(S02E09) It's nice to see an episode where everybody in the office (and Ann) is working together. They're usually broken up into their own smaller storylines, so people like Donna often get shoved into the background, if we see her at all. This time, she was front and center, along with Jesus Greg Kinnear, and Indiana's pride, Michael Jackson. Speaking of which-- American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was born in Indianapolis, so he totally could have helped round out the table.
Jerry, another mainly background character, generally serves as the show's whipping boy, which I find really funny -- especially in the episode where they were all trying to dig up dirt on each other, and he found out he was adopted. Granted, that's pretty bad, but I still laughed. This time though, where they ridiculed him and dismissed his mural, it didn't really work for me.
If things don't work out for Project Runway winner Christian Siriano in the fashion biz, he might want to consider a full-time gig as a talk show diva. As the number one guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show today, Christian was fierce, fun and oh-so-comfy that at times I thought Ms. O had her own little Ed McMahon or Andy Richter... but with a lot more style.
Oprah devoted the show to reality TV and the big get was Adam Lambert, the runner up in last season's American Idol. You wouldn't have guessed he was second place based on the assertion by Oprah that he was the top choice of her viewers when asked which reality star they wanted to see on her show.
I know I'm cynical, but I think it was planned. Adam's album is coming out on November 23 and there's already been lots of buzz, including the CD cover.
Adam Lambert's first album since American Idol is coming out on November 23, and the cover of For Your Entertainment is stunning. Kris Allen's CD cover will definitely not look like this. Believe me, it won't.
To some, it's already too much. Too touched up. Too over the top. Too glamorous. Too much Adam.
Puh-leeze! Give me a break. This is exactly an Adam Lambert album cover should be. It should be stylized and dramatic. It should take your breath away. It should push the envelope because that's what Adam did in his entire American Idol experience.
When faced with a chance to play it safe, Adam never did. You know the expression, "Go big or go home"? That was Adam Lambert on Idol. He may have come in second to Kris, but he made a bigger impression.
1. He's gay. 2. He's "glamboyant." (To quote Liz Lemon, that's a thing now?) 3. He doesn't tuck. 4. He had a crush on Kris Allen. 5. He has only dressed in drag three or four times. 6. He's not a civil rights leader. 7. He had a "psychedelic experience" at Burning Man 8. Seriously, he's gay.
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! Last week we had a pic from the season finale of American Idol, and the winner is grimmie with this:
"And what is the bid for this KISS wannabee?"
This week's pic is from the series finale of Reaper. Yes, it could be just a season finale if it gets picked up by someone else, but for now it's "series."
It's also interesting that Idol rules state that power texting, the kind of texting that AT&T reps showed Kris Allen fans how to do, is against the rules. Isn't there some sort of built-in safety net for the voting? How can one fan vote over 10,000 times for one person? Shouldn't it be one person, one vote? Or one household, one vote? Or maybe one phone number, one vote? I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the results. I have no idea. But it does seem that a better system could be in place.
Fans of Kris Allen feel justified that their favorite won American Idol this year. Fans of the presumed favorite to win, Adam Lambert, have been lamenting his loss. Looking for reasons why Adam lost, as Bob reported, they've put some of the blame on AT&T. I think it's more a matter of the jaded state of California, where Lambert hails from. They're not as impressed with a famous singer in their midst as the people of Kris Allen's Arkansas are.
People in the Midwest and South don't have celebrities around every corner, and we're not as "hard" as the East Coast. So we still get excited when a "hometown" boy or girl does good. Think back to Season Five when Katharine McPhee went "home" to Los Angeles to a crowd of hundreds while Taylor Hicks was blown away by tens of thousands in Alabama (and they already had one Idol!).
So Kris Allen beat Adam Lambert by a ton of votes last week. You knew there would be a controversy, right? This one is based around AT&T. Seems they might have pushed the results toward Allen by having their reps at parties organized by fans of Allen and teaching them how to "power text," which apparently means sending 10 or more text messages at once. The New York Times has all the details.
I am not going to pay $29.95 a year to read the blog entries of Clay Aiken. So I'm glad that someone else does and can post the following quote from Aiken. Guess theAmerican Idolrunner-up isn't a fan of another runner-up, Adam Lambert.
I couldn't be happier with the way AI ended this year. I only turn the show on once a season and only to see what the set looks like. This year, I happened to turn it on during the minute that Adam Lambert was singing "Ring of Fire," and, at that moment, thought my ears would bleed. Contrived, awful, and slightly frightening! I wasn't really a fan and found myself surprised whenever folks told me that they liked him.
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! Last week we had a picture from the crazy season finale of Lost. Our winner is Ryan, with this caption:
"Sorry Ben, but the tribe has spoken and you're voted off the island."
This week it's a picture from the equally crazy finale of American Idol, with Adam Lambert and friends.
The week before the American Idol gigantic-mahunga-godzilla two-hour-plus finale aired, Simon Cowell predicted it would be a "ding-dong finale." Of course, that brilliant prognostication was hype personified, but Simon did his job. The finale drew 28.8 million viewers. Ironically, the buzz in the biz when those figures were revealed skewed it as a bad thing. It was the lowest-rated American Idol finale ever. But it still drew a tremendous amount of eyeballs, so why is it being characterized as a flop?
The answer is simply this: American Idol is competing with itself. It's expected to exceed its highs year after year, and generally speaking in television, that just doesn't happen. Older shows decline, and yes, even superhits like American Idol can't stay on top forever. Look at ER or CSI.
At long last, the season 8 finale of American Idol has arrived! It's been fun watching all of the Idols grow in their musical prowess (that's a Paula word), especially Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, the final two performers who couldn't be more different, but are both awesome in their own way.
Ryan started things off by introducing the judges, along with a funny video clip for each of them -- Randy Jackson saying "For Me" throughout the season; Kara DioGuardi saying "sweetie" and "honey" to people who didn't make it past the audition process; Paula's round-up of colorful adjectives (vocal prowess, masterful and effortless, palette, etc.); and Simon's issues with hearing what people say (as in, he could probably use a hearing aid!).
When Adam was singing "No Boundaries," the new song written for the American Idol winner, I couldn't help but think that things were stacked a bit in his favor. I also was agreeing with Kona that it was a terrible song. But the fact remains that Kara DioGuardi should have done a better job of writing a song for all of the potential finalists. I'm not sure when she wrote this song, but why did it have to have such a huge range and be so high? Was it so Adam would win?
The last impression is very important, and writing a song that not everyone can sing isn't fair to do to the contestants. Especially if "the show," or at least a representative of the show, is involved in the writing. Should Kris be punished for being a different kind of singer than Adam, or for not having his upper register? Hell, even Kara said that she hoped Kris wouldn't be judged based on that song, so she knew it wasn't a good song for him. And yet it was her job to write a song that all the finalists should be able to sing well. Shame on you, Kara!
"Two are left standing, but only one can take it all." Seacrest breaks it down for us this evening, just in case there was anyone who didn't know what was going on. Each contestant is performing three songs tonight: a song that they've already performed on the show, one chosen by Idol producer Simon Fuller, and the winner's single, co-written by judge Kara DioGuardi.
And what a winner's single it is. Hoo boy. I had no idea a song could be that awful. It truly plumbs the depths and nearly ruins the entire night. Luckily, the guys have two previous performances that hopefully people will remember instead of the final one. Because, wow. Just, wow.
I have no stake in the "who's cuter and more talented, Adam or Kris?" debate, but this attack ad from Jimmy Kimmel Live clearly shows that young girls are on Kris' side. We're waiting for a response from Adam's fans.
If things don't work out for 
Adam Lambert's first album since American Idol is coming out on November 23, and 
American Idol runner-up 
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
If the reports coming from the 
Fans of Kris Allen feel justified that their favorite won 
I am not going to pay $29.95 a year to read the blog entries of Clay Aiken. So I'm glad that someone else does and can post the following quote from Aiken. Guess the 
If you haven't seen our game before, we give you a picture from a recent episode of a TV series and you provide the caption! 
The week before the 
When Adam was singing "No Boundaries," the new song written for the 
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
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