DavidCook-related stories
Posted Jan 15th 2009 12:34AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Judges, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Performances, Predictions and Trends
(S08E02) Kona kicked off
TV Squad's
American Idol coverage last night, and the auditions are now in full swing. This episode found Ryan Seacrest and the judges in Kansas City, home of last year's
American Idol winner David Cook. In fact, Ryan talked to David Cook's parents, who just happened to be walking down the street! Ok, not really, but they made it seem that way, which was kind of funny.
Also, included in the crowd of 11,000 people was Michael Castro, Jason Castro's brother. More on that later.
After the jump, the auditions...
Continue reading American Idol: Kansas City Auditions
Posted Nov 2nd 2008 12:00PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E07) Although I have fond memories of Mango and Ben Who-fleck working
Saturday Night Live together back in the day, I was pretty disappointed by this episode. I think someone told Ben Affleck that he's pretty all right on
SNL and it got to his head, because he was trying way, way too hard. It was almost to the point where it was unbearably awkward. If not for Senator John McCain's appearances, this episode would have been wholly unremarkable. I mean, apart from its super-weakness.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ben Affleck/David Cook - VIDEOS
Posted May 27th 2008 1:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Judges, Contestants, Alumni, Host, Predictions and Trends, News and Gossip
We scoured the earth (and the archives at various record companies for failed projects that showed vocal promise) to create the greatest assemblage of singing talent
American Idol has ever seen! So what happened? After last year's virtual snooze-fest, how did a season that truly did give us perhaps the greatest depth of talent we've ever seen (an argument could be made for Season Five) give us such lackluster shows?
After Sanjaya-gate last year, the biggest controversy to come out this year was that finalist David Hernandez used to be a stripper and David Archuleta's dad might be a Mr. Meany-Pants. And we got to be pissed that Kristy Lee Cook outlasted the likes of Michael Johns. Not until we got to the finale of Davids did things get really intense.
Continue reading AI7 Report Card: The season that was
Posted May 27th 2008 11:06AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Alumni, Performances, News and Gossip
It seems that even after winning
American Idol's seventh season, David Cook still expected David Archuleta to have won the whole thing. in the
exit interview with David Cook, he describes the twelve million votes he won by as a "discrepancy" and said he "thought Archie was a little bit ahead" of him.
He thanks the show for allowing him to grow as an artist, and shrink at the waistline. "I've lost probably about 10 to 15 pounds. There was definitely a progression for me on this show. Early on ... the vocal coach really hit home for me ... Going into this, I had built up a wall, sort of a protective barrier between me and the audience. She forced me to break that down and I think it helped for my performances." I can agree that there was something keeping him from standing out in those early weeks as he came to later.
Continue reading AI OD: Congratulations to David Cook - VIDEOS
Posted May 23rd 2008 10:20PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Alumni, Performances, News and Gossip
Welcome to the final installment of
"AI Aftermath," where we explore
Idol's past. Each installment, as one more
American Idol hopeful is eliminated from the competition, we take a look back at contestants past who were eliminated at the same point. We'll examine how they did on the show and what they've been up to since their eliminations. In honor of David Cook's crowning as your
American Idol, we will look back at other winners
.
This week: The Winners, featuring Kelly Clarkson (Season One), Ruben Studdard (Season Two), Fantasia Barrino (Season Three), Carrie Underwood (Season Four), Taylor Hicks (Season Five) and Jordin Sparks (Season Six).
Continue reading AI Aftermath: The Winners - VIDEOS
Posted May 21st 2008 8:03PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Predictions and Trends, News and Gossip
Welcome back to our weekly
American Idol polls round-up. Each week we look at various online polls that were conducted from the end of last week's results up to the performance show Tuesday. And then a few that were conducted after the performance show, but before the results were revealed.
This way we can analyze how the week's performances affected a contestant's overall popularity, which turns out to be not very much except in a few select cases anymore. And this week we're mixing it up a bit, bringing you this column
before the "Results Show" airs. As this is our last time to look at polls, why not see how many, if any, properly predict the David that comes out on top. Personally, even though you won't see her on these lists, I think Syesha still found a way to come in last on all of them.
Continue reading Idol Polls: The Top 2
Posted May 21st 2008 7:45PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Episode Reviews, Episode Recaps
(S07E42) Forty-two episodes later we're finally ready to find out who is going to take home the crown of the next
American Idol. Look at all those faces up there, and now it's all come down to the Davids. The lingering question is if they're going to be Idols the likes of Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson; sales in the millions with mantles full of awards; or will they find mainstream success more of a challenge, like Taylor Hicks or Justin Guarini (I know he came in second but let's face it, at this point first and second are almost interchangeable as far as getting a shot at a career)? The show's an hour early and an hour longer, clocking in from 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Eastern Time. That means you have two hours to chat live right here with your friends and frenemies about which David should win and how stupid they are for disagreeing with you.
You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.Continue reading American Idol: Your American Idol Revealed (season finale)
Posted May 20th 2008 7:51PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Performances, Episode Reviews
(S07E40) Tonight, it's wall-to-wall David as Cook and Archuleta face-off in the penultimate episode of what was once proclaimed to be the most talented and greatest season of
American Idol to date. And yet, for some reason it hasn't worked out that way. Nevertheless, the Davids are both talented and in such different ways. Archie has a pure and beautiful voice but his performance technique is severely lacking. Meanwhile, Cookie is a consummate performer, but doesn't have nearly the vocal depth of his nemesis.
Tonight, expect them to sing the "Idol Songwriting Competition" winning song which should be a horribly saccharine song about "Gosh, I can't believe where I'm at and isn't this amazing," or if we're especially lucky we'll get two different songs like that. Other than that, we should get three songs from each, one possibly an encore of their favorite performance and the third ... well, who knows. Join us in our weekly live chat and we can speculate together.
You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.Continue reading American Idol: Top 2 Perform
Posted May 20th 2008 6:01PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Alumni, Performances, News and Gossip
Welcome back to
"AI Aftermath," where we explore
Idol's past. Each installment, as one more
American Idol hopeful is eliminated from the competition, we take a look back at contestants past who were eliminated at the same point. We'll examine how they did on the show and what they've been up to since their eliminations. In honor of David Archuleta's elimination in the finale, we'll be looking at other second place finishers.
This week: 2nd place finishers, featuring featuring Justin Guarini (Season One), Clay Aiken (Season Two), Diana DeGarmo (Season Three), Bo Bice (Season Four), Katharine McPhee (Season Five) and Blake Lewis (Season Six).
Continue reading AI Aftermath: 2nd place finishers - VIDEOS
Posted May 16th 2008 7:02PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Predictions and Trends, News and Gossip
It's getting closer. On Wednesday, America will crown the next
Idol winner. Which David will it be? Of course, these two polar opposites have sparked some debate online as to who will win the competition.
Okay, is someone holding down Jeff Archuleta? According to E! Online,
the oddmakers at BetCRIS.com have chosen David Cook to take the title Wednesday night. As per the online bookies, Cook has a 74% chance of winning this season of
American Idol.
But E! Online makes a good point about Archuleta's young quick-dialing fanbase: "Of course, last we checked, Gambling 101 was not a part of a grade schooler's course load, meaning the actual voting demographic might not jibe with the oddmakers' pick and it still could be anybody's contest."
So, who are you voting for? Who do you think will win
American Idol? Better yet, who do you think
deserves to win
American Idol this season? Check back with TV Squad for our review of the big night.
Posted May 16th 2008 9:21AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Alumni, Predictions and Trends, News and Gossip
Welcome back to our weekly
American Idol polls round-up. Each week we look at various online polls that were conducted from the end of last week's results up to the performance show Tuesday. And then a few that were conducted after the performance show, but before the results were revealed.
This way we can analyze how the week's performances affected a contestant's overall popularity, which turns out to be not very much except in a few select cases anymore. Of course, it's all come down to the inevitable finale everyone expected. Unfortunately, it turned out to be rather anticlimactic though it would have been a lot of fun to see our girl Syesha sneak her way into the finale. What it does accomplish is setting up a finale that's almost impossible to predict. Both Davids have been at the top of the polls for weeks now, so it may come down to what they do Tuesday. We'll be back next week on Wednesday
before the results to analyze the available polls at that time and see if we can predict the ultimate winner.
Continue reading Idol Polls: The Top 3
Posted May 14th 2008 8:45PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Performances, Episode Reviews, Episode Recaps
(S07E40) This is it, the penultimate episode and possibly the most tense and contested results of the whole season. Based just on the comments here, fans of each contestant are passionate, so you can expect the world to erupt in chaos tonight, especially if David goes home. Syesha has been the comeback queen, but I don't know if she has what it takes to break through into the Finals, and after last night's performances I certainly don't think she did enough there. Join us here for our live chat and live out the excitement with billions (give or take billions) of other
Idol fans and see who's going to vie for the title of
American Idol in next week's finale!
You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.Continue reading American Idol: Top 2 Revealed
Posted May 14th 2008 3:41PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, News and Gossip
American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe has come out in confirmation that finalist David Archuleta's dad has been effectively banned from participating in David's rehearsals, though he stops short of saying
Jeff Archuleta's been banned altogether from the backstage area. In an interesting choice of words, Lythgoe said, "He has been asked not to participate in the choice of music with David or be in the room when David is working out his routines that he wants to sing. He's fine to be in the studio -- nothing wrong with that. We just want David to be able to be free like everybody else to get on and do what they want to do." I find the use of "free like everybody else" very interesting.
Later Lythgoe said they were concerned about giving everyone an equal opportunity and taking away "some of the pressure" that David was under. It's certainly an interesting comment in that you wonder if
Idol should even take on that role of reducing parental pressure. He did stop short of declaring Jeff Archuleta a "stage dad," instead saying only that a stage mom or dad is only "someone who's protective."
Continue reading Lythgoe and son David comment on Jeff Archuleta's troubles
Posted May 13th 2008 7:45PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Performances, Episode Reviews
(S07E39) It only took until the Final Three, but finally the contestants are going to be able to sing at least one song that is entirely their own choice. No themes, no specific artists just whatever their little hearts content. Expect David Cook to do a rock song, Syesha to do a Whitney song and David Archuleta to do a ballad he's been singing his whole life. After that, the judges get to select a song for each and the producers get to do the same. Traditionally these Top 3 episodes have featured some pretty amazing performances, as the songs are better suited for the kind of vocalists we have left. Now, this may not be your favorite Top 3 (it's certainly not mine), but stop by anyway in our live chat during the episode and talk about how they're doing.
You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.Continue reading American Idol: Top 3 Perform
Posted May 8th 2008 5:22PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, Predictions and Trends
At this point an argument can be made for any of the Top 3 to win the whole thing. In fact, that's just what we're going to do. Now that we've said goodbye to so many other hopefuls we're down to a Final Three every bit as strong as Season Two's Kimberly Locke, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, though drastically different. All three have proven that they have great voices. All three have proven that they have tremendous fan support. And all three seem to tap into a very different fan-base.
But who's the most deserving of the win? David Archuleta has wowed the judges and audience week after week with his polished vocals, but lacks a commanding stage presence. Syesha Mercado has played the role of the underdog throughout this competition, but has been coming on strong these past few weeks with passion and conviction. David Cook quickly emerged as a front-runner with his powerful rock vocals and innovative arrangements, but is he too limited to be the next Idol?
Continue reading Who should win American Idol?
Next Page >
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
The Prisoner -- An early look
