RobbieCarrico-related stories
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 Mar 6th 2008 5:18PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Video, Contestants, Alumni, News and Gossip
It's not a wig. In AOL's
interview with Robbie Carrico, the eliminated
American Idol contestant said of the controversy: "I've been growing this hair for a very long time. I think it's ridiculous that they have to come up with something like that." Considering how powerfully strong his performances had been and the praise he'd generally gotten up to this point, I can't help but wonder if the controversy helped spell his doom.
He also took flack for his "authenticity" as a rocker, to which he said, "I've spent the past six years working my tail off in grungy bars. Pulling our own trailer with our equipment and living out of a van sometimes and doing all of the grunt work that they said they didn't see me doing, because of what I did before with pop music." Did all this side drama detract from viewer's abilities to just judge him for his performances?
Continue reading AI OD: A farewell to Robbie Carrico - VIDEOS
Posted Mar 3rd 2008 5:42PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Contestants, Alumni, News and Gossip
You could call it a bad week. First, he continued to get called out by the judges for lacking authenticity as a "rocker," as he proclaimed to be. Then tabloid media started reporting that
Robbie Carrico's hair is a wig, or at best a weave, further calling in to question his credibility. And to top it all off, he was the eighth contestant eliminated from
American Idol on Thursday. Thank god that's over, right?
Well, not exactly. Now that he was available to talk to the press (within the guidelines of his 600 page confidentiality agreement and contract with the
Idol machine), in Robbie Carrico's interviews he had to spend as much time
defending both his hair and authenticity as he did talking about his experiences on
American Idol.
Continue reading Robbie Carrico defends hair, authenticity
Posted Feb 28th 2008 11:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Episode Reviews
(S07E16) We're getting closer and closer to the Top 12, and more importantly closer to the end of thrice-weekly
Idol. There were almost 31 million votes cast last night, but still not enough for four more contestants. This week, both the boys and girls were largely disappointing, with many of the top performers from last week fumbling, and only a few showing marked improvement.
A portion of that, I think, can be blamed on the theme weeks. For many of these kids, songs from the '60s and '70s represent songs they've never heard before in their lives. That's not fair to those contestants or the audience. If this is the season where we're supposed to get to know these singers better, why not let us have three weeks of getting to know the type of music they both enjoy and know they can sing well. Once you've found your Top 12, you can put those kids through the ringer with your theme weeks.
Continue reading American Idol: Top 16 Revealed
Posted Feb 28th 2008 4:20PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, News and Gossip
It's that time of year again. The time when
American Idol settles down with it's Top 24, we start singling out our favorites, and the media starts digging into these people's pasts and presents looking for juicy secrets like they're presidential politicians, too. Other than the expected mug shot discovery, two have surfaced this week that are certainly generating a lot of buzz.
One features Robbie Carrico, who has been called out as inauthentic in his attempts to be a "rocker" week after week thus far on the show. The other, the handsome but otherwise dull David H., who had a great week. Of course,
Idol and FOX aren't saying anything about it. In order to not spoil the fun for those who like to avoid this kind of thing, you'll have to follow me to know more.
Continue reading Idol Secrets: Amanda, Robbie and David H.
Posted Feb 27th 2008 12:13AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants
(S07E14) Tonight was a weird night for me as the boys who blew me away last week...well, kind of didn't. And the guys who barely squeaked by upped their game tremendously. It was like a mix-and-match of who was good and bad from last week and it made my brain hurt. Now I'm all kinds of confused and don't know who should go home anymore. There's still some easy fat to trim, but now I don't think it's nearly as obvious which six of these ten should make the Top 12. Good for them, but hard for us.
Continue reading American Idol: Top 10 Boys Perform
Posted Feb 20th 2008 12:26AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants, Performances
(S07E11) The continuing efforts by the
Idol folks to make me happy are really appreciated, I want you guys to know that. Not only did they acknowledge that certain of tonight's contestants have had very little to no screen time thus far, but they went so far as to show us some early audition footage for them.
It may not seem like much, but that little bit shows us the contestant singing a couple different songs, maybe in differing styles. This gives us a more well-rounded basis on which to assess their performance here. Everyone has an off-week from time to time and it would be horrible for someone to have a bad night on the only night we see him/her if his/her other auditions were amazing.
Continue reading American Idol: Top 12 Boys Perform
Posted Feb 15th 2008 2:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, News and Gossip
So are you, like me, pissed that we have no idea who Jasons Castro and Yeager are? Upset that we've never seen Luke Menard before we saw that he was in the Top 12. Well, if you're reading this then you're online. And if you're online, then you can
run on over to AmericanIdol.com and see introductory videos of the entire Top 24, as well as a clip of the photo shoot that brought you our fantastic Top 24 gallery.
Continue reading AI OD: Video introductions to Idol's Top 24 online
Posted Feb 14th 2008 11:21AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants
Now that we know who they are we can see how they've been cleaned up by FOX and photographed. And that crazy Top 24 promo photo featuring the contestants hiding behind Simon masks has been replaced with the above photo, minus the masks. Oh those wacky kids over at FOX. They're so creative!
Continue reading Idol's Top 24 official FOX photo gallery
Posted Feb 13th 2008 11:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Reviewcaps, Contestants
(S07E10) Looks like
Idol's getting an early start with the cheesy blatant endorsements. They opened this episode with an incredibly corny
Jumper intro featuring Hayden Christensen and Ryan Seacrest. But tonight is all about about the chair and final judgment for the contestants. No more singing; no more chances to prove themselves. It's simply a matter of sitting down and hearing if they're in the Top 24 or headed home.
Continue reading American Idol: The Top 24 Revealed
Posted Jan 28th 2008 4:22PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: American Idol, Contestants, News and Gossip
"Joe's Place"
broke the story last week and there are plenty of sites who
ran with it, so now the question becomes: how accurate is it? We're still a few weeks away from the official unveiling of the
American Idol Top 24, but apparently the final selections were made this past week, and then Joe blabbed about it to the whole world. Did he get it right?
Considering there are names that no one would know unless they were on the inside; they are from auditions yet to air, it seems very possible that his list is at least partially accurate. I'm going to do two separate posts for boys and girls as I'm gathering up available online video, some pics and what we can find so far about these possible contestants.
!SPOILER WARNING! after the jump. If you don't want to know, then don't go.
[
UPDATE - Now updated and with additional audition video! - j/h]
Continue reading AI OD: The top 24 leaked -- The boys - VIDEO
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
