Tonight there will be another two hour episode when I should be studying.

Was it on here that I read the theme will be show tunes? I can't remember. It will be interesting to see how some of the contestants will do with a change. I really have no doubts that Clay will blow the others away, though.

Only one problem is that Survivor has been moved to Wednesday this week and is playing at the same time as AI's results show. AND I will not be home ... I will be attending Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance. Guess I'll have to get a friend to tape it for me.

if it's show tunes then Josh Gracen is going to do well- didn't he do a Frank Sinatra showtune for his audition?

According to Foxes On Idol, the theme tonight is "Songs From The Movies". We had that as one of our theme shows too.
What I cant wait for is Kelly Clarkson. Apparently she's singing a new track off her album called "Anytime"

Josh's first audition? I think he performed "I'm Movin' On" by the Rascal Flatts. I love that song, btw.

Yes, tally, Kelly should be great. Hopefully, her CD will be as good as Simon has made it out to be. Speaking of her, this past weekend I was cleaning out a closet and I found some old issues of the magazine Entertainment Weekly. There was an article about the first AI and giving odds of each competitor winning. They didn't give Kelly very good odds. Something about a white girl singing R&B and how it wouldn't go over well. They gave Nikki and Ryan Starr better odds.

Aarrrgghh I had huge trouble accessing the AI message boards tonight. How did they all do? How great that Gladys Knight was the guest judge. I love her music. When I finally read the boards they were all pretty derogatory about Kelly. Was she bad? And how did my favourites Clay and Trenyce get on?
So many questions. Come on you lot from the States, spill the beans on tonights performances. I cant wait till Friday

I thought Kelly did great! She sounded like she was running out of steam at the end. That is all. But the clip from the movie ... *shudder* Oh my gosh it looks soooo horrible. Poor Kelly.

Now on to the finalists...

I thought this was a great night. It really was a treat. First up was Corey. Wow, this was horrible. His worst so far IMO. He sang "Against All Odds." The judges were actually giving him praise when Simon finally stood up to the plate and told it like it is. He actually said it was painful.

Second to go was Ruben. The funny thing is right before he came on my friends and I were laughing at the thought of someone singing a Disney song and we were actually singing "A Whole New World" when Ruben came on and said that was his song choice. But it turned out wonderfully IMO. I really like the sound of his voice. Good job. (Oh no I sound like Paula!)

Trenyce gave another fantastic performance with her rendition of "I Have Nothing" from the Bodyguard. Afterwards all I could say was 'damn.' She looked beautiful too.

Yay Clay. He sang "Somewhere Out There" from "An American Tail [sic]". When he said this I was thinking it was gonna be WAY too high. He even said in his bio video that it is a little out of his range. But I thought he pulled it off until the very last note. But that's okay, Clay. I still love you.

Kim C sang "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in his kiss)". At least that's what I think it's called. Pretty much her same performance. I would really like to see her show some range.

Next up was Josh. Song was "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" from Armageddon. WHOA was he country. I loved it, though. I'm worried some people think he just made Aerosmith's song country 'cause he wanted to but I think he was really emulating Mark Chesnutt's version of the song. I don't know how many people listen to country and know that Mark sings this song, too. Anyway, I was proud. Simon complained that he didn't know what Josh's true voice was and Josh admitted that country was his real voice and that he's sticking with it. That's fine with me because he pulls off country so well.

Okay, now I can't remember the order after that..

Carmen sang "Hopelessly Devoted to You" from Grease. I'd much rather listen to Olivia Newton-John. There's just something about her voice - like she's trying to get over a cold. She's cute and always seems to be enjoying herself, though. Then Simon said she should replace the lead Dixie Chick. I'm not sure what he meant by that - does she sound like her or does this have to do with the hoopla over her Bush statement? I can't decide.

Rickey. He seems so sweet. That's about it. I can't get into his voice. It is so high. I don't know what his song was. Something from 'Tootsie' I believe.

Charles - I can barely remember his performance. A song from "The Wiz." Is he ever going to NOT wear a hat?

Maybe we should just put Julia out of her misery. I think she has a nice voice, but performing is not for her. She sang something from "Flashdance." In her bio video she said it was about not having confidence and something I can't remember. I think she was about to break down in tears after Simon's comments and Ryan asked her if she was having fun "it's an experience."

Last was Kim Locke. "Home" from the Wiz. What is it with her and Wizard of Oz songs? This was better than last week, but I thought the song was terrible. She really needs to work on song selection.

Okay, those were my thoughts. Putting in votes for Clay, Josh, and Trenyce.

NoDoubtJess, you are funny. You had several really good points about tonight's performances. I was so happy that this week didn't suck like last week's show. I'll just go in the order that they performed.

Corey - Boy did he pick the wrong song for his voice. His voice is so high, and it didn't sound good with "Against All Odds". Phil Collins would cringe if he heard Corey sing his song like that. He's going to be in the bottom three for sure.

Ruben - He chose the perfect song for his voice because he sounds like Luther Vandross. The song was "A Whole New World" from the movie Aladdin. Peabo Bryson originally sang this song as a duet with a woman, but Ruben sounds like him too. Overall, just a very smooth performance. He'll be one of the favorites tonight.

Trenyce - She is just a star. Thank God she sang a Whitney Houston song and pulled it off. I can't even remember how many people sang her songs in the auditions and sucked. The song "I Have Nothing" from the movie The Bodyguard was perfect for her and she will be one of the favorites tonight too.

Clay - His voice sounded really good tonight, and I think he picked the right song. The only problem he had was at the end of the song where he went high and had a bit of vibrato in his voice. Oops. He's lucky it was at the very end because people were already impressed with his song. He sang "Somewhere Out There" from the movie The American Tail.

Kim C - Her voice sounded exactly the same as it did all the other times she sang in this competition. She really did fine, but there was nothing new about her voice. She sang the "Shoop, Shoop song" from the movie Mermaids with Cher. I think she did a pretty good Cher on a lower key.

Josh - He sounded awesome tonight, but very country. He should have tried out for the new Nashville Star contest. I think he will go far because he still sounds way better than half of the contestants in the finals right now. He sang "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the movie Armageddon. Even though he sounded great, I hope he doesn't emphasize the country so much next week. It's disco songs, and I don't think country and disco mix.

Carmen - The vibrato is back in her voice, and I don't like it. She picked the wrong song this week with "Hopelessly Devoted to You" from the movie Grease. I didn't think she did the song justice, and she wasn't exactly on key the whole time. Still better than Corey, but just barely. I just love Olivia Newton-John's smooth voice, so I wished she had chosen another song.

Charles - His voice sounded pretty good tonight, but the song was unrecognizeable. He sang "You Can't Win" from the movie The Wiz. The Wiz was an African-American version of The Wizard of Oz from the 1970's. Michael Jackson was the scarecrow in the movie, and he originally sang this song. Charles was better this week, but his voice was still only OK.

Rickey - He was much better this week with his song "It Might Be You" from the movie Tootsie. He was able to sing high notes and keep on key, so I think he did a pretty good job. I doubt he'll be in the bottom three.

Julia - Poor Julia, she is definitely going home. Not only did she sing Irene Cara's "What a Feeling" from Flashdance, but she wore an outfit and crimped her hair to match. Bad choice all around. She just sounded blah and didn't have much energy behind her voice. I would be surprised if she wasn't booted next week.

Kim L - Her hair looked awesome tonight! They straightened it, so she looked like a total diva. She changed her outfit to something more respectable too, so she wasn't emphasizing her weight like all the weeks before. She sang "Home" from the movie The Wiz (see Charles' description above), which was originally sung by Diana Ross. Her voice sounded miles above last week's performance, so I'd put her in the top 5 this week.

Kelly Clarkson - She looked sooooooooooo much better than the movie preview we saw a couple of weeks ago. She must have been wearing hair extensions because there's no way her hair could have grown six inches in the last two months. Anyway, she looked great. I noticed the vibrato sort of thing going on in her voice, but she does have a very powerful presence. I like hearing her sing, but the song "Anytime" from her upcoming movie had too many different keys to sing in. I hope her first single, which they will debut in five weeks on the show, will be better than this. I love Kelly anyway.

Overall, I'm very happy with this week's show.

yum.. thanks for the reviews

Me too.Thanks both for all the detail. Much appreciated

OK, I have a great link for you Brit American Idol fans. Don't read this before Friday's show if you don't want to hear what happens. This link has tons of other links, including articles that are written online for the national newspapers. They post new ones everyday. Have fun!

http://www.sirlinksalot.net/americanidol.html

How do you think I followed AI last year? That is my second most visited webpage after DS!! I have found a site that has mp3's of AI 2, but havent been able to check it out yet. Hope Charles or Julia go tonight. I'll look forward to your views tomorrow. How on earth are they going to drag it out for an hour??


I sent you a PM yesterday. To access it click on the left icon at the bottom of your post (the one with the face, then, when its loaded, click on profile-2nd from the left at the top of the page , and it'll show you your message. Speak to you later)

Oh my gosh, I nearly keeled over tonight. There was a one-hour AI results show on, and it was down to the last ten minutes when the news broke in to announce the start of the war in Iraq! Julia was on stage, and Corey, Carmen, and Charles were on the couch. I had to go online to find out that Carmen was safe, so it was Julia, Corey, and Charles in the bottom three. Julia was sent back to the couch as safe, and Corey and Charles were in the bottom two. Charles ended up going home. Nice guy, but not much spark in his singing. I thought for sure that Julia was going home. I have no idea whether the west coast will even see the show because the President will be speaking to the country during the time their show is supposed to come on. That sucks. Priorities! LOL.

The one-hour show had the group of 11 sing two group songs, answer questions from Ryan, and let the audience ask a few questions of the judges. I think the shows will be much shorter next week because it's only 10 now. Thank goodness.

jms, you are in the mountain time zone, right? Does that mean you see the show an hour after central (me!) and eastern time zones? I got the entire show. My friend didn't like how I said I would rather watch AI or Survivor than war coverage. If I want to watch watch 24/7 bomb speculations I'll watch CNN for Christ's sake!


Surprisingly, I enjoyed the show last night. Maybe because my friend edited out the commercials for me. That was nice. I liked their performance of "Time of my life" ... I love the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. "Footloose" was okay. Julia looked like she was having fun. I guess she just gets stage fright up there by herself.

I'm not really sad that Charles is gone. His performances are always pretty blah. Poor Julia, though. She's turning into last season's Nikki. Bottom three EVERY time.

So many laughs too! Simon telling Paula to admit she wants him, Ryan's "stiff" comment , and is it just me or was Simon having an easier time doing push-ups than Josh?! My favorite part was when Ryan asked "Why the hell are your pants so high?!" ROTFLMAO! I had read so much about how in the UK Simon was constantly made fun of for wearing his pants so high, but here in the US I don't think we've ever seen him standing up. They ARE high!

So Jess, you've changed your mind about the beauty of not having thousands of commercials?
As a point of interest, one of our Entertainment shows has just said that AI got 28m viewers last night- more than any of the networks showing the war coverage! Nice to see you lot have got your priorities right.
We've got 2hrs 20 mins of it tomorrow night , so I wonder if they'll show the "Coke" moments. Normally they edit those out. Just as long as they keep Kelly in.


How many time zones do you have and what are they called? I've never heard of "mountain time"

Thank goodness Charles has gone, next up Corey I hope

I like Julia.....

And I'm surprised they never mentioned Simon's trousers before!! Thats what hes famous for!

There are four zones for the contiguous states. Six if you count Alaska and Hawaii. Here's a map that shows current time for the different zones:

http://www.worldtimezone.com/time-us12.html

The part I don't really understand is the TV schedule. All I know is that Eastern and Central watch shows at the same time. AI comes on at 7pm for me and 8pm for the east coast.

I did find this little blurb:


from this link.

I think the pacific coast watches shows three hours after central and eastern. I'm not sure about mountain, though. jms?


28 million? Haha. AI is infinitely more interesting than war!

NoDoubtJess, I was cracking up at your post about last night's show.


Those were absolutely the funniest parts of the show. Ryan really looked shocked after he made the "stiff" comment. I totally laughed out loud when Simon made that comment to Paula. That was so funny! Finally, Ryan made a good crack at Simon about the pants. Why didn't he mention that last season when he and Dunkelman were looking for nasty things to say to Simon?

I am in the Mountain time zone, so I am one hour behind you, NoDoubtJess. The weird thing is that Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time, so I'll be two hours behind you starting in April. Arizona, Hawaii, and part of Indiana don't observe it. It would be weird to have part of your state in another time zone. They're kind of weird in Indiana anyway. LOL. Just kidding! Our shows mostly go from 7pm-10pm, with the news coming on at 10pm. I guess Central time is the same. I always felt sorry for the other time zones because they have to stay up an hour later to watch their shows. More sleep for us!

Overall, this week was a good week for American Idol. I'm scared for disco week. Did you hear Josh do his country version of "I Will Survive"? That was funny. I hope he doesn't really do that next week because he might end up in the bottom three, Marine or not.

Tally, commercials aren't always a bad thing because they are great toilet breaks or food breaks. I have time to run to the kitchen and grab some food before the show comes back on. Trust me, it's handy. I'm glad you already had that link for American Idol. Daily info about American Idol is a good thing!

I guess Friends won't be on tonight with the war coverage and everything. Bummer.

Tally, I forgot to mention that the Mountain time zone is called that because of the Rocky Mountains. That mountain chain runs through pretty much our whole time zone. Make sense?

We do have commercials in the UK you know

They are just more reasonable!

Yeah, I know, AcerBen, but aren't they usually lumped all together after one show and before another one? If you get to watch 23 minutes of Friends and then 7 minutes of commercials, that doesn't count. Who wouldn't get up and walk away when those are on? We are just bombarded throughout the show, so no wonder we seem like we all have ADD! Who could concentrate with all that switching in and out on the TV all the time.

And I have a strong bladder which is far too much information!

Seriously jms, I mostly video anything on our commercial channels because ad breaks annoy me so much. Also, if I'm watching stuff I want to save on video, the difference in timing is astounding. Eg. Friends...22mins, ER...44mins, AI 1hour show and results 1/2 hour...53 mins!! Quite a bit of adverts there I think. We have a law restricting the amount of advertising allowed. I'm not sure what it is, AcerBen probably knows, but I do know that ad breaks of up to 5 mins are becoming very common.
This thread is rapidly turning into a cultural difference between the US and the UK

I know, Tally. I'm just trying to figure out where everyone is coming from. I need answers! J/k. Am I right about the commercials being between shows and not during shows? I thought that was how it worked. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's funny to watch American shows in England sometimes because the show will cut off where commercials would be in the US and come right back on. Then, the UK channels will cut off the show in a really random spot instead of the one intended for commercial breaks in the US. Do you notice that too? Anyone?

Oh, I forgot, American Idol, blah blah blah

OK- here's how it goes over here. For half hour shows we have a break before and after the show, with a set of commercials once during the programme.
For one hour shows, there used to be three ad breaks during the programme, but I think they've recently increased this to four during prime time.
There is ALWAYS a break between shows when ads are aired as well as trailers fir upcoming shows. If I record a half hour show here, without the ads, it lasts 26 mins as opposed to 22 mins with 'Friends'.
Hope that makes it clear. Of course with the BBC there are no ads as we have to pay a license fee- even if you never watch the damn station

Well for example, a thirty minute show might start at 7.00 - adverts from 7.12-7.15 and then when the show ends at 7.27, ready for the next programme at 7.30 .... I think the maximum we get is 4 minutes really..... in hour longs show there are usually three parts

Watching American Idol on ITV2 is really annoying though because they have like a minute of trailers plus the 4 minutes of adverts, so I usually turn over to MTV during the breaks.... but I'm sure it's not quite as annoying as the USA!! There were a couple of obvious edits tonight when Ryan said, watch this and we'll be right back and then he said welcome back without an ad break

But anyway yeah, we do have ad breaks!! But not as bad as yours I don't think.... the hour long results show lasted 50 minutes

Thank God for the BBC is what I say It's good being able to watch all 22 minutes of the Simpsons in one go


Anyway back on topic

Bloody hell Simon was right, Corey was diabolical (just love it when he says I'm not being rude.. lol)... Trenyce was brilliant, Ruben too... not a Clay fan but he will go far, and Kimberley Caldwell has a lovely personality... I think they will be the top 4 actually. Not sure who will win yet

I really like Karmen, she reminds me of my fave Pop Idol, Rosie Ribbons.... good voice but not always great technically.

Poor old Julia.. I like her too but the girl REALLY needs to get her act together! She looked terrified and didnt seem to enjoy it at all