Murtzcellanious – LIVE Canadian Idol Recap – August 1

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They say that a reporter never earns his stripes until he rushes from the airport to cover an event.

I guess I can finally say that I am a reporter.

After spending the weekend at a Survivor Convention among other reality-related activities over the weekend in Florida, I rushed back to catch the Tuesday Canadian Idol results show. To say that I was upset about missing my first Canadian Idol show in two years would be a severe understatement. I was the Idol Iron-Man and while I still claim the title, clearly it was disappointing. This was exacerbated when I ran into one of the Idol camera men on my way to the theatre, who told me that Monday’s performance show (a nod to the 80’s) was one of the best Idol episodes of all time. Oh well. I was interviewing Apprentice winner Kendra Todd instead, and that was pretty fun. Look for that interview on Inside Pulse soon.

Anyway, back to Canadian Idol. The reason that it was so important for me to make it to the show was because Cyndi Lauper would be performing and I had to make sure that I caught that.

Ben got things started and said that 2.5 million votes were cast on Monday night and that “one more of the final nine contestants would take their final bow.” Apparently he forgot that there were only eight contestants remaining and to be honest, I didn’t hear the mistake. A nearby fan told me about the error.

Ben hyped up the Lauper performance and introduced the judges.

Apparently there would be two performances and the first was a group number, Lauper and vocal coach Deborah Bird.

The group sang “Time After Time,” and it was decent. A video montage of the contestants was played in the background.

Commercial.

After the break, a tribute video was played in honour of Lauper and then it was time for her to perform a single from her new “Body Acoustic” CD. The song was called “Shine.”

This truly was an unbelievable show. Lauper literally put everything she had into the performance and left a piece of herself on the stage. Literally. She climbed up on the judges’ table and almost fell over in her attempt to dismount but the crowd was roaring with approval and I can say with full certainty that it was the best Idol performance that I have ever seen.

After the show, Ben asked her about working with Canadian songstress Sarah McLachlan on her latest CD and Lauper said that she loved the collaboration.

“Who wouldn’t want to sing with Sarah? She sounds like an angel,” she said.

Commercial.

During the break, couches were set up for the Idols.

After the break, the final eight were seated in the following order.

On the front couch sat Eva, Craig, Steffi and Ashley (sporting her new blonde hair).

On the back couch sat Rob, Tyler, Brandon and Chad.

Why was Craig sitting with the girls again? Weird.

Time for the results.

ROB: SAFE
EVA: BOTTOM 3
TYLER: SAFE
CRAIG: SAFE
BRANDON: BOTTOM 3
STEFFI: SAFE
ASHLEY: SAFE
CHAD: BOTTOM 3

A pretty shocking result, considering that Ashley and Steffi had all made the bottom three twice before, and none of the new bottom singers had ever tasted it before.

Ben asked the judges for their thoughts.

Farley: Nothing analytical to offer.

Zack: Finally Canada is now looking at who is a potential winner.

Jake: Canada needs to say who am I going to be proud to call my Canadian Idol.

Sass: Nobody wins this show without national support!.

The first contestant that Ben said was safe was Eva Avila. While I was told that her performance was the most disappointing of the evening and the fact that she is from Quebec (a province notorious for its inability to vote), her voice is still one of the best in competition. So it wasn’t a big surprise.

What this meant though, was that one of the game’s biggest players was going home. It would either be Brandon or Chad and the only thing that I knew for sure was the fact that the competitions first male contestant was about to bite the proverbial dust.

My prediction was that the bell was starting to toll for Chad. I just didn’t believe that the power of New Brunswick was ready to be silenced.

Commercial.

Chad safe.

Brandon going home.

Murtz stunned.

Pretty shocking. That is actually the word that I would use to describe this season of Canadian Idol in general. Brandon was in my final four prediction at the beginning of the season, and for those of you keeping track at home, the only good thing about being wrong is that my prediction is starting to wind down and that either Ashley Coulter or Craig Sharpe will win this contest.

Murtz out.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.