Due to the Royal Rumble, I didn’t start watching this show until late and, since it’s a two-hour special, it means I’ll be wrapping this column up at about 2:30 am. I’m going to ask you to forgive me a typo or two and hope that some good editing goes into this.
The show kicks off with a montage performance of You’re the one that I want. At this point, I still don’t know the names of the competitors, so I’ll just say the whole thing was passably good. It was choreographed and arranged so each performer got a moment in the sun, except Austin, whose mic was apparently out. Awesome production there, kids. I see they’re already trying to sabotage my pick.
The two-host on-stage dynamic is kind of strange. Billy Bush introduces the fans, band, and panel. Both of them are very obviously reading off of cue-cards, which is kind of crappy. At least Seacrest can do it without a teleprompter.
The panel is re-introduced. Olivia Newton-John is also introduced, apparently having gotten a botox done especially for tonight. Women, it doesn’t look good seriously.
The first segment introduces Derek and Austin.
Derek starts with Crazy Thing Called Love. I don’t know if I would have picked this song only because there isn’t much one can do with it. He makes up for in choreography, working the song. For what it’s worth, I felt like he came off as an Elvis impersonator.
Austin introduces himself with Mony, Mony which might be an even odder choice. It is a crowd participation song, which is good for voting. I will say again: thus far he is the only one that sounds like a Broadway singer. He didn’t stay in tune for all of it, but I liked it. He’s also my pick, so take that with salt.
Billy Bush gives a quick interview to the contestants after the performance. The other host then asks the judges, who all loved both of the performers. Billy asked David Ian if he saw leading man in the two of them and he said absolutely. I disagree. I don’t know how much I dig the two people being judged at the same time. I should also mention they are putting an adjective in front of Danny or Sandy (Allie, for instance, is “baby” Sandy) to differentiate the contestants. I will not do this, because it’s lame.
Now our first two Sandys, Allie and Kate, are introduced.
Allie goes for I Love Rock n Roll. She has a very monotonous delivery through the first part of the song. She certainly does not “own” the stage like a leading lady has to do. She sang an easy song pretty well but did nothing to make it hers or to make you remember her. She also is completely un-animated.
Kate does All By Myself. She has a bit of tune problems at the beginning. I have said before about contestants on Idol that they shouldn’t start the season with a blah slow song unless they can completely own it because it’s not usually memorable. I think Kate might fall victim to the first week chopping block due to this rule.
Either my ears are off (totally possible) or the judges are not being critical. So far they’ve liked everyone. I’m sorry, Allie’s performance didn’t make me think “leading lady.” It made me think of “first person eliminated on Idol.” If that’s “bringing it” I can’t wait to see what “bad” is.
Billy Bush informs us that our final 12 will become our final 14 after the break as a new Sandy and Danny will enter the competition. Awesome.
And we welcome back to Matt Nolan and Ashley Anderson. Matt Nolan is the guy who the judges have had a hard-on for since the first week. He’s the kid from Long Island who, at this point, I want to win so the New York Times can review his singing.
Matt is singing Pretty Woman. To be fair, this is an easy song and he sings it well. However, David Ian said it before he started performing. He was very “green” at Grease Academy. He has the same problems singing as he did then. When he goes up in register, his voice breaks down. He also has trouble doing anything else while he’s singing. His movements are very robotic because he seems to be concentrating on staying in tune. Unfortunately, now that he’s in it, he’s a New Yorker and I have to root for him.
Ashley A is doing Still The One. This falls under the “slow song the first week” rule I mentioned above. It’s semi-OK, but barely memorable. She also has “own the stage” problems. She is still tentative and I stand by my statement last week that her voice is not strong enough, right now, for Broadway.
The judges are critical for the first time. David Ian tells Matt he was all over the place toward the end of the song and tells Ashley she has a ton of work to do. I think they were right to cut them both in the first place. In fact, if you told me both of them would be cut first again, I could buy it.
Jason and Max are up now. Max is the mop-haired slacker who has the best voice out of everyone. Jason has done stuff Off-Broadway, so he’s got some dancing. Max has the kind of annoying personality that will likely get him along far in this kind of thing.
Jason kicks off the pair with Faith. This could work if he does it well. He’s 31 and it might be tough to buy him as a high school student since he, you know, looks 30. He’s also rocking two microphones for whatever reason oddly, with both microphones, the crowd is louder than he is, which is obnoxious. They call him “boy-band” Danny, which works, because he’d be much better in an ensemble.
Max goes with Summer of 69 and nails it. Best performance of the night so far. He’s got stage presence and a voice that fits him. He’s high school student passable. He’s also acting the song, which is a small touch, but helps. The microphone volume is really, really annoying when they get to center stage. You can hear yelping girls better than the singers.
This was probably the best and worst so far. At the moment, Jason goes home tonight even ahead of Matt.
Laura and Kathleen are up now. Laura is currently Sandy in Minnesota. She’s engaged, which will not help her with the horny guy vote. Kathleen was my early pick as of last week. She’s married and in a “worship group.” Thomas Daniels here for boring.
Laura does Why Do Fools Fall In Love. I don’t love the song, but she’s singing it very well probably one of the better girls tonight. She made a boring song work. Good for her. Good enough to stick around this week, I think.
Kathleen does Suddenly I See. Have you ever seen the episode of How I Met Your Mother that talks about “The Crazy Eyes”? Well, she’s got them. I think she’s stealing my soul. Still probably the best voice among the women (for me) but she scares the bejesus out of me. She was also my pick last week, but I may have been hypnotized.
Olivia Newton-John tells her secrets of Sandy, I fast-forward because I don’t care.
Kevin is another New Yorker, from Greece, NY which I have no idea where it is and Chad, who’s in a band.
Kevin sings Walking In Memphis, which seems an odd choice for me. He sounds like Broadway, which is good. He doesn’t seem terrified, which is another plus. He lost his voice a bit when he tried to get cute, but closed the performance well. Probably the second best guy of the night so far.
Chad sings Signed, Sealed, Delivered, which is another odd choice for me. He does it kind of poppy, which may or may not connect with the audience. Somewhat of a boring performance for me, but he luckily has Matt and Jason to fall back on for elimination purposes tonight. This did not give me “leading man.” He also steals my “Go Big or Go Home” line, which makes us mortal enemies.
The judges see something in Chad that I don’t. They love him. They think Kevin has a sort of James Dean cool about him, which I can see.
The final performers are Juliana and Ashley S.
Juliana starts with First Cut Is The Deepest. I really like her voice, although I put this under the Slow Song On The First Week Rule. Her voice is good and she performs it well, but there’s nothing awesome to differentiate her from the rest of the pack other than being not blonde. Fortunately for her, I think she was more memorable than other people I mentioned earlier who I can’t remember. I could scroll up, but that wouldn’t help make my point.
Ashley has It’s In His Kiss. See, this is the right kind of song for the first week. Something different and high energy. I’ll remember this, I won’t remember First Cut.
The judges echo my rule without actually echoing it.
Now we move into some filler with a final ensemble performance from all 14 players.
Now each of the judges tell us who their favorites of the night were. David liked Derek and Ashley S. Kathleen liked Austin and Allie. Jim liked Chad (who I thought was terrible) and Kate (who I didn’t like much either). Olivia copped out and chose no one. Personally, I thought Max and Ashley S were the best. I could completely see the two callbacks being put out this evening, but I doubt it because they weren’t the worst or most non-memorable. Just by being “the callbacks” they’re somewhat memorable.
Quick closing thoughts: I know this was the first live show, but they really need to clean up some of the production. Cutting to the wrong camera, the host saying there’s a graphic on the screen when there isn’t, and microphones not being on all make the show look bush league. Secondly, for the love of God, get the crowd back away from the stage or fix the microphones to not drown out the singers with yelping girls. It’s annoying. I want to hear them, not “YAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” for the entire performance.
I would also like to see the judges not judge two people at a time. Hopefully this will go away as people get eliminated.
I’m also going to complain momentarily about eliminating people from the show. We have to wait until next Sunday to see who gets bounced? Does this mean you make these poor kids (or 30 year olds) prepare a song for next week and then tell them at the beginning that they’re eliminated? How much of the show do you spend on eliminations? Starting each show with a downer seems somewhat counter-productive. We can’t find a spot on the schedule so each week doesn’t need 15 minutes dedicated to crushing someone’s life? Just the way I want to watch the rest of the show after my favorite gets voted off.
Elimination Prediction: Jason and Kate.
