The Pete Wentz project FNMTV promises a world of entertainment this week for those of you who aren't seeing Mission of Burma tonight (grrr). This week's all-over-the-place lineup of videos is rather charming—save the inclusion of the madness called Shwayze.
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After a lot of buildup that stretched all the way to an Idolator reader poll, I watched Pete Wentz's effort to bring videos back to MTV, FNMTV Premieres, on DVR-delay Saturday morning. And it was... OK. Friday night's premiere didn't result in ground-breaking TV by any stretch, but it wasn't completely awful despite the musical presence of both will.i.am and the Pussycat Dolls. The biggest complaint I had, really, was that the show was full of filler; Anthony's prediction last week that the hourlong show would air seven videos in toto was actually over the night's tally by three. (A few older videos got a bit of screen time, but most of the music within was papered over by Wentz's explaining the clips and the collective "whooooo"ing of the well-manicured crowd.)
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Have you ever wondered what a heart-to-heart between former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler and early-'90s symbol of racial injustice Rodney King would sound like? Do you have a strong stomach? Then you should tune into the forthcoming season of Celebrity Rehab, which will feature both those personalities as they try to get clean under the tutelage of Dr. Drew Pinsky and Gary Busey and will probably not use "One In A Million" as its background music at any point. (Other music-related personages on the roster: Former Whitesnake poster girl Tawny Kitaen and ex-American Idol contestant Nikki McKibbin.) [Defamer]
Series television has become the new home of music on the small screen, with more music being played on an episode of CSI during your typical hour of VH1. If you're slightly out-of-date television network CBS, why not start a label to create a little extra corporate synergy?
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Avis to MTV's music-related-television Hertz Fuse is trying to move beyond the emo demo—and into the exciting world inhabited by people between the ages of 18 and 34—and it's trying to do so by putting music back in the spotlight, pitching itself as a "curator" of sorts for people on the lookout for new sounds. Why the channel would decide to use this particular moment in time to use music pedantry as a way to attract audiences is something of a mystery, but then again, this statement of purpose represents something of a step forward for a channel whose music content very recently consisted largely of a ton of top ten countdowns that had arbitrary lines drawn between them (I still will never figure out what constitutes a "guilty pleasure" in the mind of the channel), a relative lack of bleeps compared to its main competitor, and a rock-oriented show that tried to play up its lack of a title as a selling point.
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It's been a rough season for American Idol, what with the dropping ratings, dismal recording careers of past finalists not named Daughtry, allegations of judges making their pronouncements based on producers' whims, accusations that bringing in "ringers" with past professional/reality-TV careers had damaged the show's credibility, and insistence that Clive Davis is still relevant. (Not to mention Paula Abdul seeming more out-of-it than ever and Randy Jackson clearly losing a few pages from his Snappy Answers To Stupefying Performances phrasebook.) But could the victory last night by David Cook—who had a devotion to later-period post-grunge, heartwarming sick-brother backstory, adorable looks, and stubborn insistence on bringing something resembling artistic integrity to the normally pageant-astic finale—be a sign that Idol is still fixable, or at least give the producers an idea of what to fix first after this year's pretty rough season?
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David Cook's coronation song, "The Time Of My Life," is up on PopEater now. And it... sounds like a Goo Goo Dolls song. OK, it sounds like a Goo Goo Dolls song with super-treacly lyrics and a keyboard "inspired" by early E Street Band tracks, but that chorus? Talk about plucking an "Iris." (Maybe this means Johnny Rzeznik is still in Simon Fuller's good graces? After all, he was actually a decent judge on The Next Great American Band, and Randy is clearly way past his sell-by date...) Anyway, I suspect this song is going to be all over the radio stations playing in your local doctor's waiting rooms and offices that blare radios playing "the music everyone wants to hear" by, oh, 2 p.m. or so. So why not spend the first pre-caffeine jolt minutes of your day rewatching Cook's Guitar Hero commercial instead? At the very least, it makes at least one of the reasons why he triumphed over his younger rival very, ahem, clear.
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Welcome to our second night of live-blogging the American Idol finale, two hours of spectacle leading up to the crowning of a David as the favorite pop singer of this very phone-equipped nation. I'm watching the TV Guide Channel's preshow, which has Kimberly Caldwell screaming a lot and Justin Guarini laughing dumbly a bunch and Janice Dickinson saying that she's in the tank for Archie too. (For that the producers denied Danny Noriega a ticket? Hmph.) Also, apparently Simon Cowell told Justin Guarini that it was a draw while I was on the phone?! Looks like someone saw our poll! Coverage begins after the jump...
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Damn you, Cooksuckers! A miracle of a man is standing before you, and you're asking for more oatmeal instead. David Cook beating David Archuleta would be the most grievous public decision since Bush beat Kerry, if not since Barabbas beat Jesus. Do you really prefer lame rock over good schmaltz? Would you rather listen to Nickelback than "Can You Feel The Love Tonight"? This is a kid that sings like James Ingram, but looks like Fievel! David Archuleta is exactly the kind of circus act that should win America's Best Whatevs in the absence of anything genuinely enjoyable, while David Cook is Daughtry with more hair and less charisma. Sure, Cook gets teary-eyed after his performances, but while he's singing he looks like he'd enjoy nothing more than a body-sized mirror with a hole in it. Archie, on the other hand, is squinting, panting, and crooning for you.
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"American Idol": Killing Gladys Knight For The Sake Of Ratings?
From the "so ludicrous, it's probably true" file: "TMZ moles say the finale will include a virtual hologram of Gladys Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia" with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Downey Jr. singing backup as the Pips. Holy Nat King Cole! Idol did this last season when Celine Dion sang alongside a virtual undead Elvis. For the record, Gladys Knight is still alive." You know what makes this item amazing? The fact that it sounds like something that Frank Cross would be commissioning in the opening scene of Scrooged II: Now He's Really Scrooged. Also that you'd think the Idol producers would not want to get so blatantly "inspired" by The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, 30 Rock, and a Geico ad in its big, CGI-busting finale, but I guess that sort of creativity-lacking moxie is what I should expect from the show by now. [TMZ]
With six hours to go until the final episode of this American Idol season, our poll, DialIdol, and Zabasearch are all claiming that David Cook's grunge revivalism has won the Internet version of the show, despite the three judges last night being firmly in the tank for David Archuleta. Whether or not those predictions are correct is an outcome we'll all have to wait many hours for, but in the two hours between the show's opening sequence and the confetti-filled finale, we're going to have lots of entertainment to fill the time (and live-blogging space! what, you thought I was going to miss this?) between commercial breaks. Rumors are flying that Madonna, the Jonas Brothers, and Seal (?!) are going to show up—we've collected a bunch of finale spoilers after the jump.
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The first third of the American Idol finale is in the history books everywhere in the country! (Except maybe Hawaii, although maybe not—after all, since the weather there is so nice it would make sense to have "prime time" at 5 p.m. so as to maximize the enjoyment of their evenings.) The three songs have been sung, the songwriting contest has once again been exposed as a way to get America's worst songwriters more screen time than they ever deserve, and the judges have seemingly abandoned David Cook—or decided to engage in major reverse psychology with his fans in hopes of really giving Jeff Archuleta a Montreal screwjob-type finish to his super-meddlesome "guardian" tenure. Who knows what sort of mind games the producers are trying to play! I've watched pretty much every second of American Idol since January and I still don't. Anyway, after the jump we have the official Idolator "Who Will Win Idol?" poll, along with a few predictions from other corners of the Internet and clips from tonight's show.
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Well, here we go, right? Let's just thank the world that the spoiler I saw over at MJ's place about David Cook being given "Perfect Day" by Clive was from a parody site. (At least, I think it was.) My minute-by-minute breakdown of tonight's festivities—in which each singer does three songs—after the jump!
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Last week's jury selection was a nice appetizer for the buffet of weird that the R. Kelly trial will be, but judging by the opening arguments that kicked off the real action today, there's much to look forward to in the upcoming weeks.
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A few more spoilers have started to trickle out about tonight's American Idol pre-finale, including word that David Archuleta will reprise "Imagine" and David Cook is planning on singing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"—the first time a U2 song has been cleared for an Idol performance. (Perhaps this means that Bono is the big star Nigel Lythgoe was crowing about yesterday?) Also: Unlike last year, when Blake Lewis was forced to gut out "This Is My Now," the two Davids have been given leeway to pick their own coronation songs from the songwriting contest's top ten vote-getters. Their rumored picks, and other news bits, after the jump.
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