You might think last night’s was the biggest event in the American Idol calendar, but at “only” an hour long, actually it was only about the singing. For Fox and the AI team, the much bigger event is the results show. Host Ryan Seacrest warned American viewers that the show may overrun, and to be careful setting their DVRs. Tonight, ITV2 has given it 90 minutes, and if you’ve managed to avoid the spoilers you’ll probably be on the edge of your seat for most of it. But like I said, last night was all about the singing.

(more…)

Three guys remaining and they would each have only two chances to impress the American public before finding out if they’d made it to the finale or, as Ryan Seacrest has it, the “fuhnnallie.” In these days of blanket coverage, twittering and Internet alerts popping into your mail box every few seconds, it’s increasingly difficult to avoid spoilers when the live show airs so much earlier in the week than we see it here, and even more so when you’ve been away for the weekend. Even so I managed to sit down in front of the recording yesterday afternoon not knowing how it would pan out.

(more…)

Rock week, and after some seriously rocky performances (haha!) on an – apparently – rocky stage, and after being coached by the inimitable rock legend Slash, reality bites. While all four of the remaining contestants will be going home this week, for three of them it’s a journey to a high-publicity madcap civic reception as an Idol semi-finalist, while for one it’s… just going home.

(more…)

With so much cracking snooker to watch I’m a little late reviewing this as I’ve had to squeeze it in between sessions, so apologies for that. Five singers left and this week’s theme was “standards from the Rat Pack era.” So with most (all? No, Sammy Davis Jr is still with us as, of course, are many of the ladies) of the rat packers dead, who would they get to mentor the group?

(more…)

Tough week on Idol this week – not only was it “disco week” but the final seven had the threat of TWO dismissals hanging over them, following last week’s save of Matt Giraud. Would the judges’ faith in Matt be rewarded? And if so, who would fall prey to disco fever?

(more…)

With only a couple of weeks left when they could use the “Judges’ Save” this week was the (surprise!) week they elected to use it, in a last-minute scramble that saw Simon Cowell declare “we’ve made a decision” while the other three judges, thinking he was about to chuck Matt Geraud out of the competition, jostled and shouted “no we haven’t!” What Cowell meant, as it turned out, was that although his had perhaps been the lone dissenting voice in the discussion, he’d changed his mind.

(more…)

Eight contestants remaining and the theme for the week: “songs from the year of my birth.” Another huge choice for each singer, even though several of them were apparently born in 1985, yet still the bad song choices abounded.

(more…)

I missed out on reviewing last week’s AI with being on holiday, but I did catch it, I did mentally divide the group into “good,” “bad” and “indifferent,” and I did get two of the bottom three correct. But I expected Megan Joy to leave whereas the Great American Public decided to dispense with Michael Sarver. This week, they caught up with me.

(more…)

So far this year the American public have been right on the ball with their rejections, this week bidding goodbye to Alexis Grace after a searingly dirge-like performance of “Jolene.” Mind you, this was Grand Ole Opry week, so whatever the contestants were singing was going to make your ears bleed. Or so I thought…

(more…)

No surprises this week in the results, after a mixed bag of Michael Jackson songs, but the judges and producers really split the American audience with their declaration of a new rule for this season: the “Judges’ Save.” Jump the cut for a debate about the efficacy and legitimacy of the judges’ increasing efforts to save their favourites.

(more…)

Season Eight (eight!!) of American Idol got started this week in the States, with the UK as usual running a couple of days behind. So we revved up our coverage last night and for the time being at least, we’ll be having two shows a week. Thursdays from 8-10pm and Fridays from 9-11pm. So what’s new? And, perhaps more importantly, what’s not?

(more…)