Idolator
What a doozy of an episode last night, right? It started off with Sundance Head belting out the opening lines of Three Dog Night's "Joy To The World" (talk about Love Boat-worthy entertainment!) and only got weirder from there, with one eliminated contestant foregoing her swan song to sob and another one using her final minutes on the show to berate herself for not realizing that America hates jazz.
And then there was Kellie Pickler.
WHO'S OUT: In chronological order: Nick, Alaina, A.J., and Leslie. In order of post-elimination awkwardness: Alaina, A.J., Leslie, and Nick. And here's why: Alaina's encore performance of "Not Ready To Make Nice" was ditched because her tears made it impossible to sing; A.J., when asked if he was surprised that he, and not Sanjaya, had been eliminated, said "sure" with about as much sincerity as a White House spokesman; Leslie used the scatting portion of her song to berate herself for forgetting that America is a nation of jazz-haters.
WHO'S (INEXPLICABLY) IN): Antonella, thanks to the "vote for the hot girl" bloc. Sanjaya, thanks to the "awww, that hat!" bloc. Sundance, thanks to ... well, who knows. But apparently, the producers have decided that they need Sundance around, because every time someone opened up the waterworks, they cut to him sniffling away while, no doubt, thinking about what song from The Commitments he was going to rip off next week.
THE DOWNSIDE OF LOSING: Kellie Pickler stopped by served as a sort of cautionary tale to future Idol also-rans, with her bad peroxide-job hairdo, out-of-control eye shadow, absolutely atrocious dress (who knew that turquoise could be headache-inducing?), and seemingly inflatable chest. (Kellie claimed she spent her Idol money on "shoes," but we're pretty sure those don't come in size 36DD.)
WHY DOES SIMON HATE AMERICA? WAIT, ACTUALLY, WE KNOW: When asked if he was surprised about who had been voted off, Simon shrugged and said, "This is American Idol, isn't it?" Which made us worried about next week's eliminations; then, the possibility of a Sanjaya-Antonella-Sundance-Melinda final four in which Melinda's the first one to get the boot floated into our mind, and made us shudder.
PAULA ABDUL OUT-OF-IT SCALE: Incomplete—thanks to something triggering the seven-second delay on the East Coast, we never got to hear Paula's final words to Alaina, which looked as if they were both heartfelt and off-the-charts crazy. However, we do have to ask: Was she sitting on an exercise ball instead of a chair last night? Because there were more than a few moments where she looked as if she was about to tip over, or start doing some situps.
American Idol [americanidol.com]
Earlier: Idolator's American Idolatry archives
[Photo via Reality TV Magazine]
Comments
Sundance has some kind of sympathy thing going on, even from the judges, who were way too kind to him. I wasn't surprised when he was kept - not happy, but unsurprised.
Craig Berman at MSNBC made the valid point that America doesn't so much hate jazz as hate Nina Simone, or maybe just "Feelin' Good" - both people who sang that song got tossed. I'd say they didn't do the song justice - after Nina, who does? - but A.J. did a more than respectable job with the song. Clearly, his height and eyebrows were what killed him in the voting-for-the-cutieboys sweepstakes.
Antonella making it blew my mind, but then I remembered a old roommate of mine who spent an evening repeatedly voting for a redhead in season 2 who had a "big rack". This voting behavior may also explain Sundance's continued presence.
Leslie seriously said, "I wish I'd realized that America hates jazz." Out loud? Cause now I wish I hadn't fast forwarded through the performances.
But she does have a point: She and AJ both got booted for the same song, and AJ was actually good.
yes. over the closing credits, she sang:
"Why did I decide to scat?
America don't care for jazz!"
unfortunately, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? began before she could get anything else out.
I liked how Sanjaya stood off to the side after AJ was voted off. He clearly felt guilty (and looked perhaps a little scared). I feel bad for him; he's this years Kevin Covais.
Ahhh...Kevin Covais. Or, as I called him, The Abortion. I loved when they got him to sing incredibly masculine songs with his lisp: "Whathth new putthycat? Whoooaaoaaa!"
Also, I seriously hope that Sundance does not become this year's Taylor Hicks. Taylor may be a marginally decent singer, but he's a terrible pop idol. And Sundance - despite my deep dislike for him - was actually quite good this week. He still deserves to be voted off, but mostly because of his goatee.
That's not a goatee, that's a whole other head of hair he's just storing on his double chin.
I want Antonella to continue on the show because her mom is gorgeous.
I didn't catch Ryan's quip of "That's all you spent your money on?" to Pickler until my girlfriend pointed it out to me. I was too busy staring at those huge gozangas.
Sundance has a big rack?
How can you say AJ's version was better. It was way too cabaret. I thought he was auditioning for a drag show.
Comment on this post
Reply by EmailLogin with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?