Idol's Penultimate Week

[Arp2]

Okay, I haven't said anything this year.....didn't really want to or need to, I thought.....

Tonight, however, the time has come to say what I've been thinking for almost two months.


Adam Lambert does not belong in the final. He is not the talent so many of them think he is. He's like a shrieking girl, and he's got little outside of that shrieking range. He's another Taylor Hicks. The emperor has no clothes.


The final should be between Danny Gokey and Kris Allen, and Kris is actually the only one I can imagine hearing much of on the radio.

[Big Media]

Arp, I agree 100%. Adam is a performer. Not a singer. Take away the stage antics, the emo makeup, and the hideous outfits, and all you are left with is a rock star wannabe.

I was, only briefly, a Danny Gokey fan. Then, it just became too much. Seriously, can the guy not wear contacts and ditch the retarded glasses?

I like Kris. I loved both his performances tonight and his version of Heartless WAS better than Kanye's (sp?) and The Frey's.

[herdgirl72]

Have you noticed there has been no WOW this year to AI? Its been very predictable...so I look for Adam to get auf'd this week...or Gokey...

[Hoosier Daddy]

"AI" should have withered on the vine several years ago.
The ultimate in cheap, mindless, predictable programming playing to the lowest intellect.
Hopefully, some programming exec can put a bullet in AI's brainless thrashing head this season.
Sort of like why and how you shoot a deer that got hit by a car and is still alive.

[AmpedNow]

"AI" should have withered on the vine several years ago.
The ultimate in cheap, mindless, predictable programming playing to the lowest intellect.
Hopefully, some programming exec can put a bullet in AI's brainless thrashing head this season.
Sort of like why and how you shoot a deer that got hit by a car and is still alive.

Hey, Survivor is still around... AI won't be going anywhere unless Simon Cowell or FOX pull the plug on it.

AI could lose 25% of its audience and it would still be one of FOX's premiere shows. It has a lot of wiggle room.

It's also one of the few family shows left.

As usual, I record all the shows, and now I'm several weeks behind.

As for Adam, I predicted he would be top 5 during Hollywood week.

Judges: adding Kara has completely changed the dynamic of the show. I've gotten used to her, and she's definitely easy on the eyes. But it still seems too "crowded" at times.

[Big Media]

Judges: adding Kara has completely changed the dynamic of the show.

Every word out of that woman's mouth is scripted and rehearsed, IMO.

[Greg Goodfellow]

It was surely an eye-opener when Adam was in the bottom two (or three) a while back. I just assumed it was his competition to lose. However, if everyone assumes that, and doesn't vote for him, such a scenario could happen again, and could lead to him getting sent home-at which point, Paula's head would 'splode, releasing evil that would engulf the planet.

Do you think Kara will be invited back next season? Will Simon walk? Are they keeping Paula around by feeding her a new song every year, with the huge exposure when she performs/lip syncs live?

You would think middle-school kids would talk about Idol. I long ago gave up viewing their message board, as it seemed populated by 11 and 12 year-old girls. However, where I teach, the kids rarely if ever speak of it.

[Arp2]

The ultimate in cheap, mindless, predictable programming playing to the lowest intellect.

No, no....you're thinking of baseball!

[Bob Campbell]

Okay, all of you so-called "guys" need to turn in your man cards immediately. Real men do not watch "Idol". You could have been watching "Deadliest Catch", or baseball, or basketball, or hockey, or NCIS for godsake.
Hand 'em over boys.

[Scott Reppert]

The ultimate in cheap, mindless, predictable programming playing to the lowest intellect.

No, no....you're thinking of baseball!

New lower box seats at Yankee Stadium? Down to $1250.
I'll give you a minute to compute an entire pitching staff's ERA. Without a calculator.
Every pitch of every game is different.
The NFL has more fans.

So there you see: it's not cheap, you have to have a mind, it's unpredictable, and those with the lowest intellects are watching the NFL...

[AC Carter]

The ultimate in cheap, mindless, predictable programming playing to the lowest intellect.

No, no....you're thinking of baseball!

New lower box seats at Yankee Stadium? Down to $1250.
I'll give you a minute to compute an entire pitching staff's ERA. Without a calculator.
Every pitch of every game is different.
The NFL has more fans.

So there you see: it's not cheap, you have to have a mind, it's unpredictable, and those with the lowest intellects are watching the NFL...

Wow! Somebody hit a nerve!

[Jay Nunley]

Okay, all of you so-called "guys" need to turn in your man cards immediately.

I hate agreeing with Robert, but his legal opinion on this is right down the line.

Turn 'em in boys.

I'll have to check the individual state statutes, but it's a minimum six week revocation for each time you've watched it.

[Hoosier Daddy]

... and if you ever wrung your hands or lost sleep in anticipation of who would get canned on the next episode, or theorized about how the judges would vote on such-and-such --- several days in advance of the actual show -- then it's Three Strikes And You're Out. Maximum Sentence. No chance of parole. Consider a sex change operation, or something ...

[Arp2]

Okay, all of you so-called "guys" need to turn in your man cards immediately. Real men do not watch "Idol".

Heh...WRONG! Being in conversant in "Idol" is the single easiest way into talking with chicks, so, ya know.....

You could have been watching "Deadliest Catch"...

Huh? Some fishing show? Never heard of it.

...or baseball....

Irrelevant until the last game of the World Series.

...or basketball....

The NBA??? Sheee....more of a scripted fictional drama than wrestling!

...or hockey....

The cold-weather version of the communist kickball known as "soccer?" PUH-LEASE!

What's wrong with you people? Get interested in a sport where something actually happens once in awhile! Where the strategy plays out in front of your face and isn't just a bunch of random, unproductive action! Like curling! Curling rocks!

...or NCIS for godsake.

Eh...it's been done.


By the way, I'm LOVING Pitchmen! I think I've got a serious man-crush on both Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan.....

[Lee]

In the words of Nunley...there is only one sports season: Football and not-football.

So...let me get this straight. Guys standing around for 5 hours hitting a ball, catching it, throwing it, and running around as opposed to a football team running an option out of a wing-t formation.

Gotcha.

[Bob Campbell]

Nunley is wise to agree with me. One addendum, if you know the names of ANY of the male contestants without seeing them keyed in on a tv screen under the guys face, you are no longer male, period. Buy a dress, get some nice heels. You're a chick.

Arp, chicks do not dig guys who watch Idol. Except to be friends, because they figure you'll never hit on them, because you must be...you know.

[Scott Reppert]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

1. The rise in popularity of the NFL goes hand in hand with anyone's theory on "The Dumbing Down Of America".

2. NASCAR and the NFL are more geared to "I don't care who's involved, let's have a party while it's going on".

3. Baseball may have a steroid issue, but MLB is far below the NBA and NFL quotient of "thugs, murderers and idiots".

4. I do not have the attention span of a hummingbird, nor do I possess the IQ of most sports fans. Thus, I am a baseball fan. Ask a "casual" NFL fan who the All-Time leading rusher is and they'll tell you how good the hot dogs were at the party they had with their friends last weekend during the game. Ask a "casual" baseball fan who the All-Time strikeout leader is, and at least they will venture a guess, be it right or not.

God has blessed me with intelligence. That's why I am ABLE to be a baseball fan...

[Arp2]

Well, look...here are some of the problems with baseball:

1. As irrelevant as an individual NBA game is, a baseball game is twice as much so.

2. That being the case, the broadcasts sound like it. Only during the championship series and World Series do the announcers even bother to try to explain that there's an actual contest occurring and how it's being played out. The rest of the year, it's a god-awful bunch of time-killing between spots because any given game truly is irrelevant and not worth actually talking about and concentrating on. If the announcers did, however, actually try to broadcast the contest night after night, that, too, would get boring because of the aforementioned irrelevance of each game!

3. The irrelevance of individual games results in the players trying not particularly hard on any given play...after all, trying hard in this irrelevant game might make the other 180 irrelevant games tougher to show up and collect the paycheck for!

4. It's such a slow, action-is-rare game that it encourages you NOT to pay attention. If there's no reason to pay attention minute by minute, there's no reason to pay attention at all....80 seconds with your evening news gets you the whole game.

5. The game exists not to be watched but to be a vehicle for doing something else. Its games are a means to sell quadruple-priced food and beverages and crappy merchandise. Its tickets are a perq businesses give out to employees, a means of entertaining a client, and a status symbol for those who feel the need for status beyond their careers, spouses, kids, homes, and cars. Its broadcasts are little more than noise to fill the silence or fill the time the viewer/listener knows he or she should really be spending reading a book, doing some service, engaging in conversation, or getting some exercise.

6. Need we mention the scratching, spitting, and adjusting?

But, at least, baseball's not as bad as communist kickball.

[Ace Purple]

NASCAR and the NFL are more geared to "I don't care who's involved, let's have a party while it's going on".

I have to disagree strongly with this. There are many, many people who passionately care about who is involved and who is winning or losing at an NFL game or a NASCAR race. I'd suggest that the Kentucky Derby is more fitting to the party analogy you made.

As for baseball, I lived in Tampa during the Devil Rays 2002 "Heart and Hustle" season, where fans neither partied nor seemed to care who was playing. I've been to some great baseball stadiums and attended some great MLB games, but there was nothing great about seeing games at Tropicana Field earlier this decade.

The highlight of the Devil Ray games (which I often got free tickets for through work) for me was seeing A-Rod hit two home runs in one game in the heart of the steroid era (5/24/2001), though the game got boring enough where the WWF SmackDown main event match (a TLC tag title match with Jericho/Benoit vs. Hardys vs. Dudleys vs. Edge/Christian) airing on a television in the WTSP suite drew my attention away from the game. Though, to be fair, that was a damn good match.

[Bob Campbell]

Have your little baseball versus football debate, but we all know it's only to distract everyone from the real point; You like Idol, thus you are not men.