American Idol Fan

OK Magazine is reporting that Paula Abdul may be leaving American Idol, or as they word it - “transitioning” her way out of the show to pursue several other television related projects.  A “source” (and we know how reliable the sources are!) says that Paula knows that every season could be her least and Paula Abdul has a new secret venture that she is very excited about.  Remember her reality show?  Hopefully if there is a new venture it will be better than that show was. 

I don’t believe that Abdul will be leaving American Idol anytime soon.  I think that with all of the latest scandal surrounding the suicide of Goodspeed near Abdul’s house has set Abdul up for press that she doesn’t want and a lot of it will be rumors and speculation.

The latest edition of ELLE Magazine features Carrie Underwood on the cover and there are pictures inside of many of the Season 7 finalists.  Carrie Underwood discusses the rumors surrounding her and Olympic winner, Michael Phelps, and says that she has never met him even though there have been rumors the two have been dating.  She tells ELLE that the rumors about the two of them being involved is a “fabricated lie that came out of nowhere”. 
 
In the same edition of ELLE, the Season 7 top 10 Idol finalists get a makeover!  You can see pictures and a lengthy spread of –Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, David Cook, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Chikezie, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook, Syesha Mercado, and Ramiele Malubay.

Okay, American Idol fans!  The Season 8 date for the popular show has been released!  American Idol will return to Fox on January 13th.  For “House” fans, that popular show will be moved to another night.  I’m a huge “House” fan as well so that’s another show I don’t want to miss.  “House”, which has been airing at 8 p.m. EST on Mondays will move to Monday nights at 8 p.m. beginning January 19th.

American Idol executives are trying to keep things fresh and they have added a fourth judge to hopefully make things more interesting this year.  Joining Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Cowell will be singer and songwriter Kara DioGuardi. Why another judge is needed I’ll never figure out but we’ll see what happens.

I ran across the TV Guide channel today and saw that former American Idol contestants (like Brandon Rogers) were interviewing people who are trying out at the auditions for Season 8 of the popular television show.  Of course, they don’t give too much away for those who did make it and they didn’t have them sing any.  The ones that didn’t make it would sing out a few notes and like always, it didn’t take too long to see why they didn’t make it.

One woman who didn’t make it to Hollywood said that she had been sleeping outside the audition building for 4 days waiting to try out.  Even though she didn’t make it, she said she was on her way to the next audition spot and would try to get in front of the judges again. 

I hope when the show airs in January we don’t have to sit through all of those auditions again.  Ugh.

Ryan Seacrest and American Idol were both nominated for Emmy Awards this year but neither won.  Seacrest was nominated for Outstanding  Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program but Jeff Probst from Survivor won.  American Idol was nominated for Reality/Competition Program but Amazing Race won. 

Ryan Seacrest, along with Jeff Probst, Howie Mandel, Tom Bergeron and Heidi Klum, the other reality show nominees, were the host for the show.  Here is a list of some of the most popular Emmy winners:

Outstanding…
-Drama Series: Mad Men (AMC)
-Comedy Series: 30 Rock (NBC)
-Miniseries: John Adams (HBO)
-Made-for Television Movie: Recount (HBO)
-Variety, Music or Comedy Series: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
-Reality/Competition Program: The Amazing Race (CBS)
-Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, AMC)
-Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Glenn Close (Damages, AMC)
-Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin (30 Rock, NBC)
-Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Tina Fey (30 Rock, NBC)
-Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie: Paul Giamatti (John Adams, HBO)
-Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie: Laura Linney (John Adams, HBO)
-Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program: Jeff Probst (Survivor, CBS)
-Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Zeliko Ivanek (Damages, FX)
-Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Dianne Wiest (In Treatment, HBO)
-Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Jeremy Piven (Entourage, HBO)
-Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Jean Smart (Samantha Who?, ABC)
-Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie: Tom Wilkinson (John Adams, HBO)
-Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie: Eileen Atkins (Cranford, Masterpiece Theatre, PBS)
-Directing for a Drama Series: Greg Yaitanes (House, Fox)
-Directing for a Comedy Series: Barry Sonnenfeld (Pushing Daisies, ABC)
-Directing for a Miniseries, Music or Comedy Program: Jay Roach (Recount, HBO)
-Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program: Louis J, Horvitz (80th Annual Academy Awards, ABC)
-Writing for a Drama Series: Matthew Weiner (Mad Men, AMC)
-Writing for a Comedy Series: Tina Fey (30 Rock, NBC)
-Writing for a Miniseries, Music or Comedy Program: Kirk Ellis (John Adams, HBO)
-Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program: The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

Over the years American Idol has been under scrutiny by many because of the lack of success stories that have developed since the show’s inception in 2001.  When you stop and think about it, how many true stars have come out of the most popular talent show/reality competition on television?  After seven seasons and hundreds of those who made it onto television, how many do we remember and still hear about? 

Off the top of my head I can think of those who became super famous:  Chris Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken & Carrie Underwood.  Kelly Clarkson has kind of slid under the radar though lately.  Others who have done pretty well are Jordin Sparks, Fantasia, Phil Stacey, Mandisa and Justin G.  There were several who had record deals but then lost them.  But is the show to blame?  I don’t believe so.  The music industry is tough and the odds are naturally stacked against most people.  Even though there are many former American Idol contestants who haven’t had great success on the radio, the show has opened the door to many other career opportunities for them.

Since this is a new blog, I would like to get a feel for what readers want to know about American Idol.  I previously had an American Idol blog that was pretty successful, but the network closed and that was the end of that site.  On that site I published several posts a day and was very current with all of the news but I am unable to devote that much time to this blog, so one or two posts a day will be my limit here.  Are you interested in:

• Current news/gossip?
• Where are they now type posts?
• Only recaps of the latest season of American Idol?
• Other?