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American Idol Top 3 Results Show – Season 7, May 14 2008
By PopSavant | May 14, 2008 | 
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Hi everyone, and welcome to the American Idol Top 3 results show from May 14, 2008. In just an hour we’ll know who our two finalists are. My pick tonight to leave is Syesha. I actually think she deserves a spot in the final two based on talent – the other being David Cook, but I think David Archuleta’s the one with the votes to stick around. Sometimes life isn’t fair.
I read this week that Idol ratings are down. I wonder why. One key is probably this is the group of contestants I cared about the least of all the seasons I watched. I don’t think this means the show has run its course; I was really excited when it rotated back up in the Fox schedule, and through the first couple of elimination weeks. I really think it’s the contestants… it was the strongest group ever in terms of singing talent, but also one of the most boring. Too much professionalism? Maybe.
This, of course, is Idols-Visit-Home week. I was disappointed last night that we didn’t get to see more video clips of that. Maybe tonight, though… heaven knows they’ll need some kind of filler to stretch this to an hour.
9pm, and here we go. Ryan tells us to get this close and lose will be “simply devastating” … enjoy that waiting backstage, Idols. He also tells us Fantasia will be singing for us tonight… I’ll be interested to see how she is now. I thought she was hanging out doing the Color Purple thing.
The Idols are out with the group number, Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now. The group numbers have well and truly sucked this season, and this one is no exception. It’s everything: the singing, the song choices, the collective stage presence… it feels like one of those 1970s performances by troubled kids designed to bring the community together that would send everyone within earshot searching for an aerodynamic rock.
There’s that Ace of Spades cell phone commercial… this screams for a Motorhead night on Idol. That would be worth pay per view, even.
The Ford commercial tonight: Heaven. Unremarkable.
Ryan tells us there were fifty-six million votes last night, and then they give us the video recap of last night. No big surprises. David Cook’s Dare You To Move and Syesha’s Hit Me Up sounded a bit better in retrospect to me than they did first run last night.
Fantasia comes out, channeling a slightly more chunky Grace Jones. The song – Sorry, I missed the title, and there’s no extracting it from the lyrics – is just nasty funky. It overshadows Fantasia herself; there’s nothing about it that makes me think “oh, yeah, that’s Fantasia I’m hearing.” I dunno if it’s a hit for the ages, but it had a lot of good stuff going on with it… I wonder what Prince could have done with it.
After the break, Ryan is starts the results process. David Archuleta is first up, and we get to see his trip back to Murray, Utah, complete with some high school cheerleaders which prompt David to give us an “oh my gosh!” He signs some autographs – it looks like he’s been practicing – and then he gets mobbed at a local mall. At this point, I wish I’d counted his usage of “gosh.” We get see his high school, and a large mustachioed mayor declares it David Archuleta day. The girls cry, he crys… it’s easy to make fun of, but you shouldn’t… I think it’s genuine emotion from him. He seems like such a likable kid. Good for David.
After the trip to Utah, Ryan runs through David’s performances and the judge reactions from last night. He takes time out to question Simon over his use of the word “gooey” to describe one of David’s songs… making himself look like even more of a dick than usual in the process. They show his journey-on-the-show video and cut to the commercial without ever announcing what’s happening to him… demonstrating tonight’s trick for dragging the show out to sixty minutes.
Syesha comes out after the commercial. Through Ryan’s teevee magic, we get to accompany her to Sarasota, Florida. Complete with a jet and Hummer limo. Looks like she draws an older demographic than Archuleta; no surprise there… or maybe those are just the breaks coming from the retirement capital of America. We get to meet Syesha’s family. We didn’t see David’s, but then we all know the Idol show is completely sick of at least one of them. She gets a helicopter ride, too, and she gets a Mayor too – this one is comes up short in the mustache department, but she can do a handstand, so that balances out. She doesn’t get her own day, though. Bummer. Ryan runs back through last night with her, and we get to see her journey video… one thing immediately becomes clear, we haven’t seen a single bad haircut on Syesha this whole season.
Back after the commercial. David Archuleta and Syesha are on the Sofa of Safety; one of them is leaving their last gluteus impression of of the season. David Cook comes out and explains how he never intended to be on the show at all, only coming to the auditions to provide moral support for his little brother. He gets a private jet back to Kansas City, does the weather on the local Fox affiliate. Someone holds up a KC/DC sign at his coming home concert… funny. He takes his old elementary music school teacher some flowers, also nice. He gets a parade, complete with a guy in a Colonel Sanders outfit. David cries, his brother cries, the girl he signs an autograph for cries… no shame in any of that. A step up from the mayor for David, he gets an actual Representative handing him his plaque. He also gets to throw out the first pitch at a Royals game. Of the three homecoming trips, David’s was hands down the coolest. But that’s what you would expect.
The only weird thing was they used Aerosmith’s Dream On as the music for David Cook’s clip… wasn’t that the last song that Michael Johns did before he got kicked off? That’s not an omen you want hanging on your video clip.
Indy 4 commercial… by all that’s holy, please don’t let it suck. I’m afraid, very afraid.
The local news plays a teaser with Blake Lewis saying “I had a beef with the producers because they had me sing a really crappy song.” Okay, the hook worked, I’ll be watching the newscast tonight. Mostly hoping for reinforcement of everything I already think about the musical sensibilities of the Idol producers.
Simon says that if we get the finale he’s hoping for we might have a real “humdinger” next week. Paula’s never heard of the work ‘humdinger” … but then there are probably a lot of words with which Paula is unfamiliar.
Ryan announces the results… he names David Archuleta first. Then David Cook. There are your final two. Syesha leaves us tonight.
Summary / Conclusion
And then there were two. It’s the outcome I predicted last night. I think David Cook belongs in the final… he’s easily been the most interesting performer this year. I also think Syesha belongs there on raw talent… but raw talent often doesn’t win Idol. You have to garner a fan base, really connect with people emotionally… and that’s something Syesha failed to do. Her Broadway feel doesn’t lend itself to having people want to spend their evenings dialing the phone; there’s nothing wrong with it, but she always felt like she was putting on a conscious act rather than really feeling the music, and that leads to people enjoying it in the same fashion without really dedicating themselves to you.
So there you have it. Next week: David v. David. My prediction is that David Cook takes the prize.
We’ll find out next week. See you then!
Topics: American Idol, TV | 2 Comments »
May 14th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Thank you for this posting
I live in Korea so there’s no way to watch
this show live.
This is just what I expected. yeah
May 15th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
hi,david archuleta.aku penggemar kamu dari indonesia.i really love to you so much