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American Idol: We love you Beatles

 
 Photo: Apple Corps Ltd. / EMI Music
The surviving Hollywood Round contestants, those who managed to find themselves in the "right" rooms last week, will sing Beatles tunes tonight. Tomorrow, the judges will be seen cutting them down to the 24 that viewers will vote on. Hint: we're losing a "fan favorite" in the process.

Follow my live commentary on Twitter and a wrapup will be posted here after the show.

 
American Idol ended on a cliffhanger Wednesday as about half of the 24 finalists have been selected to go before the voting public next week. But that leaves 12 to come and the shocking ending: Will J.Lo be able to continue as a judge? The poor dear broke down in tears and had to be consoled by a curiously silent Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson when she informed Chris Medina that he failed to make the Top 24 cut. Apparently telling a mediocre singer he hasn't what it takes is just too much for the tender judge and we're left to wait 24 hours to see if she can pull herself together or will the judges' panel be a twosome this season.

After much thought, my guess is that she will count the $12 million dollars producers paid her to simply say "Yes" or "No" to so-so singers and she will find the strength, the courage, the gumption, to continue with this very difficult task.

So, were the judges correct in cutting Chris lose? Yes. Sure, Chris is a big man, a great guy, for standing by his fiance after she was seriously injured in a car accident. Fans responded in kind and reportedly donations have come in to help with her medical care. That's wonderful. Bless 'em. But this is a singing competition, not a Lifetime series. Chris wasn't good enough in the vocals department. But he left the show with class. No surprise there. He's a man, all the way.

Plenty others weren't, either. James Durbin?!. Someone on Twitter made the astute observation that it appeared Adam Lambert knew a little about music but all Durbin knows is a little about Lambert. How true. When Adam hit the high piercing note, most of the time it was in control and served the performance. James hasn't much of a voice so he screeches out of control to stun the judges who keep passing this guy on from round to round. Hopefully, America has better sense and sends him packing before he makes the touring round (Top 10).

Jacob Lusk, Haley Reinhart and Naima Adedapo seem to appeal to plenty of people, including the judges, but I haven't heard that much unnecessary ornamentation on The Long and Winding Road since producer Phil Spector p---ed off off songwriter Paul McCartney by adding strings and choirs to the original track 41 years ago.

 
By comparison, Paul McDonald and Kendra Chantelle have pillow soft voices, but their pretty harmonies on Blackbird felt like sweet relief after the oversinging that came before. I liked the vocal arrangement Lauren Alaina, Scotty McCreery and Denise Jackson came up with for Hello, Goodbye, even though the judges were lukewarm. Hey, Scotty can sing something other than Your Man. Who knew?

Meantime, Casey Abrams, 19, made it into the Top 24 but TMZ reports he was rushed to the hospital with a stomach ailment and if he can't perform this Friday in a taped routine, he could be eliminated. Perhaps a delayed reaction from a busted gut from jumping on a bed while bellowing a Beatles oldie on tonight's pretaped show?

SPOILER ALERT: The rumor mill tells me my favorite 15-year-old, the plucky, melodious Jacee Badeaux isn't a Top 24 finalist this year. Bummer. But he is only 15, he could still come back every year for the next 14 years until he goes all the way. Can I cry like J. Lo now?

 

American Idol Spoiler: What made J.Lo break down

The elimination of a contestant with one of this season's best heartbreak tales reportedly brought Idol judge Jennifer Lopez to tears and she couldn't go on momentarily.

The elimination episode, in which the judges pick this season's Top 24 batch for viewers to vote on March 1, airs this Thursday.

Here's the story on the cut contestant. Click here.

American Idol: Four Rooms of Doom

Judges trimmed much fat from their earlier mistake in allowing too many marginal talents into Hollywood on a golden ticket.

Tonight's taped broadcast certainly was easier to take than all of the manufactured drama on Wednesday's two-hour assault. One plus, Thursday's show was a mere hour and most of it was devoted to solo performances

Happily, 15-year-old Jacee Badeaux sang well again and pleased the judges. He's the youngest, but he has the most melodious voice of the bunch. He is a pleasure to listen to because he doesn't over embellish. He has the makings of an Idol.

 
So, too, does Lauren Alaina, and she's getting a major push from producers who have all but crowned her queen. After she once again sang Aerosmith's all-time worst song, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, Ryan Seacrest gushed: "Once again, she proves she has what it takes to command the Idol stage."

True, but the constant pimping could lead to a backlash.

 
Speaking of backlashes, one can't form soon enough to jinx another overly praised contestant, Clint Gamboa. The bespectacled hopeful has a killer competitive streak but lacks an equal amount of charisma or restraint. His ghastly oversinging of Ray Charles' Georgia On My Mind put in mind the reminder to mark down earplugs on my next shopping list. But this show loves to create a villain and they have one in this near certain early finalist.

Most audacious audition belonged to Casey Abrams who played a stand-up bass and sang a jazz rendition of Georgia On My Mind. Not quite what Top 40 radio is thinking of, but maybe Grammy will come calling. After all, an obscure jazz bassist just copped the Best New Artist award.

Finalists will also lead to a showdown between two country men. John Wayne Schulz is the more natural, charismatic and versatile of the pair. Scotty McCreery knows but one song, Josh Turner's range-free Your Man, which never irritated me when Josh sang it, but now is more grating than any episode of Glee with Jane Lynch in the storyline. course, when it came time to audition tonight, producers wouldn't let him sing the song and he bombed on Lee Ann Womack's I Hope You Dance because he'd never heard it. Inexplicably, he advances. Even Scotty seemed surprised and, to his credit, announced he didn't deserve to advance but that perhaps his deep voice might earn a pass from the judges. It did.

As usual, the couple hundred were herded into four rooms and only Rooms 1 and 4 advanced into next week's showdown. In two weeks, on March 1, America finally gets to vote on the 20 or 24 finalists (Ryan said 24 tonight, I could have sworn I'd read they were only letting 20 through from Hollywood).

For more live stuff, follow on http://twitter.com/HowardCohen

American Idol Hollywood Week: The Battering of Bruno Mars

 
Fox airs American Idol's two-hour Hollywood Week competition tonight. The judges were far too gracious and allowed more contestants a second chance in Hollywood than ever before -- more than 300. This will prove problematic for them since they are tasked with whittling that lot down to 20, four fewer than previous seasons. This means they were merely postponing the inevitable. Expect plenty of tears as the mostly subpar lot get the ax.

Follow me on http://twitter.com/HowardCohenfor live commentary and then return to the blog later tonight or tomorrow for a wrapup. 

Was tonight's theme Rape and Pillage the Bruno Mars Catalog?

How else to explain so many tone deaf destructions of Mars' Grenade, F-You (he cowrote the Cee-Lo hit)and Just the Way You Are? Some, like the opening group rendition of Grenade, proved beautifully harmonious. Props to Pia Toscano. Much of the others were offkey and painful.

But painful defines Idol group nights, a pointless, mean and unpleasant, not to mention boring, two hours in which hundreds of novice teens are thrown into a room and left to fend for themselves while leering camera crews play up the ugliness. OK, I know these kids sign up for this, but it's still gross when a 15-year-old boy is seen getting thrown out of a group by a pack of self-important jerks (Clint Gamboa, I'm talking to you) and made to feel as if he's last-picked-in-PE-class on national TV.

Instead of producers putting the contestants into groups, the kids have to pick their own partners and this inevitably leads to backstabbing, nastiness and a descent into chaos. For near the entirety of the first televised hour, we see no singing, just squabbling and disorganization. The mess also leads to plain unfair rules bending by the judges. Obese egomaniac Tiffany Rios, whose offkey singing is only slightly less irritating than her all-around demeanor, can't find anyone to sing with her because she insulted all the other contestants during her audition. But producers bend the rules and let her sing with one other girl, a generic blond whose name I don't care to remember. Not fair. Happily, they sing like two cats trapped in a bag and we'll not see Tiffany again, until, perhaps, the finale when Idol has to pad its two hours with some of the season's lowlights. The judges also pass two competitors onto the next round after they bomb in the group performance "based on what they've done before" but then don't do the same for offkey Devyn, and she calls them out on that. "I'm going to have to figure out a way to get back in there," she weeps to no avail. Well, she has a point.

James Durbin, a weepy, screeching subpar Adam Lambert wannabe complains because some stage moms in a competing group coach their kids who selected the same Queen oldie to cover. (Get over it, the moms didn't SING for their kids who all, by the way, sang Queen much better than Durbin's caterwauling group.)

 Inexplicably, the judges passed Durbin Dud onto the next round and it appears he's going to become this season's polarzing contestant. Sign me up now in the Can't Stand Him Group. Scotty "Josh Turner One Not"e McRreery, the banal country baritone, also acted the diva by shunning the 15-year-old from his group but then cried like a baby in an attempt at an apology when he realized how the show's editing was going to make him look.

 
Thankfully, two people rose above the stench of Idol's version of child (and viewer) abuse. Jacee Badeaux, (pictured) the aformention teen who showed grace under fire and Boca Raton's Brett Loewenstern, who finally won me over tonight. Jacee is a classy young man, a young pro with a golden voice. (Bieber Fever cardholders should rally 'round this 15-year-old and his sweet singing.) Jacee might not have learned the words of Mercy, a song he was forced to figure out fast after getting bounced out of Clint's crummy group, but he made up his own words and revealed a can-do personality. That's part one of becoming an Idol.

 
Brett (above), 16, wins points for showing Jacee compassion by welcoming him to the group and for then delivering a fine vocal and stage performance of his own. Both teens advance into the Top 40 and, hopefully, into the live finals. This group performance went a long way to extinguish some of the night's stench, but not quite enough.

Overall, Idol's annual group night two-hour carnage leaves me with two words for producers, and I'd like to borrow them from Cee-Lo. But not the sanitized Forget You version we saw one too many times tonight.

American Idol Hollywood Round 1: Teen trumps 'em all

Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson, the two holdouts from American Idol's nine previous seasons, revved the hyperbole into overdrive at the top of tonight's first Hollywood round. "Double the talent!" "The most talent ever!"

Much blah-blah-blah about nearly nada on the televised results as 327 hopefuls were winnowed to 168, a number still too high.

 
The night began with some homegrown talent, Boca Raton's Brett Loewenstern (pictured), he of the flaming red Kenny G locks, and nervous demeanor. He has fans but, so far, I'm not one of them. His nerves got the best of him on a shakey Let It Be. Despite his message to the bullies that he says have tormented him for all of his 16 years -- "No more negativity! -- the overplaying of the bullied card quickly proves tiresome. Just sing proud, kid. Word has it Brett's advanced into the Top 40.

Early favorite James Durbin proved even more of an irritant with his omipresent tears, piercing shrieks and overuse of the sob story. The Tourrettes! The poverty! Enough already! Durbin's another Top 40 finalist but he overdoes the screeching wails. His grating take on the Beatles' Oh! Darling felt contrived and was overpraised. Unlike Adam Lambert two years ago, Durbin's vocal tone isn't as rich or controlled as the Glam rocker's and he, so far, displays little flair. Hard to look like a star when your face is drowning in tears.

Paris Tassin, mom to a special needs daughter, also played up her sob story, sang My Heart Will Go On, and her dreams will go on for awhile longer, but she's not yet as good as she needs to be to be truly impressive.

Gritty Casey Abrams made it to the next round on confident vocals. So did, for the most part, Chris Medina, the strong young man who stood by his fiancee after she suffered serious injuries in a car accident.

The two youngest competitors, 15-year-old Lauren Alaina and Jacee Badeaux trumped them all with impressive vocals that transcend their experience. Jacee, especially, has a pure, pliable voice, the best I heard this night.

In the most embarrassing spotlight: Idol's two couples this season. First, the exes, Rob Bolin and Chelsee Oaks, gave it a shot and Rob showcased the weakest voice of the night. Chelsee's not much better. Somehow, both sailed through to the next round. The judges should be embarrassed. What did they hear from Rob in that mousey warble? Then, worse, the supposed sweethearts, Nick Fink (who lived up to his surname) and Jacquelyn Dunford split the judges. Jackie's in, Nick, with his smarmy Buble-lite Vegas shtick is out. Nick didn't take it well and committed the cardinal audition sin -- begging for another shot, which only drew a stern rebuke from Randy. "One shot. It didn't quite happen," the veteran judge roared. The fink, er Fink, then compounded his sorry fate by forgetting to congratulate his supposed sweetie when he lamely sang his way down the aisle during his walk of shame. Maybe Jacquelyn can take up with Rob in Hollywood on their next round.

Country bariton Scotty McCreery once again did his Josh Turner rumble and left me once again unimpressed. Great voice, when it belongs to Turner. Give me something that sounds like you, Scotty.

 Photo: Smallscreenscoop
I'm happy the retro '40s coffehouse Carly Simon lookalike (no, not Steven Tyler) Emily Anne Reed advanced one more round. I've a feeling that's about as far as she's going to go but I hope I'm wrong. We didn't hear from her tonight and I'd like to hear another performance. Something different and likable about this one.

Most sickening display of diva 'tude: Tiffany Rios, who had the gall to announce her intentions, "I'm gonna be honest, I'm tired of seeing people try to do what I know I can" before bellowing Etta James. Way to make friends in Hollywood, sis. The vainglorious blowhard has pipes but an Idol needs to do more than just sing. Not a bit of anything in this tacky, rude package worth idolizing.

One final observation: the Idol judges, Steven, J.Lo and Randy are still clicking together. Though they allowed too many hopefuls to make it to Hollywood, the three are a solid, charismatic panel, free of the baggage that dragged down the judges' table the last few seasons. Tyler, especially, keeps me watching.

For more, follow me on http://twitter.com/HowardCohen

 

 

American Idol San Francisco auditions, soaked in sob stories

 Photo: FOX
The end of auditions is near -- thank you very much! -- as we head to San Francisco tonight and pray it isn't a vapid waste of airwaves ala last week's L.A. auditions. On Thursday, Idol begins airing the Hollywood rounds.

As usual, follow me on http://twitter.com/HowardCohen for live commentary on the show and return here later tonight or tomorrow for a wrapup of the hour.

San Fran pushed all the predictable audition buttons: plenty of sob stories, a couple freak shows (one wacky guy performs as a Transformers car but doesn't have the voice to rev Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild out of neutral) and the woefully affected oversingers that Idol judges go towards like bees to honey.

Sometimes they come wrapped in one package. Take Julie Zurrillo. She escapes guerilla warfare in her homeland of Colombia, along with her family, only to lay waste to Summertime here with her woefully affected oversinging. Naturally, the judges go gaga over this pretty cliche golden girl. I'd pass.

 
Then there's Stefano Langone (pictured) who survives a car crash in 2009 and avoids a train wreck in 2011 on the Idol stage in San Fran with his Marvin Gaye cover. He has a nice voice and wins over the judges with his looks, too. For me, his singing is just passable. Not wowed.

Meantime, young Carly Simon-lookalike Ellen Anne Reed loses her home to fire a week before her audition but from the ashes brings a singer-songwriter, ragtime-era voice before the judges. Though old-Carly Simon lookalike judge Steven Tyler says "no" the others give her the golden ticket. After all, she does need a place to stay. She'll be swallowed whole in Hollywood rounds -- her voice is limited and we've seen enough singer-songwriters these past few seasons -- but I'd have given her a shot too. Quirky. And, unlike the ones the judges preferred, I haven't immediately forgotten her.

 
 Photo: Fox
It all culminates with sob stories that pile on and on with James Durbin (pictured), 21. His dad died of a drug overdose so he hasn't had a father since age 9. He has Tourettes, he says, and found the love of his life but now he and his wife Heidi are sometimes too broke to buy their baby diapers. Oy, Idol! The good news is that James can sing and exhibits some of the vast range and piercing high range that made Season 8 runnerup Adam Lambert a love or hate kinda guy. He's the straight Adam Lambert sans the flamboyant outfits -- save for that hair swoop. If he promises not to blubber every week, I might be a fan.

Tomorrow night we finally put auditions behind us and head to the Hollywood rounds. Four people we saw tonight are among the Top 40 finalists thus far -- or so the rumours suggest.

American Idol La La Land auditions

 Photo: FOX
Wednesday's auditions from Austin had their moments, tonight we visit Los Angeles. See you on Twitter for live commentary and then back here later tonight for wrapup. Look forward to your comments.

Here's mine: Millions of Americans, including this one, just wasted an hour of their lives watching a truly worthless, offensively bad audition show.

Last year, Idol featured an old man who was more than 30 years outside the age limit as he sang Pants on the Ground. It was fresh, funny and memorable. Tonight, Idol gives airtime to a mentally disturbed 59-year-old ranting and raving for a good 5 minutes to close out the hour. Not funny. Just pathetic. Ditto portly Matt, the so-called record producer with a "compilation CD with Chaka Khan on it." Hey, dude, I have an iPod with Chaka Khan on it and I sure as hell am not going on Idol to sing offkey and curse out Randy Jackson. Pity that you did.

Even the talented people tonight were annoying. The Guitterez brothers can sing in harmony but are truly obnoxious when they aren't singing. The only likable moment belonged to Tim Halperin at the beginning. Nice tone. But the judges were surprisingly lukewarm as they passed him on to Hollywood. Go figure.

Tonight, from LA, was the first show of the season that should never have left the studio's editing room.  

 

American Idol Austin auditions: Cowboy takes 'em away

Another Wednesday, another American Idol Tweeting and blogging session. See you on Twitter @HowardCohen during the show. Come back here after the show later tonight for wrapup.

SPOILER ALERT:

Love has better keep cute couple Nick Fink & Jacquelyn Dunford together because despite some vocal talent between them -- he, a lite Bublé, she a lite Xtina -- their golden ticket to Hollywood is about as far as they made it. Bit surprising. Nick's not as strong vocally but both clearly outsang weepie, out of tune Hollie Cavanagh and yet it appears she trumps them in La La Land. Maybe when Ryan got a look at their audition tape he pulled the plug on 'em. Nick & Jackie said they wanted to be "American Idol's first power couple." But we all know Idol's first love affair happened way back in season 1 when Ryan discovered his dressing room mirror.

Hollie's possible ascension, and second chance after flailing on At Last, is the one real drawback with this season's judges thus far. Though a drastic improvement over previous judging panels (Simon, who?) Steven, J.Lo and Randy are far too easily swayed by tears. Just because some teenager cries and wants something really, really bad doesn't mean he or she should get it. "No" is a wonderful word and most of these people should be hearing it -- and often. That said, each week J.Lo's critiques are concise, Randy's more verbal and Steven's flair keeps us watching.

 
The night's best audition -- and story -- belongs to John Wayne Schultz. Named after the late screen icon John Wayne because his ranching dad wanted "a rough and tough son," the handsome 23-year-old dedicates his performance of Brooks & Dunn's Believe to his mom who has battled and survived breast cancer. So the rough and tough son is a loving son, too, and has a good, solid country voice. (According to Pop Tower he's recorded an album already, at age 14, in Texas.) I might even prefer its tone to Ronnie Dunn's overly mannered, sometimes cloying voice. The audition leads to an amusing exchange between Ryan Seacrest and pop. Ryan, in an uncharacteristic self-deprecating moment, asks pop what he would have made of him given that our favorite metrosexual is hardly rough. Pop Schultz responds, "You wouldn't be the way you are." Later, Ryan hoists dad up in the air and sustains the dreaded and painful "belt buckle damage" injury to his paw. We'll leave the jokes to you.

Next, J.Lo put on some Black Swan threads, 17-year-old Courtney Penry stalks Ryan ("He's the sexiest man alive, I'm gonna marry him!") then does a chicken imitation, followed by a surprisingly not awful Sugarland cover. To Ryan's horror, she gets to Hollywood. Hope she doesn't boil a bunny in Ryan's honor.

The Austin auditions end not with a sob story, but a comical one. Casey Abrams, who looks a bit like '70s character actor Richard Masur (Ann Romano's boyfriend on the first season of One Day at a Time) and Seth Rogen, walks in with a melodica to help him find his pitch. One tweet and a promise to sing like "Ray Charles" and he was off. And quite good. Sounded a bit like raspy, bluesy Steven Tyler on I Don't Need No Doctor which could explain the ol' crone's "You're going to Hollywood face:" eyes closed, head bobbin'.