The Chris Brown/Jordin Sparks performance was taped a couple of weeks ago, after the live show aired that week. They did that with virtually every "guest" performance last year (Akorn's Nuts, etc.).

And the other thing they edit with is the dress rehearsal. Notably, the recap at the end of the live show is usually showing them from their rehearsal peformances.

Bucc, for the last several weeks, the show has been live - not taped live day-of. When they were tape-delayed and not live (pre-top 12 or so), it wasn't day-of, but a day before. That's how we would know the spoilers a day ahead of time. At this point, we're waiting for the dress rehearsal to end (around 6-7pm EST) for spoilers to leak during a normal week. This week was a bit different because of IGB and the "inspirational" song list leaked early.

K, including the vote off segment? You really believe we are seeing the full picture?

AFAIK, the relevant portions of those shows are absolutely live. You can tell when they are running over, etc. Like I said, some of the performances are taped and shown during the live show, but I believe the vote-off portions are live. And on performance night, those are sometimes live with a dress rehearsal prior to the live show, or taped a day or so in advance in the early rounds.

Thanks.

Here's some interesting info...80% of the contestants who have gotten the boot this year have performed in the first half of the show, and 40% of them performed from the 1st spot. It seems like it really is a matter of out of sight, out of mind. Brooke went first last week, and ended up in the bottom 3. And David A, David C, and Castro haven't performed first yet.

Wow, David's Carey was awesome.

I don't see how anyone but Cook could win at this point. Week in and out he has been by far the best performer.

Tonight only:

1. David Archuleta
2. David Cook
3. Jason Castro
4. Kristy Cook
5. Carly Smithson
6. Brooke White
7. Syesha Mercado

Overall:
1. David Cook
2. David Archuleta
3. Carly Smithson
4. Brooke White
5. Jason Castro
6. Kristy Cook
7. Syesha Mercado

I'd still put my money on David A or Castro... mainly because of the teenage girl vote.

Cook just plain kicks everyone else's ass. He was off last week, but every other night I've watched, he was the best. And to do that with a Mariah Carey song is amazing.

Writeup for the round of seven is now posted at the Football Frontier:

http://www.solecismic.com/frontierblog/?p=245

Overall: The contestants struggled bravely with a difficult diva theme. By and large, they did well as long as they didn’t try and out-Mariah the original.


Bonus info: Average Score to date (not just tonight).

1. David Cook (82).
2. Brooke White (79).
3. Carly Smithson (78).
4. David Archuleta (75).
5. Kristy Lee Cook (71).
6. Jason Castro (67).
7. Syesha Mercado (62).

Best of the eliminated:

1. Michael Johns (78).
2. Alexandrea Lushington (74).
3. Chikezie Eze (71).
4. David Hernandez (71).
5. Alaina Whitaker (69).

Mariah's expensive (and expansive) cleavage gave the finest performance tonight IMHO.

she is so nasty

Flasch, way to be specific :)

Show was weak tonight because of MC, but of course Cook is the one to beat after that stellar performance. Surprised that Simon enjoyed Castro as I unfortunately did not, knew it'd be a tough week for him.

Quick rundown headlined by the Cooks.

1. David Cook - Great performance and solid arrangement. He may be the first AI star that I actually buy an album from.
2. Kristy Lee Cook - She's found her wheelhouse with the country style. I don't know that her ceiling is as high as Underwood, but she could stick around in that genre.
3. David Archuleta - David A did well, but he's just not showing anything to consistently compete. He looked like a fish out of water with tonight's theme, but still finished third. It's like Fulham pulling out a tie against Man U - not a bad result considering.
4. Jason Castro - I kind of liked his version. It was intriguing and he's becoming a poor man's combo of Jack Johnson and John Mayer.
5. Syesha Mercado - technically the best of the rest, but she's getting that robot status. Still, she was much better than Brook or Carly (not sure that's much of compliment though).
6. Brooke White - It's pretty bad when you can't deliver on even a watered down version of Mariah. I think if she were pulled away from the piano tonight and made to sign like Jason did, she would have been exposed pretty quickly.
7. Carly Smithson - Took on a tiger song by Whitney and only has the teeth marks to show for it. She's setting up arrangements to wow with her range, then she bails out in the last minute. Not sure there's any hope for her at this point and she should go.

+1

Wow, I'm completely surprised so many people thought KLC was good. Her vocal was so bad, she made me cringe during the rehearsal piece they showed. She couldn't hit a note to save her life. She was easily bottom 2 for me.

Brooke was disappointing, since she completely lost the song in the middle, to the point where I think she was singing a different key than the one she was playing.

The rest...nothing stood out as memorable, good or bad.

The show was weird for me, because I blame Mariah Carey for the last 2 decades of warbling diva R&B crap that I have "run through walls" to get away from (to borrow another thread topic), but I've never really heard a Mariah Carey song, at least not enough of one that I could pick it out. I just hate her vocal style, period. So I had no idea about any of the songs performed last night, except the cheat that Carly sang, which was a cover written by Badfinger in the early 70s and most famously (to me, anyway, since I had no clue MC re-recorded it) recorded by Harry Nilsson. Anyway, crap music is crap music, no matter what genre you translate it to.

Score of zero to the show for putting me through that.

Before the show started I really wanted Brooke to sing "Hero" because I thought she could do a very good job with it.

Boy was that a disaster, disappointing. I think she's in pretty big danger personally.

Same here. I also agree with Ksyrup that KLC was not good at all vocally. She looked great, but I'm not sure that will save her.

I think David Cook was the easy winner on the night. I loved that performance and agree that he could be the first AI winner that I'll buy an album from. David Archuleta was a solid 2nd and the rest were just somewhere in the middle.

I think Brooke deserves to go after last night.

Word.

I honestly would be pretty surprised if David C. wins. I picture a loss in the final 3 or final 2.

Which could be good for him.

I envision a victory for the stunningly bland "teen idol" David A, followed by an album release chock full of nausea-inducing "inspirational" ballads (and absolutely NO uptempo tunes) that the label's target base of Hannah Montana teen girls ignores. Luckily for Dave-o, hundreds of thousands of old ladies who like non-threatening (read: no dangerous beats and scubbed clean of any honest emotion) music with positive messages and pretty orchestration will scoop up his LP and use it as background music for bridge club.

Just guessin'.

David A. will still make some noise with teen girls (witness Jonas Brothers' huge hit right now with a schmaltzy ballad), but you're right, as this guy loses the "kiddie" factor and gets into his 20s, I could see him becoming the straight Clay Aiken.

As far as the idea of buying music from an AI contestant, I still come back to what is most important for me - the music. And nothing I've seen from David Cook suggests anything about his post-AI output. The most important thing for me is the original music, and in that respect, we've heard nothing from David Cook (not his fault, but that's a fact). His genre/style is basically the same post-grunge stuff that's been on the radio for the past decade or so. If he could match Daughtry in songwriting skill, that would be a huge achievement for him, IMO. But we just don't know. And even then, there's nothing about Daughtry's music that has ever made me want to willingly listen to it, and certainly not buy it. Do any of you listen to Daughtry? So I don't get what makes this guy any different. To some extent, I think AI viewers suffer from "hottest chick in the office" syndrome.

And for the record, I have the same thoughts about Brooke. As much as I enjoy her style, there's no way I'd consider buying an album of hers unless I was convinced the songwriting was up to par. There are plenty of artists out there who write well who deserve my dollar over someone who got a huge break on a national TV show, but whose talent was really more fitting a role on the show as opposed to true musical talent/ablility. And I'm just not into singers at all, so there's no reason why I'd buy an album of rote schlock just to hear a voice.

I don't know...just my perspective.

On AI Purchasing... off the top of my head I have:

Daughtry Album
an Underwood Album
Yamin Song
Ace Young doing "Father Figure"
A few Kelly Clarkson songs (and I didn't watch AI back then)
Daughtry doing "Dead or Alive"

I am getting more dissapointed the further this season goes. Kristy Lee was horrible last night singing wise, her range is non-existant and her voice just isn't that great. I think this is probably as far as she is going to go. I'm upset that Brooke keeps coming out the last few weeks and performing horribly as well, since she was one of only a few who I liked earlier in the season.

I still don't get the fascination that everyone has with David Cook, I don't like most of his songs, and didn't really care for his singing last night either. Of course, I can't tell you anyone who I liked last night. At this point, I don't think I would have any interest in any of the music from the remaining singers. Maybe this is why I am better off watching the first 6-8 weeks of American idol and then turning it off each season :)

I hope I don't sound snarky or anything, but given the above comments, why do you even bother watching American Idol? It's months and months of virtual nobodies singing other people's songs. I mean, you know what kind of competition it is, and it seems to go against what you're looking for. What's the appeal for you?

didn't we cover this already, bogambo?

Your thread is like 44 pages now. I don't remember.

Just to add, Ksyrup, if you've already answered my question elsewhere in the thread, there's no need to answer it again. I'll find it.

not if I delete this mutha

SkyDog set it up so I can ignore Ksyrup...but just in *this* thread. :D

That's OK, I can explain it again. I get this all the time, actually.

I watch solely for the TV show/reality competition aspect of it. Broadly, it involves music, which interests me, of course. I think what draws me to it is the process, more than the substance. I've been following this season since August, when the auditions happened. I followed the spoilers from November, when Hollywood Week was taped and the top 50 was chosen. I'm fascinated by how it all happens, knowing the backstory behind the contestants and the possible motivations for the decisions that have been made as to who makes it and who doesn't, etc. In the back of my mind, there's always the hope that someone who appeals to me might actually make it onto the show and get some publicity, but that's not at all what drives me to watch. Admittedly, AI is not the right forum for what I like, which is why I desperately hope NGAB comes back and they retool it some.

There hasn't been a single contestant on AI that I would bother listening to post-AI, at least so far. And even including NGAB, The Clark Brothers come pretty close but of what I've heard of their original stuff, I'm a bit concerning it will be too mainstream country-ish lyrics-wise for me to enjoy it. And that's really where the "rubber meets the road," so to speak...musically and ability-wise, they seem to have it together, but I'm just not sure about the original content, which is most important to me.

Aside from spoilers, what's there to ignore?

Or, are you one of those "Archuleta People"? Ew, gross! :p

Just kidding, homie ;)

I've tried to ignore myself, but SD told me the only FOFC member who has that ability is Schmidty.

Schmidty's jealous of rich peoples.

No, I mean Schmidty is able to ignore himself. It was either that, or watch him get into a virtual fistfight with himself.

Myself and my wife own several post-AI CDs.. namely from Bo Bice, Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson. We've also seen one of the idol tours (after season 4) and have seen and met Bo Bice in a separate concert.

I've bought a couple of Cook's covers on iTunes.

Just to add a little perspective to my comments up-thread about purchasing AI music - since I didn't quote anyone - I was mainly referring to the few people who have suggested that David Cook might be the first AI contestant whose music they would buy. I know some people have bought a few things by AI people, and I'm not here to judge you for that. I was mainly trying to understand why this guy deserves the benefit of the doubt at this juncture, when he hasn't proven anything other than he can perform other people's songs in a particular style fairly consistently. I think Daughtry did the same thing, and I didn't hear people jumping up and down about him at this stage.

If I remember right, Daughtry did not do any of his own arrangements on any of the songs. Sure, he did Live and RHCP, but weren't his own. At least David Cook has done some of his own arrangements (and has borrowed)

A bit surprised with the love for David Cook last night. For me, it was one of the few performances of his I did not like at all. His voice sounded "off" in the slow part and didn't get much better in his more comfortable uptempo style. I think he thought he was horrible judging from his reaction to the judges comments.

I liked Brooke a bit better than most of you it seems too. Appreciated that she tried to add a little to her basic style. Carly really oversang the last half of that song, and that's become a trend for her I'm afraid. I like her but can't see her lasting much longer, maybe even tonight.

Syesha probably should be the one to go though. I don't mind her actually, she generally puts on a good performance, but she doesn't have the diva voice she desperately wants to have, and thus there's nothing that really stands out with her. Especially compared to the rest of the contestants.

I was mainly addressing the thought about buying Daughtry and how that might reflect David C.

FWIW, I'm really not a big fan of David C. where at this point in the show I was ready to buy Daughtry's album the day it came out.

Man I hate it when they ask one contestant to go stand with one group over the other. Hope one of these days one of them goes off on the producers for doing it.

I agree with that, but I did think it was clever to move David Cook around. I was sure he was safe. I thought it was unlikely, but possible that KLC and Brooke were safe as well and I wouldn't have been surprised for Carly and Jason to be in the bottom 3, so it was somewhat surprising when he moved groups.

The girls couldn't win this week.

If they did a popular song Simon killed them and said they need to be original. If they did a lesser known song he killed them for that.

He makes me crazy sometimes.

The girls also weren't very good.

While I didn't care for David Cook's Idol performance last week of innocent, I listened to the studio version and really enjoyed that.