Reality TV Wrap Up

Joshua Ledet

American Idol

Once again, I thought Joshua Ledet was the clear winner on American Idol.  That kid can sing!  Randy called Josh's performance "flawless" and I agree.  On my scale of 5 stars, Joshua got a 10!

Nipping at Joshua's heels, with 5 of 5 stars, were:
Elise Testone - Her rockin' Led Zepplin number showed a new side I liked.

Hollie Cavanagh - Hollie managed to take a song I don't like and make me love her performance anyway.

Phillip Phillips - A little different style for Phillip and the first time I thought he was enjoying himself.  In spite of Phillips protestations that he doesn't want to be made into a star (thus his refusal to listen to Tommy Hilfiger) - that he just wants to be himself - he always strikes me as working a little too hard to convince us that he's being natural.  Last night he let go of that andhad fun and I liked it.

Jessica Sanchez was close behind with 4 stars.  Jessica may have the best voice of the bunch but, in my book, she lost a point on basic technique.  Breathing and phrasing are essential and every time she sucked in a breath mid-word, it grated on me:  "beautiful night [gasp of air] mare." 

At the low end of the spectrum were Deandre Birkenstick and Skylar Laine.  The few notes Deandre sang in his normal voice were beautiful, but enough already with the squeeky falsetto!  Dave's review: "I never want to hear him sing again.!"  Skylar actually did a nice job, but it was just the same ol', same ol'.  She has one style, one volume, one tempo.  Time to change it up.

A couple of side notes:

• Dave requests that bouncers be placed in the teen crowd at the front of the stage and that they immediately evict anyone who waves their arms in the air during a song.  At the very least, please require that the cameraman not line up his shot to intentionally show the waving teens and that contestants be disqualified if they stoop to touch waving hands during their performance.

• We are aware of our age and we try not to let it affect our opinions of the performances.  Contestants frequently choose songs we've never heard, which is understandable since we really haven't listened to much pop music in the last 20 years.  But a bigger issue is when these little whipper-snappers announce that they're going to do "Without You" by Mariah Carey and we scream at the TV, "That's not a Mariah Carey song, that's a Harry Nillsen song!"  I'm not really sure what my point is here, except that it makes me feel really old and I don't like it.

Dancing With The Stars

We were slightly sad to see Martina Navratilova go home first - even though she was probably the worst dancer - because the name of the show is Dancing with the Stars and she's actually a star rather than a model who slept with George Clooney, or an actor who's biggest role was in a music video.  Our point being that the producers seem to be either struggling to get real stars to participate (unlikely) or they are choosing some contestants based on how they look half-naked (more likely).

There are more exceptional dancers this year than in past seasons, so it's hard to pick a clear front-runner, but my favorites so far are:

• Katherine Jenkins - she's just so blonde and adorable and so totally NOT what you expect from an opera singer.
• Jaleel White - so talented and so NOT Urkel
• Gladys Knight - talk about a star! And still beautiful, elegant and talented at 63.  Love her!

And of course, Jack Wagner, who gets my vote just for being half of Frisco and Felicia, the soap opera "super couple" from General Hospital (circa 1980's). 


Ok, here's where you tell me how wrong I am and who you think should win . . .