Paula Abdul’s stupor may have pulled back the curtain on the plot to destroy Jason Castro tonight–it was the first night that the contestants sang two songs each, so they ran through all their initial performances, then came out to be judged at the end of the first half-hour. And Paula used this opportunity to tell Jason, who went first, that while she liked the use of his lower vocal register on “Forever In Blue Jeans,” his second song “felt like your usual charm was missing for me… it left me a little empty. The two songs made me feel like you’re not fighting hard enough to get into the top four.” But he only performed one song! Apparently those second-song comments were meant for David Cook–but then when Paula “recovered” to give Cookie her critique, he said that he was “fantastic,” and that the only problem with his performance was that the song wasn’t as well-known as other picks from the night. And the producers can’t figure out why the ratings are down this season? Between this and the fact that David Archuleta could have an on-stage vocal cord hemorrhage and still be called “the bomb” by Randy, I think any sentient being can know that there’s at least some sort of “desired outcome” that’s been communicated to the judges by Nigel Lythgoe’s camp.
Any time Paula Abdul attempts to be critical of a contestant, you just know something’s fishy.
I’m almost certain she’s just crazy. Absolutely insane.
Archuleta = this year’s Clay, just with less manlove action
This debacle has nothing to do with the rehearsal notes or Paula being “spacy,” as some people are trying to claim as excuses.
She explained it all on Ryan’s radio show this morning: Paula: “I was reading the critique of what I was writing for Jason Castro, and on the same page that I wrote, was also David’s, and I got lost on my notes, and that’s as simple as it was. I did catch the last minute of Jason Castro” (the rehearsal she watched on the monitor). Ryan: “So what you are saying is, you were talking about two different people, but accidentally you said ’second song.’ ” Paula: “Yes.”
Obviously it was not David Cook’s note she was reading. “I felt like your usual charm was missing for me. It kind of left me a little empty. And the two songs made me feel like you’re not fighting hard enough to get into the top 4,” but then David is “fantastic” and she’s looking at “the next American Idol”? She was reading a script. C’mon.
I think its more plausible that its not a matter of Idol trying to bring down Jason Castro, but that it just shows that Paula is in such a drug induced stupor that she just have cards of comments ahead of time which she just has to read. She is incomprehensible reading off of a card so they are probably just trying to reduce the painful gibbrish by as much as possible.
@f1sh3r: I want to be on whatever Paula is on, her alternate reality seems fun.
@Nicolars: Not if it’s a world where Jason Castro plays twice as many songs as in our own…
Considering it’s a taped/edited show, if it really was some sort of fix…don’t you think Paula’s gaffe would have been edited out?
Considering it’s a taped/edited show, if it really was some sort of fix…don’t you think Paula’s gaffe would have been edited out?
Considering it’s a taped/edited show, if it really was some sort of fix…don’t you think Paula’s gaffe would have been edited out?
@Kurt’s Krap: it’s live in the eastern and central time zones. (and tape-delayed in the other two.) and news of the gaffe got out right after it happened on the east coast, so i don’t think that editing for the west coast broadcast would have helped.
I initially thought the show was taped and they realized at the end (after both performances) that they should have polled the judges after the first. So they pretended they’d just seen one, recorded it, and stuck it in the middle.
Instead I think it’s obvious that the judges take notes during rehearsals… I think Simon has mentioned before that a performer was much better than they had been earlier in the week.
It was nice to see that Paula’s confusion knows no bounds.
I dunno, your theory is plausible, I guess - but if they were trying to throw Castro under the bus while propping up their favorites, why did Simon, 10 seconds later, run through a quick list of one-word disses for all five contestants — including the two Davids?
Honestly, would anyone, Idol producers included, trust Paula to be the linchpin in a conspiracy? It doesn’t pass the smell test.
My jaw dropped when she went into the spiel. You might need to go Spinal Tap with the Out-Of-It Scale tomorrow, Maura.
My conspiracy theory is that, if Paula wasn’t in fact hallucinating whole worlds of additional Jason Castro performances, then this is an indication that the judges actually do get to see rehearsals or get some kind of preview of the performances instead of seeing them live for the first time with the rest of America. I mean even she isn’t nuts enough to mistake Cook for Castro.
I think it is more likely, call me practical, to assume that she was running off notes from rehearsal. God knows she can’t stay coherent AND take notes for an hour!!! It’s like the accommodations on her IEP.
If we want to talk conspiracy, let’s discuss the fact that Andrew Lloyd Webber night (inevitable trainwreck) was followed by Neil Diamond night (even MORE inevitable trainwreck).
me “wow david archawhatever sucks. how’d he get this far?”
randy “you da bomb david a!”
me “why do i watch this drivel again?”
it was kinda funny hearing “well that USED to be my favorite neil diamond song” after hearing archaleta butcher sweet caroline.
hearing my wife say? i must be on whatever paula is on.
@Thierry: I hadn’t thought of the down side to Paula’s World(TM). Last night I said to the husband, “I want a job where I can get over paid after rockin’ the medicine cabinet.”
@Maura Johnston:
I thought the performance shows were taped on Saturday nights and the results shows were live on Wednesdays.
@Maura Johnston:
I thought the performance shows were taped on Saturday nights and the results shows were live on Wednesdays.
@Maura Johnston:
I thought the performance shows were taped on Saturday nights and the results shows were live on Wednesdays.
@Kurt’s Krap: that was the case up until i think the top 10.
As a longtime AI watcher, I can verify that judges do indeed sit in on rehearsals (Newsweek had a story about AI during the Ruben/Clay season, and one of the paragraphs mentioned Simon telling Ruben to take off his hat and re-do his number during the morning dress rehearsal because the hat was distracting). Not only that, the “recap” footage at the end of the show is actually shot in the morning dress rehearsal (to save time during the airing of the live performance). Given this, we know that Paula probably did take notes from the morning rehearsal–she admitted she had cards in front of her–and was too confused/stoned/your-guess-here to pull it together for a quick one-liner first song critique.
That said, from Top 5 on out, generally The Powers That Be are not subtle about who their Chosen One and Chosen Runner-Up are; in the Newsweek article six years ago, Simon admitted point-blank that “you’re not going to get honest judging” at this stage of the competition.
@kimberlywq: Absolutely the show is scripted and I don’t think anybody would deny that. (Trust me. I’m still ticked off about Clay Aiken getting the shaft in S2 just because TPTB did not want another white winner and definitely did not want a possibly gay winner.) Former co-host Brian Dunkleman said in a recent interview that even as far back as the first season, TPTB would sit down with R/P/S after the dress rehearsals and go over the basic judging script for the week (e.g. no heavy criticism for Jason except from Paula so that casual viewers will think he MUST be bad because the “nice” judge couldn’t say anything nice). In S2, Josh Gracin bluntly told any interviewer who cared to listen after his elimination that the final 2 had been picked back during the semi-finals and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the Chosen One was. S3 was so obviously scripted in favor of Fantasia that it turned a lot of viewers off; the finale was one of the lowest-rated episodes of that season.
So, yeah, the judges come in with a general script for each episode, but it’s at least based in part on the rehearsal performances because even TPTB know that the comments have to at least SOUND like they relate to the actual performances or the jig is up. But Paula–either because of better living through chemistry or because she really IS that stupid–lost her place in the script and, for lack of a better phrase, delivered the wrong lines.
@ScarletMurphy:
Most likely you are right that there is a lot of manipulation of votes, of outcomes, etc. But to give any credit to the allegations of meathead Josh Gracin is a little thick. It sounds like a serious case of sour grapes. But to top this off, to pretend that Fantasia was not a legit win is beyond ludicrous. I don’t know what you were hearing at home, but there’s never been a more unique and deserving Idol, ever.