Live TV has this way of being, well live. And that means hard to schedule. As any PVR owner who's tried to record The Simpsons after a football game can tell you, that sometimes means your shows will be cut off.So on the one hand, it shouldn't be that surprising that this week's American Idol finale ran about 9 minutes long. On the other hand, it's not like the producers aren't used to putting together a live program every week. Anyway, thousands of viewers missed the big finish where Jordin Sparks was crowned miss... err.. the next idol.
Now Fox has issued an apology to those viewers, saying "it was always our intention to bring the show in on time." Well, I don't know about you, but that makes me feel better.
Anyway, I guess you can always hit up YouTube if you missed the finale.















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-25-2007 @ 5:16PM
Jim said...
Too bad they didn't apologize for broadcasting Taylor's rendition of "A Day In The Life."
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5-25-2007 @ 5:00PM
David said...
They really should say "We're sorry" for a lot of other stuff, like 90% of this season.
And it doesn't matter, everyone was watching Lost anyways. :)
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5-25-2007 @ 5:00PM
Darren said...
They should apologize for having the show on the air at all!
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5-25-2007 @ 5:43PM
Ron P said...
Errr...this isnt brain surgery. On any broadcast, ESPECIALLY a live one, I'll add a few minutes at the end of the recording in case it goes overtime. Same goes for programs that are being recorded after a live performance (eg: The Simpsons, or Amazing Race, as the NFL games sometimes run late).
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5-25-2007 @ 6:03PM
TomB said...
I agree with Ron. I'm a fan of Sunday night programming on CBS, i.e, 60 minutes, Cold Case, and Without a Trace. During Football season, 60 minutes NEVER started on time and neither did the rest of the shows. It doesn't take an rocket scientist to figure out that you can't just record these shows off the programming grid. I would manually program from 7pm until midnight on CBS on Sundays and never missed a show. And I didn't go to tv school or anything.
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5-25-2007 @ 7:01PM
TomB said...
BTW, running long, glitches, flubbed cues, and mess up camera work (especially like on Dancing with the Stars and SNL) are what makes live tv so fun to watch. Remember Ashlee Simpson's second performance on SNL earlier this season? Rosie and Elisabeth on the View? THAT's good TV.
Post-production on taped shows make them look perfect. Perfect gets boring after awhile.
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5-25-2007 @ 7:01PM
Dave said...
Given that the Idol finale was largely padded out with filler material, I think people have a right to be angry.
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5-25-2007 @ 7:01PM
Jen said...
Yeah, they could have saved the time by getting rid of the crappy award stuff.
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5-25-2007 @ 7:02PM
ratphink said...
It's one thing when there's sports before a broadcast or it's actually an "awards show" like the Academy Awards, Grammy's, etc. But come on it's AI. Why should I have to worry that their live show shouldn't end on time? Survivor has a live finale, Dacing w/the Stars has a live results show and The Apprentice a live finale. There's probably a few others that do. So to blast people with remarks like "it ain't rocket science" is just stupid. I'm plenty Tivo savy and never have issues with show I watch. AI producers blew it and should have appologized.
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5-25-2007 @ 7:22PM
Tristan said...
I dont know anyone who was watching lost. Everyone knows that shows dont end on time anymore, I remember perhaps one or two episodes of heroes that ran slightly over and then especially finales that always run over. Just think it could have been worst, you could have had no TV due to a power outage.
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5-26-2007 @ 8:56AM
Tammy said...
I don't think the last show of American Idol has ever finished on time in all of the six seasons. Some of the live result shows this season ran over too. I added 15 mins to the recording so it wasn't a big deal. Tivo now will ask you if you want to add time to a live show automatically too.
Now we were watching baseball and then Lost. I never watch shows like this in real time. It was nice to be able to fast forward through Bette Midler, that is one of my least favorite songs!
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5-26-2007 @ 8:56AM
kobernat said...
Tammy,
Fast forward through the Divine Miss M?--that was the BEST part of the show!
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5-26-2007 @ 12:30PM
Cathy said...
What they should have done was apologize for Clive Davis' "presentation"...that was a complete slap in the face to Kelly Clarkson...and he didn't even mention Reuben's name! To congratulate and "honor" Carrie Underwood for her achievements---like Kelly barely won anything--was terrible and classless. Even poor Carrie was embarrassed. (Not that Carrie didn't deserve it, but it was very rudely stated.)
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5-28-2007 @ 12:18PM
Amber V said...
Jordan, get up with Fantasia! Y'all need to do something together, you're gonna go big, good luck girl! You're the best!
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5-29-2007 @ 7:35AM
Dr RJP said...
What stunk was not giving Lakisha a solo, but letting Sanjaya do one was ridiculous. The who show was an how to force-feed an Idol onto the public, how to endlessly pimp one person;s talents while denigratig others.
This Idol SHOULD have been a singing competiton, but it was not. THe best singers were Lakisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle and the two of them would have wiped the floor w/ Jordin Spikes had eo of them were paired with her.
Ut was a total setup to put Jordin up against a weak-singing competitor.
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5-30-2007 @ 12:44PM
PN said...
They really tried to put too much into that season finale. They should have ended at 9:58 like they always do. I'm thinking--run show, shut sho down and I go back to my normal life. But no, Idol doesn't want to do that! And the Clive Davis presentation to Carrie Underwood was a little insulting to Kelly Clarkson in some parts. Wonder how much tension was going on backstage. Kelly's sold just as much as Carrie with her Breakaway album. It's just that both her album and Carrie's hugely successful debut have each sold over 5 million. I just know that the staff and producers are tired and getting their much needed rest. Taping a live show is tough, everything having to be so perfect with the I's dotted and the T's crossed.
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5-30-2007 @ 9:16AM
H HONES said...
Melinda Doolittle, you know in your heart, that you're the idol of 2007. Nobody con touch your spirit, nor your talent. We all will be hearing from you soon. Rock on!
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5-30-2007 @ 12:11PM
Matty said...
Last season I tried my best to watch a few episodes of "Idol" to give it a fair chance. I made it through a few. This season I think I managed about 30 to 40 minutes total of the whole season.Thank goodness for my remote, what a godsend that is. If the finale ran long that had to be a tragedy for TV. Gosh wouldn't it be nice to have a show next season that only had the best of the best of talent on. Now that would be worth watching and trying to vote for.
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5-31-2007 @ 1:36PM
stephanie said...
I REALLY LIKE JORDAN AND THINK SHE WILL DO VERY WELL
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6-01-2007 @ 10:01PM
Katt said...
So, like it doesn't even matter anymore since American Idol is over, but yeah they totally could have cut out alot of the bull and had the show end on time.
It would be nice to just have the performances by the past and present people that we love without the little awards and other time killers.
Last year's finale was soooo much better!
As for Bette Midler, I'm sorry, but she sucked! I love her to death, but it was painful listening to her and anyone who was excited that she is taking over for Celine just got an earful of what they would be paying for in Las Vegas. I know she watched that tape and kicked herself. It was so sad seeing her up there.
What was with Clive anyway? I felt like he was up there because he won a bet or something. I felt like he wasn't really talking to us Americans as a whole, but one person in particular who doubted that Carrie would do well, and why shouldn't she? I mean it is a well known fact that we sell more country music than anything in this country, so what's the big deal?
Also, it is really cruel for people to be picking at those of us who missed theend of the finale! Hey, some us us put our DVR to tape overtime, but 9 minutes?!? That was totally unexpected and totally FOX's fault for all the fillers they put in. We shouldn't have to put our TVs to record overtime, they manage to end it on time every other night, why not this time?!?
Anyway, in conclusion, Melinda should have won and at the very least been in the finale. I loved Lekisha from the beginning, but she started to fall off a bit as the show wore on and I think we were all always waiting for another "I ain't going" performance.
I think Phil would have done better if he wasn't so weird looking. He sounds fantastic though maybe a little too old for the younger audiences. He reminds me of Micheal Bolton who is also a little weird looking, but a fabulous singer.
Jordin is a sweetheart and she really can sing, but someone needs to talk to her about how her voice shakes a lot when she sings certain songs. It's very annoying, but they will hopefully fix that in the studio.
Blake is cool, can't really say anything bad about him other than he beatboxes better than he sings, and I never thought he would have been in the top three. I just knew it was gonna be Jordin, Lekisha, and Melinda.
Anybody who says anything bad about Sanjaya is just a hater. He is such a sweetheart and a cutie pie! It's not his fault if people kept repeatedly voting for him! I never voted for him, but I always looked forward to his next song attempt. People are just jealous because they wished they were up there doing what he did and getting away with it. We all knew there was no way he was gonna win, after the whole Diana Digarmo, Jasmine Trias, fiasco the year Fantasia won. I truly believe Fantasia was fated to win that year because Jennifer Hudson was a better singer, and Latoya could give her a run for her money too, not that I don't love Fantasia, but the Lord definately removed her competition.
Anyway, I am just rambling now...
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