 9:24 p.m., we know the two Davids are safe, of course. No shocker forthcoming. Thank God. That meant 30 more minutes to wait for the answer between Syesha and Jason.
In case you fastfowarded the first portion of the show or simply skipped it, Ryan noted that there were 51 million votes and the top 3 were all within 1 million votes of each other. That means they each got probably around 13 to 15 million each assuming Jason only got 6 to 8 million votes. We shall see.
The group sing was “Reelin’ in the Years.” Carly Smithson was in the audience again. “Idols Live” tickets go on sale May 17 with a stop at Gwinnett Arena August 18. The top 3 go to their hometowns. The Idols were flown to see “Love” in Vegas on a private 737 - with a bed. “Sleeping in the sky. Ooooh… cool,” said the ever articulate Jason.
I skipped most of the Q&A. I doubt I missed anything. Throwing in Maroon 5 was a blatant play to keep the fleeing 12 to 34 year olds to stick around. Bo Bice harkened back to season four.
Some folks think Jason Castro last night was mouthing the words “Don’t vote!” to the camera as Ryan Seacrest was giving out the numbers. I was typing frantically at the time and as usual, not watching. Some think he simply repeated the word “Vote!” Hard to tell. Go to 4:12 or so:
Then again, it’s a moot point. He’s going home. Right? Right? We do not want a Daughtry or Tamyra tonight.
In other “Idol” news:
-Ace Young and Brandon Rogers are making cameos on Bones next Monday May 12 during a singing contest, in which Brennan takes part and sings “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Bones, as Brennan is known, has no clue what “American Idol” is of course.
-Clay fans are having a field day cos he’s popping up on all the talk shows. Here he is on Good Morning America, thanks to the amazing MJ on MJs’ blog:
-And if you really have a lot of time on your hands, Billboard’s Fred Bronson (nice guy!) interviewed the top 10 contestants. The top 4 are featured here..
-[MSNBC reports that Ryan Seacrest might take over for Larry King as early as next year,] based on a couple of anonymous CNN sources. Seacrest already subs in for Larry. Would this be a good idea? If anybody has the time, though, it’s Ryan, that lazy schlub.
_While I’ve been enjoying this season more than last year, the ratings keep on getting worse. Last night was under 22 million compared to 25.5 million a year ago for the same episode. That’s about a 14 percent drop year over year. Alan Sepinwall, a highly respected TV writer for the Star Ledger in New Jersey, picks the show apart here. He hates the themes this year (which arguably haven’t always been so hot), he thinks this the deepest group without “stinkaroos” like Sanjaya but lacking any truly great great stars besides David Cook and he thinks the contestants look miserable and tired. He abhors the Q&A sessions (which have been truly time fillers) and the mosh pit, which isn’t necessarily awful but that hand waving has to go!
And this is a topic I might bring up as a separate blog entry later this week— perhaps “Idol” is packing too much on the contestants so they are truly exhausted? But are things really any tougher than they were season one? I might have to call Debra Byrd. She’d have a good sense of things…
