S13.E41: Winner Chosen

[drafan]

 

Hot damn, add P2 to the Mt. Rushmore of Idol stars. That's what - 3 mega-hit singles in a row? That song, along with his other two singles, are on my radio constantly.

 

 

What??? There are 3 separate songs?? Are you sure??

 

I think JLo was PERFORMING!  Because she is the expert at PERFORMING! and she can tell you that PERFORMING! is the most.important.thing and if you are good at PERFORMING! it makes no difference if you can actually sing or pronounce words.

Yes, now she needs to have a PERFORMANCE, because that is her second favorite word after COMPETITION, and now the COMPETITION is over.

JLo knows big words, y'all.

 

I hope JENA's brother can calm down now that it's over. (Malaya = Sue Heck from The Middle, JENA's bro = Sue's BFF Brad.)

[ari333]

Whoever thought those pink crotch pants were a good idea surely could have thought of another color. It was just so very wrong for the obvious reasons.

[UsernameFatigue]

Why was JLo singing intha little girl voice on True Colors? Jesus, Mary and Joseph. And why was she wearing that poofy little girl lampshade party dress?

 

JLo was channeling (or maybe not) Cyndi Lauper.

 

I rewatched the performance for Keith's guitar playing, and it hit me who JLo reminded me of in her little girl poofy dress, banging on the tambourine - she was a dead ringer for Naomi Judd in the mid 80's. Then when she was dancing at one point she looked like Molly Ringwald dancing in The Breakfast Club. Apparently JLo is still living in the 80s.

 

And rounding out the impersonations, when JLo was 'apparently' jamming with Keith at one point she looked just like Betty Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. Same expressions, and she looked every bit her age. I might add that JLo is so self absorbed (no surprise there) that at the end of the song when Keith and Randy were jamming together she walked right in between them. What an idiot.

[Kromm]

So much for Dial Idol's predictions.  :)

Dial Idol has had no mechanism to accurately predict for years.  It's guesswork, and drawing deductions from publicly released information, with them as much as with anyone else.

So a Southern guy beat a teen girl from the northeast?  I wouldn't need to watch the season to predict that outcome.  

Lets start the Countdown on Meatloaf Jr. taking over "Rock of Ages". I stick to my prediction that it'll take about a year for Caleb's commercially unsuccessful album to come out, then maybe as much as another two years before he winds up there. 

[BogoGog24]

I checked out the Dial Idol predictions and it seemed they were pretty much neck in neck, which seems accurate. The judges noted it would be close and I think many viewers did as well. It was reported later that the results were very close. So technically Dial Idol was right.

[Kromm]

I haven't even been interested enough to watch this because I don't care who wins, but I did catch JLo's performance.  She sounded so bad, the song was so bad, and she was so desperate-looking in that skimpy getup, that I was actually embarrassed for her.  I'm so sorry she's coming back next year.

Oh, she looked great....

 

...if this had been a Softcore Porn Movie.

 

I do have to admit... whatever else she is or is not, she's still a great dancer.  I'll give her that (and admittedly the outfit helped highlight that, to be totally fair--as icky seeming as it was for the portion where she was standing still and theoretically singing live).

[observer]

The Sad Fall of American Idol:  

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/the-sad-fall-of-american-idol-finale-ratings

[Kromm]

That was a fun show- not bad, Per Blankens. Loved the Alex/Mraz duet, the Jena/Paramore performance, and -sue me- the Judge Band.  Could KISS be any creepier, though?

KISS has always been creepy.  Always.  Age just makes it slightly weirder.

 

Loved that Hayley Williams went totally nuts with her hair (even more than usual), and that her performance outfit was kind of the antithesis of J. Lo's....

 

If Per was responsible for those balloons though, that was a massive mistake.  Talk about creating dead air.  You have to be able to SEE TV to make it TV and not radio.

John Legend himself was smooth as silk, probably the best guest performer of the night, but poor Malaya needed that key to come down at least a whole step.  

I'm happy for her glamming up--that must have felt good.  But she tanked that performance SO badly that's going to be a really long regret for her, I bet.  

[ModernWhimsy]

John Legend was awesome. As was Richard Marx. The boys group was cringeworthy. But not worse than Aged KISS.

JLo....sigh no words. She's tacky!!!

[Simon Boccanegra]

Twice this season there was a duet of "It's Only Love," and both times they cut arguably the most memorable part of the song, the long pause coming out of the bridge ("Over and over and over again," dead air for several seconds, and then the guitar riff coming back). Not that Jena and Caleb would have been able to recreate the electricity of the original performers.

[Badger]

It'll be interesting to see when the actual ratings come out and not just the overnights or the 18-49 demo.  I don't see it being that much better though.

 

About a year or so ago, the British paper "The Daily Mail" had screaming headlines that "Downton Abbey's  Christmas special (the one where Matthew got killed) finished in 9th place on the night and that this was proof that "Downton Abbey" was over.  Then the real ratings came in and it turned out the show actually came in 2nd out of all the shows aired that night.

 

Now, I don't see anything like that happening with IDOL, but I do think it's possible it will turn out they beat the VOICE recap show,   Now the fact they did so badly in the 18-49 demo is bad because that's the one that really counts but again, you have to wait for the real ratings to come out.  

 

Regarding DialIdol, although obviously the program itself was useless, on their forum, the regulars there had Caleb beating Jena although they did point out that most other sites had a different prediction.  

Edited May 23, 2014 by Badger

[snarkylady]

Does anyone else think that Caleb was way ahead in the voting the entire season?  To me that offers a possible explanation for why Idol did not have Caleb address the "r*****" remark on the air.  There was the distinct possibility that the remark itself would not be enough to cut into Caleb's votes -- as apparently it did not for the relatively small number of people aware of it -- and that they were risking tainting themselves in the process and bringing more attention to it during the post season discussions.  I'm not sure, just trying to figure what they were doing with Caleb and Jena.  After Jena began gaining votes I think they felt she would be the only one who could overtake Caleb and they did everything they could to make it happen and they almost pulled it off.   The Jena pimping began before Caleb's remark but he had already shown signs of being a PR nightmare.  Jessica paid the price and Alex may never have been getting the votes that die-hard followers of the show felt he was getting.  Since they don't release vote counts it's all speculation.  Another aspect of Caleb's win could be backlash for Idol forcing a female winner last year.  Hard to say.  And for a person who is saying she won't watch next year I'm putting way too much thought into it. 

[BogoGog24]

Does anyone else think that Caleb was way ahead in the voting the entire season?  To me that offers a possible explanation for why Idol did not have Caleb address the "r*****" remark on the air.  There was the distinct possibility that the remark itself would not be enough to cut into Caleb's votes -- as apparently it did not for the relatively small number of people aware of it -- and that they were risking tainting themselves in the process and bringing more attention to it during the post season discussions.  I'm not sure, just trying to figure what they were doing with Caleb and Jena.  After Jena began gaining votes I think they felt she would be the only one who could overtake Caleb and they did everything they could to make it happen and they almost pulled it off.   The Jena pimping began before Caleb's remark but he had already shown signs of being a PR nightmare.  Jessica paid the price and Alex may never have been getting the votes that die-hard followers of the show felt he was getting.  Since they don't release vote counts it's all speculation.  Another aspect of Caleb's win could be backlash for Idol forcing a female winner last year.  Hard to say.  And for a person who is saying she won't watch next year I'm putting way too much thought into it. 

He was never in the bottom 2 or 3 so that says something. Maybe an older demographic likes him and voted for him the old-fashioned way. Also, he's from the South, and North Carolina in particular has always been pretty successful on this show. Many people also say he was the only person that made the show exciting for them this season, so I think all his very over the top, theatrical performances made people want to vote for him. I think people wanted to see a true rocker win. I think they didn't address his remark because he had already written an apology (such as it was) and only a handful of people had really heard about it anyway. Drawing more attention to it when it had basically blown over would have just made it worse and rubbing salt on the wound. 

[drafan]

I don't know anyone who gets excited about this show anymore. I used to hear about it everywhere I hung out. In fact, I got into it because of people yapping about it at work (S2). The major state newspaper used to write up the finale with a full-page spread. This year, the Fox affiliate could barely pronounce Caleb's name.

 

Maybe there are too many reality competitions now. I know kids don't care about it at all. I'm in the target demographic, and I'm just watching it out of habit.  I asked folks at work if anyone is watching it and..... *crickets*...there's nobody but you guys on this forum!

 

I even went to seasons S2 and S4 (??? the Carrie one) concert tours for funsies with work friends......we could barely get tickets. They sold out fast. Tons of fun. Saw crazy-ass Claymates back in the day. Saw Bo before he got sick and had to drop out. Good times.

 

Kinda makes me sad, but everything comes to an end....remember when "Millionaire" was a big game show...now it's some kind of regular TV show with little hype.

 

I kinda like Caleb....better than the horrendously boring  past 5 winners at least. Maybe they're what killed the show.

 

I'll be back for HCJr and KU. (And forum talk. LOL)  Makes the winter go by faster. (Wow, does that sound lackluster or what?)

[Badger]

I think Caleb and Jena were leading the competition from very early on with Alex a somewhat distant 3rd.  I was surprised that Caleb won because I thought Jena was probably a little ahead of him in terms of popularity.  

[JavaBlue]

snarklady, it's my own feeling that Caleb was ahead by miles and miles by about Top 9/8. They knew he was going to win so they pimped Jena to get her in the finale with him. I think they chose her because she and he seem to get along and work well together and in their eyes, they made the best top 2. A finale with Caleb and any of the the other 5 or 6 would have been very boring and lopsided. Jena is a firecracker and the finale wasn't boring, to me at least.

[BogoGog24]

I definitely think the fact there are more talent competitions out now than there were 10 years ago has a lot to do with the decline of Idol. Most people flock to The Voice because it's cooler, younger, and more modern. Idol has too many shenanigans with constantly changing the judging panel (although The Voice is just as guilty of this), outdated theme weeks (though this season was much better than past ones), too many WGWG type winners so that it's become predictable, and overall just feels stale. The producers have made attempts this year trying to make it cooler and feel fresh to compete with The Voice but I'm not sure it worked. Idol will always be great but something can only be great for so long before it finally just loses steam. I think maybe 1 or 2 more seasons and then it will be it for this show. But then again… who knows. Survivor is still on, Saturday Night Live is still on. Idol still gets good ratings, they're just not nearly what they used to be. I heard the finale this year averaged 10 million viewers, which is still a rating many shows would die for.

[BogoGog24]

Found a really interesting interview with Jena: http://www.mjsbigblog.com/jena-irene-coin-toss-confusion-paramore-duet-being-a-wildcard.htm

 

Apparently she was confused about the coin toss and thought they were choosing for some Emmy nomination or something so that was why she chose to go first. And she said she dropped her last name because production kept accidentally referring to her as Jena Irene and she kept correcting them, but then eventually just decided to go by Jena Irene since they kept making the mistake. She says she was named after her deceased grandmother and that she believes her grandmother is watching over her, so I think it's nice that she chooses to carry her grandmother's name. In the whole interview she seems very mature and not stuck up at all, like many think she is (honestly don't know how people got that impression of her to begin with). She seems very self-aware, knowing how lucky she is to have gotten this far at such a young age and that she has taken in all the advice and knows she still has a long way to go as an artist and still has a lot to learn about the business. 

[ari333]

I find it hard to believe that any production people thought that Irene was Jehna's last name as opposed to Ascuitto or whatever it is. But if that's her story, then alrighty.

 

At the win, I felt happy for Caleb's brother and Caleb's family in general. They didn't have the McMansion and they must be very excited and grateful for this opportunity for Caleb. 

Edited May 24, 2014 by ari333

[4leafclover]

 

Apparently she was confused about the coin toss and thought they were choosing for some Emmy nomination or something

 

Haha--so Jena wanted to be the first one to receive an Emmy nomination!!!

[imonlyhuman]

I saw Haley Reinhart in the audience.   I would have loved to hear HER sing and watch JLo cringe.  In fact, why not bring in all idols from shows past for the finale.  Oh yeah, I guess the ratings would be even lower.  But it did beat Survivor Wednesday night, I didn't expect that.

 

As far as Kiss goes,  Adam Lambert did it a whole lot better than Caleb.  

 

I wish Jena had won over Caleb.  I liked her throughout the competition and thought she handled herself very well on finale night.  

[breeze2day]

I'm flummoxed by the fact that all over the media about JLo's performance, there are kudos and acclaim.  It is only we TwoP'rs and  Prev TV snarkers that seem to have been skeeved out by it.  

 

Go figger.

[Ohwell]

The thing I have to keep reminding myself of is the fact that many in the media--especially the Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood types--get paid to fawn over celebrities and act like they are the second coming.  They make me sick, but it's what they do.  Hence, this so-called fascination with JLo (and the Kardashians.  Ugh.). 

[BogoGog24]

I agree with ohwell- I'm sure most of these people are being paid by JLo's handlers to write nice things about her. 

[Kromm]

I'm flummoxed by the fact that all over the media about JLo's performance, there are kudos and acclaim.  It is only we TwoP'rs and  Prev TV snarkers that seem to have been skeeved out by it.  

 

Go figger.

Her dancing was fantastic.  Her singing was okay--at least better than I think many might fear it could have been.  It's the outfit that's skeevy, and I think the comments here reflect that.  And even the outfit wouldn't have gotten all that much comment if it was worn by a pro dancer on Dancing With The Stars, for example. It was skeevy in context with J. Lo standing still behind a mike for several minutes.  The moment she started dancing, the outfit began to make a bit more sense (although that still doesn't mean it was the best choice--just that you could see that as much as it looked like a negligee, it was also easy to move in it).

[BogoGog24]

I agree Kromm- overall the performance was way better than that trashy stripper show she put on at last year's finale. I think it was mainly that part when she got down on all 4s at one point that was overkill. And maybe the outfit was a little too skimpy for what's supposed to be a family-friendly show (although frankly I think it stopped being a family friendly show a long time ago)