“American Idol”: A Royal Rumble
By Chuck Barney
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 9:15 pm in American Idol.
The two Davids came out ready to rumble.
When our page designer at the newspaper produced a boxing motif for today’s preview of the “American Idol” finals, little did I know that the producers would actually have David “Sugarfoot” Cook and David “Baby Face” Archuleta come out in gaudy boxing robes and gloves and do the whole Michael Buffer, let’s get ready to ruuuuuuummble thing. Somewhat of a big overblown cliche, wasn’t it? OK, I’ll shut up and let our Readers Judging Panel take the floor one last time:
Rob Miller, 46, Oakland
That was the most lame introduction ever. Followed by 10 minutes of utter b.s. We don’t start until about 8:15. Who’s “brilliant” idea was this? Someone needs to be fired over this crap.
Cook – “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” I didn’t think it was all that. He’s a solid performer. He didn’t mess it up. Nothing wrong with it.
Archuleta — “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” They gave Archuleta a more “exciting” (for lack of a better word) arrangement. Yes, he nailed it.
Cook – Some song that I didn’t pick up the name of. Again, perfectly fine, but not a stand-out performance. Archie probably wins based on this song. (Not that it really matters.) That song was prototypical David Cook, exactly what I’d expect to hear on his album. And that’s not a bad thing. Would someone please kill Jim Lampley now?
Archuleta — I don’t know what it wazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. A typical Archie performance. Boring song, flawlessly executed. Well, I thought I did hear a couple of out of tune spots. As Fran has often lamented this entire season, where are the goosebump moments? For crying out loud, even Katharine McPhee managed to pull one of those out from time to time.
Cook – “The World I Know (Collective Soul)” I really liked this song. I didn’t know it. It wasn’t goosebumps, but it got close. Part of me thinks that pulling out “Hello” or “Billy Jean “would be a bit of a cop-out. His best of the night I felt.
Archuleta – “Imagine.” Before he even sings, I’ll say this is smart, pulling out one of the few really great moments of the season for another go. Yeah, he sang it fine, just like he did before. What’s more boring than doing the same song again?
Sticking with their stupid paradigm, I’d give the first two rounds to Archie but the last one to Cook. America will vote for Archie, probably 60/40, but we’ll never know.
Danny Wallace, 28, Antioch
They need to let Mr. Buffer join the crew and do that before every show. Sugarfoot vs. Babyface is great. They all should have nicknames. Official nicknames, not just the ones we’ve been giving them. Best part of the intro, besides Archie trying to look tough, was seeing the “Title you’re going for” while they showed Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Daughtry. So two winners out of six shown, and a fourth-place finisher. That pretty much sets the tone for the pointlessness of the hour that was. If they’re showing a contestant who came in fourth place as a victor? Then why bother winning?
I enjoyed hearing Ryan call Archie “Archie”. Makes me feel like he’s reading these opinions on the pop culture phenemon. Other than that the performers seemed to know that the final score doesn’t matter at all and were just going through the motions. But the Archie pimping by the judges has me leaning toward him as the victor. Especially with Cook taking on a song he’d never done before as his finish. With Archie repeating his biggest feat of the year, the tweeners will come through for him. I think that it’s gonna be easier for the 11-year-olds to stay up for four hours with their cell phones voting into the night than the Cougars for Cook, though with Cook actually crying like a little girl on stage will totally get him some votes from the kids. They eat that stuff up.
I feel the finale will be our second straight year with a teenage winner. Which means there will be another Idol winner whose album I won’t be purchasing. Only a little bit of Randy left, then I don’t have to hear him for another year. Thanks to the readers for giving us an audience for our thoughts. It’s been a blast.
Neyshia Go, 17, Antioch
I don’t really have much to say. David Cook has been my favorite but I felt like he slacked off a bit tonight. Even though I LOATHE the fact that “Archie,” sang ALL ballads, I have to admit, based on tonight’s performance, he most definitely should win. David Cook just didn’t step it up in my opinion, it was like any other night. Furthermore, I HATED the boxing theme…it looks like the producers are running out of original ideas…
Predicted Win: David Archuleta …even though I think in the industry, I could see Cook selling more records and selling out more shows. He’s a performer…who just didn’t quite meet the mark tonight.
Tyler Maddalon, 10, Danville
I thought tonight’s show was really good. Awesome performances and sorry, Mr. Miller, it was a pretty funny introduction. I thought David Cook put on three different sides of him today. The first was a slow rock and it paid off. It was a great song choice and it was amazing. The second was an upbeat rocker. I thought it was the worst of the night for him, but was still good enough to top David A. “Imagine”. His finale was my favorite. It was an emotional slow rock song. It was awesome, amazing, great, good, excellent, unimaginable — any adjective could describe it.
– David A. also showed a couple different sides tonight. The first (”Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”) had a medium-slow tempo that I couldn’t stand. I thought it was corny and I couldn’t comprehend Simon’s Gibberish British words. His next, though, was a heart-stopper. It was truly remarkable. It had the perfect amount of speed to make it non-boring, but still up his alley. I thought it was performed great and was sung even better. His last song was very predictable. All season long the story from me to David A. was he had to sing a faster tempo song that shows off his unbelievable vocals. He did only half of this. It was sung beautifully, but lacked excitement and wasn’t original because he had sung it before. I think David Cook will win if the audience didn’t change their minds. But if they do, David A. has a slight advantage. I want David Cook to win, but I think it’s a true toss-up.
Patti Compton, 76, Rossmoor
Lord, what a mess! Whatever class the show had prior to tonight was lost within the first five minutes in the boxing arena. I can just envision the PR boys hacking it out and coming up with that gargantuan debacle. They should be canned!
– I don’t think David Cook ever had a chance tonight. He was outclassed and outperformed by the 17 year old kid. Much as I thought he would take the trophy, he was doomed when he first stepped out on the stage. His song choices were bad and his delivery worse.
– Archuleta should be proud. He did a fine job!
Maria Sajjad, 22, Concord
To get a sense of how David Cook and David Archuleta performed
tonight, just Youtube their performances from the past 11 weeks. Their vocals and song choices were parallel to their previous performances, and Archuleta even sang “Imagine” for the millionth time in his life. Song choices and vocals were predictable, along with their excruciatingly boring answers to every question they were asked during the hour. In fact, the most interesting part of the night was trying to figure out how long it took producers to come up with the whole “boxing” theme. No wait, scratch that. The most interesting
part of the night was counting how many times David Archuleta cried-to-the-point-of-passing-out on stage.
– It’s going to be close, but the night belonged to Archuleta. He sang beautifully, and really seemed to want the American Idol title (perhaps for his own safety; who knows what his stage dad would do if he doesn’t win). Archuleta will end up winning tomorrow night, though I am very sure that Cook will end up with better album sales in the long run.
-It seems like just yesterday, America was introduced to a balding David Cook, and a slightly nauseating David Archuleta. Look how far they have come!
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May 20th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I was outraged at the start, when I heard Clive Davis ASSIGN Arche the famous & familiar “don’t let the sun
go down,…a bit upbeat and a ‘humming’ song. Then
stuck Cook with his. It just sat the pace and gave Arche the opening boost. Davis is the boss, & it just seem rigged to me. Also, Cook had to go OPEN cold turkey. I was looking for Arche to open 2, & alternate. With arche being given the best song and
rigging for arche to ‘end’ the show, I have very negative about the whole thing tonight. I will continue trying my calls for Cook !!!! 3 hrs left !
May 20th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Two nice guys. Two deserving guys. Two talented guys. It will be David Archuleta to take the crown tomorrow night. He brought the quintessential “American Idol” performance. I’m so glad he did not pass out! Mr. Cook has a more creative edge and I think that the number 2 slot will serve him better in the long run. However, Archuleta is so young, it’s hard to know how far he may take it. Barry Manilow may be looking to hang it up soon just like Leno. If so, that’s a slot Archuleta could slip right into. I hate that tomorrow will totally get me and I’ll cry the whole last part of the show. What will I do this time next week?
May 20th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Well this is unpleasant to say but my David Cook just didn’t seem as dynamic as he has been. I agree with many of our critics-Archie did a previous song and Davey did an orginal which gave A the edge. The teenieboppers may triumph on this one, but both the finalists were justified in being there. Archie boy just grates on my nerves a little but not as bad as fingernails on a chalkboard so no worries.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
They might be trying reverse psychology on us, folks. Archie did a great job and is a cute as a bug’s ear (whatever that means), but doesn’t have the same flair, intelligence and sales potential as Cookie. Simon even said on “Ellen” earlier today that David C. should win. So why did he throw him under a bus tonight? Note, he also gave him that weird wink as if to say, “The producers are making me say all this stuff, but I really want you to win.” (at least I hope that’s what he meant by that. hate to think it was something else. ew.)
May 20th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
At this stage of the game (the final competition) do we really need the judges tellng us who won each “round” or the evenings competition? Why not just let them sing and have America vote? I feel it’s very manipulative by the producers to rate the performers on the final evening of competition. Why don’t they just say “you should vote for so and so…” They could save the judges comments for the recap of the performances on the results show…after America has already voted.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
I again agree with Steve. If they don’t have anything nice to say they shouldn’t say anything in the finals. And I got the same feeling as Karen….might Simon be diss’ing Cook, so that people will double their efforts to vote for him? They do seem to have their ways of manipulating the event. David A is a talent emerging, and should have a promising career, but David Cook has the poise and talent to do it now. I just don’t see how David A won each round. That’s what I meant re: my comments about Syesha earlier…..we get pulled in to the comments of the judges and it affects us. If we could just have listened to the finale…..with the judges not there even…..and let them not be judged even by their presence at this point. They don’t need critiques when it’s the final two.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:24 am
Well, I called it a while ago with Archie winning…it will be a shock if he doesn’t….I do love David Cook and will buy any CD he makes…he’s awesome, but off his game last night. Should have stuck to familiar music. He just seemed off and with the negative but good comments by Simon that I think he didn’t expect to hear, it just seem to throw him more. Archie may not be around for the long haul..but who knows….This has been fun chatting on this blog…..
P.S. I think Steve is right…maybe the comments could and should have been saved for tonight or at least until all 3 songs were sung.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:40 am
What other outcome could the night have had than the one it did, given that two of the three songs were chosen by men other than the two (both) deserving finalists? Ok, so I was a DC fan from the get-go. Yet it was becoming clear as the weeks went on and David Cook took little David under his wing that he understood that just staying the course and making it into the final four would secure him a recording contract. That viewpoint was solidified tonight by his confession that he would consider it cheating if he had performed an-already-performed song as his song choice, and then Simon’s sly wink was all the confirmation I needed that he, too, knew that DC had stepped aside to let young Archie take the #1 spot. Good man, DC.
(Not sure why I had trouble posting a comment last evening; I was told that I had already submitted the comment but it never showed up. Rather like trying to get through to vote for David Cook last evening — did anyone else ever get through who tried?)
May 21st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Archie will win the competition. I though the judges went a bit over the top with their comments for him. Was he really “hot molten lava hot”? I didn’t think he did anything different than he has over the course of the season. Never really works the song differently than previous arranged unless he is told by a mentor. They shouldn’t be allowed to sing the same song twice over the course of the year either. I basically didn’t even listen to Imagine as I had heard it before. Cook was right…progression.
I’ll agree that Cook was not at the top of his game but I did like the last song by Collective Soul and what he did with it. I think he even knows he will not win. I noticed that when Ryan said stay tuned for tomorrow nights winner, Cook stepped away a bit and clapped toward Archie.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am
I enjoyed last night’s show, the boxing theme…..the make- believe David vs. David thing. I noticed Ryan was alot more lovey-dovey and his eyes had a dreaminess to them ( looked like false eyelashes). Randy was ridiculous in ranting and raving for David A. and I agree that we didn’t need to hear from ANY of the judges last night. The thing is already settled and David A. is the winner. I will love seeing his little face just light up with joy and I honestly hope he doesn’t get hollywood-jaded by it all. David C., buddy, you’re great….as the saying goes,” Nice guys finish last..”
May 21st, 2008 at 9:41 am
I agree w/much of what has been said by the others above … it seemed like DC was holding back last night and by his own admission (when Ryan was talking to them at the very beginning) he said he thought DA was going to be the ultimate winner.
I also agree that the judges comments should be banned on the final night … it really frosted me that Simon was gushing so much over DA because it just sort of came off as manipulative and rude and, I felt, was unfair to DC when he still had songs to sing. In the future, let the judges make comments on the finale night, after the public has voted.
Now, all this being said, I did feel that DA brought his ‘A’ game to the table last night and he seemed to take to heart the advice that ALW gave him (i.e., connect w/the audience more, connect w/the words of the song more, DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES!) … he definitely accomplished the first 2 and almost succeeded w/the last one. I also felt he chose the better of the “write in” songs and I can totally see him recording that.
I stuck to my guns in the end and voted for DC because, overall, I think he has the most marketability and I would definitely buy his CD (and even go see him in concert). And yes, I also had a terrible time getting through on any of the 3 #’s when I was trying to vote. It took me at least a couple of hrs. to vote as much as I wanted to (interestingly, I had more success using my cell phone than I did the land line … wassup w/that???).
So, I predict that DA is going to be the winner, but who the heck really knows???? I do know that I’ve totally enjoyed reading the panel’s comments this season and participating in this blog and I will miss putting in my 20 cents (inflation, ya know) in the coming weeks. Chuck, one more suggestion … perhaps we can all meet up again here once DC has produced his first CD and we can give our reviews???
Ta …
May 21st, 2008 at 10:42 am
Going back and looking at the clips of last night’s performances on YouTube today, I realized just how much influence the judges’ remarks, the staging, and the timing have on the audience’s perception. Last night, I thought that David A. had indeed “knocked it out of the ballpark”. Today, looking at David Cook’s performances, I was really, REALLY impressed. The last one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIX4lBmnFx8, was a whole lot better than I had perceived it last night. Also, it hadn’t sunk in last night that David C. was so overwhelmed by the song and the moment that he was crying at the end. So glad I voted for him. Paula was right - his sensitive side, his integrity shone through.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Idol Thoughts:
David C – Dancing on his toes throwing combinations with a left uppercut. He looked pretty good.
David A – No fighting skills. He just waved his arms in the air.
If this is a preview of the battle to follow it’ll be a knockout by David C.
I’ve already decided I won’t watch next season, or perhaps never because I feel duped by Simon, Ryan and Randy pushing the company line that this was supposed to be the season with the most talent ever. I wouldn’t mind if it just came from the network. I expect the hype because they want to boost ratings and earn a buck. However, with the judges I expect more impartiality, not hyperbolic jive. I feel let down, deceived by the judges for being untruthful. Say anything, just to get me to watch. They knew the talent was sub-par because they are the ones who chose the contestants. They put Jason and Brooke through. They put Sanjaya through last season. The list goes on. They know they are not putting the best vocal talent forward.
David C – Neither of his first two songs was the type to knock your socks off. Much too conservative at this point in the competition. He is not laying it on the line. The Collective Soul song was his best of the evening, but probably not enough to carry the night. He had tears in his eyes after his third song, showing that he too wanted to win it all.
It’s probably better for David C to lose. Finish the Idol tour, start a band and hire the best young players available. Start writing songs alone if he has the ability or with the guys in the band and hit the road.
David A – A technically flawless performance that he put his heart and soul into. At the end he went into a blended head voice for the higher notes and was singing with reckless abandon. I greatly appreciate his ability to master the technical aspects of singing. It takes great patience, tenacity and deserves respect. With that said, I watched unmoved.
He’s emotional on stage, almost moved to tears after the judges’ comments in round 1. It’s even warming me up to him.
His second song was sung with conviction and it appears that he wants to win the competition more than David C., who appears glib after round 2.
I could have done without the 90-second version of, “Imagine.”
David A had a much better night. He put all his skills together and won the evening hands down.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I just checked the schedule for tonite….they are going to ‘milk’ it for two hours?????
I’ll just check in at the end of Lost,……or Yahoo or Wiki will have it up after the live telecast is over to the east coast. A half an hour would be more than enough!